Typical Day of a Radiation Oncologist?

[Gatorade2001]

Hello. First I'd like to thank all of you for your contributions to this forum. It is a great resource for students interested in rad-onc.

I would like to ask the residents and attendings here what their typical daily schedule is like? How much time/day is spent seeing patients, planning treatments, brachy, etc? How many patients do you usually see per day? Thank you.

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[FrostyHammer]

Sounds to me like the OP is like most med students interested in rad onc and is aiming to do the least work possible. Of course, with the unchecked residency expansion, dilution of the field with people more interested in the workload/hours than the actual field/subject itself continues to impact the job market

 

[Gatorade2001]

Sounds to me like the OP is like most med students interested in rad onc and is aiming to do the least work possible. Of course, with the unchecked residency expansion, dilution of the field with people more interested in the workload/hours than the actual field/subject itself continues to impact the job market

I was hoping to get an idea of the mix between clinic, treatment planning, and brachytherapy. Does treatment planning occur between seeing patients? Or is there time dedicated to that? Same with brachytherapy, is there enough work to go around to have a primarily procedural based practice?

I am deciding between rad onc and surg onc, so I am no stranger to hard work .

 

[Gfunk6]

7:00 AM: Show up to clinic
8:00 AM - 6:00 PM: ?
6:30 PM: Profit

 

[emt409]

7:00 AM: Show up to clinic
8:00 AM - 6:00 PM: ?
6:30 PM: Profit

Do you show up to clinic in underpants? I hear collecting them is important for Step 3.

 

[emt409]

Hello. First I'd like to thank all of you for your contributions to this forum. It is a great resource for students interested in rad-onc.

I would like to ask the residents and attendings here what their typical daily schedule is like? How much time/day is spent seeing patients, planning treatments, brachy, etc? How many patients do you usually see per day? Thank you.

I’ll bite. PGY2 call day in a well-respected medium sized residency program.

Arrived at 6 AM, briefly glanced through charts of new patients for the day. Head to chart review conference. Stock charts by machine for review by attendings. Escort our frail 70-year-old tending to ED for presyncopal episode. Return to the department. Get paged by on call attending about why I had the inpatient prisoner with brain and spine mets brought down for simulation, without getting his final approval. Remember that I cleared with the neurosurgery team that we can remove his Aspen collar for simulation, but forgot to tell the attending. Absorb the below from attending to the sim staff so they will still work in my inpatient consults. Hop in car and drive 10 miles to satellite facility. Moment I arrive at satellite facility, pager starts going off with inpatient consults from main campus and associated VA. See 30 follow ups, 6 under treats, and two new patients at satellite facility. Eat Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets brought by my attending‘s wife. Listen to awkward conversation between attending and his wife about how they don’t have sex anymore. Head back to main campus, see all inpatient consults, including VA which we are technically not allowed to staff. It is now approximately 7 PM. Begin contours on all the sims for today. 9 PM, have finished Spine SRS and two brain met SRS cases. Knock out a quick high risk prostate. Open email inbox and quickly say “**** that‘“. Read girlfriend’s text that she has brought Eugene’s spicy fried chicken home from the food truck. get hungry. Knock out quick locally advanced long contour. Drive home, find fried chicken on counter, girlfriend is asleep and mad that we didn’t get to hang out. Eat chicken, drink Lagavulin 16, and watch South Park until midnight. Plan to repeat next day.

 

[Neuronix]

7:00 AM: Show up to clinic
8:00 AM - 6:00 PM: ?
6:30 PM: Profit

I must be doing it wrong--I only profit once a month.

 

[smq123]

I’ll bite. PGY2 call day in a well-respected medium sized residency program.

Arrived at 6 AM, briefly glanced through charts of new patients for the day. Head to chart review conference. Stock charts by machine for review by attendings. Escort our frail 70-year-old tending to ED for presyncopal episode. Return to the department. Get paged by on call attending about why I had the inpatient prisoner with brain and spine mets brought down for simulation, without getting his final approval. Remember that I cleared with the neurosurgery team that we can remove his Aspen collar for simulation, but forgot to tell the attending. Absorb the below from attending to the sim staff so they will still work in my inpatient consults. Hop in car and drive 10 miles to satellite facility. Moment I arrive at satellite facility, pager starts going off with inpatient consults from main campus and associated VA. See 30 follow ups, 6 under treats, and two new patients at satellite facility. Eat Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets brought by my attending‘s wife. Listen to awkward conversation between attending and his wife about how they don’t have sex anymore. Head back to main campus, see all inpatient consults, including VA which we are technically not allowed to staff. It is now approximately 7 PM. Begin contours on all the sims for today. 9 PM, have finished Spine SRS and two brain met SRS cases. Knock out a quick high risk prostate. Open email inbox and quickly say “**** that‘“. Read girlfriend’s text that she has brought Eugene’s spicy fried chicken home from the food truck. get hungry. Knock out quick locally advanced long contour. Drive home, find fried chicken on counter, girlfriend is asleep and mad that we didn’t get to hang out. Eat chicken, drink Lagavulin 16, and watch South Park until midnight. Plan to repeat next day.

I'm kind of surprised no one has commented on this. This is pretty hilarious (although mostly of the "it's funny, cause it's true" variety.)

 

[RSAOaky]

I’ll bite. PGY2 call day in a well-respected medium sized residency program.

Arrived at 6 AM, briefly glanced through charts of new patients for the day. Head to chart review conference. Stock charts by machine for review by attendings. Escort our frail 70-year-old tending to ED for presyncopal episode. Return to the department. Get paged by on call attending about why I had the inpatient prisoner with brain and spine mets brought down for simulation, without getting his final approval. Remember that I cleared with the neurosurgery team that we can remove his Aspen collar for simulation, but forgot to tell the attending. Absorb the below from attending to the sim staff so they will still work in my inpatient consults. Hop in car and drive 10 miles to satellite facility. Moment I arrive at satellite facility, pager starts going off with inpatient consults from main campus and associated VA. See 30 follow ups, 6 under treats, and two new patients at satellite facility. Eat Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets brought by my attending‘s wife. Listen to awkward conversation between attending and his wife about how they don’t have sex anymore. Head back to main campus, see all inpatient consults, including VA which we are technically not allowed to staff. It is now approximately 7 PM. Begin contours on all the sims for today. 9 PM, have finished Spine SRS and two brain met SRS cases. Knock out a quick high risk prostate. Open email inbox and quickly say “**** that‘“. Read girlfriend’s text that she has brought Eugene’s spicy fried chicken home from the food truck. get hungry. Knock out quick locally advanced long contour. Drive home, find fried chicken on counter, girlfriend is asleep and mad that we didn’t get to hang out. Eat chicken, drink Lagavulin 16, and watch South Park until midnight. Plan to repeat next day.

i lolled

 

[deleted18755]

i lolled

I must be getting old since 1. My residency was nothing like that (although there was an attending scandal in the sim supply room ... opposite of your attending and his wife’s situation) 2. If I ate fried chicken twice in one day let alone after 9pm I’d be up all night with heartburn.

I assume most of the post is a joke but I have definitely known multiple cases where senior residents are assigned to incompetent senior faculty who refuse to retire to make sure they don’t harm patients or even in private practice where new hires are required to “review” the senior partners’ volumes and dosimetry since they “aren’t good with computers” even though it’s 2018 and one case where an 80+ year old attending would sleep all day with the residents periodically coming in to make sure he had a pulse.

Hopefully your attending is just a little frail but actually knowledgeable and teaching you something.

 

[emt409]

I must be getting old since 1. My residency was nothing like that (although there was an attending scandal in the sim supply room ... opposite of your attending and his wife’s situation) 2. If I ate fried chicken twice in one day let alone after 9pm I’d be up all night with heartburn.

I assume most of the post is a joke but I have definitely known multiple cases where senior residents are assigned to incompetent senior faculty who refuse to retire to make sure they don’t harm patients or even in private practice where new hires are required to “review” the senior partners’ volumes and dosimetry since they “aren’t good with computers” even though it’s 2018 and one case where an 80+ year old attending would sleep all day with the residents periodically coming in to make sure he had a pulse.

Hopefully your attending is just a little frail but actually knowledgeable and teaching you something.

Nope, alas, that was actually a pretty accurate outline of my day on Tuesday. The attending in question is a very sweet, very experienced radiation oncologist, who apparently had a URI, got dehydrated, and a bit hyponatremic. She took the rest of the week off to rest.

 

[scarbrtj]

I’ll bite. PGY2 call day in a well-respected medium sized residency program.

Arrived at 6 AM, briefly glanced through charts of new patients for the day. Head to chart review conference. Stock charts by machine for review by attendings. Escort our frail 70-year-old tending to ED for presyncopal episode. Return to the department. Get paged by on call attending about why I had the inpatient prisoner with brain and spine mets brought down for simulation, without getting his final approval. Remember that I cleared with the neurosurgery team that we can remove his Aspen collar for simulation, but forgot to tell the attending. Absorb the below from attending to the sim staff so they will still work in my inpatient consults. Hop in car and drive 10 miles to satellite facility. Moment I arrive at satellite facility, pager starts going off with inpatient consults from main campus and associated VA. See 30 follow ups, 6 under treats, and two new patients at satellite facility. Eat Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets brought by my attending‘s wife. Listen to awkward conversation between attending and his wife about how they don’t have sex anymore. Head back to main campus, see all inpatient consults, including VA which we are technically not allowed to staff. It is now approximately 7 PM. Begin contours on all the sims for today. 9 PM, have finished Spine SRS and two brain met SRS cases. Knock out a quick high risk prostate. Open email inbox and quickly say “**** that‘“. Read girlfriend’s text that she has brought Eugene’s spicy fried chicken home from the food truck. get hungry. Knock out quick locally advanced long contour. Drive home, find fried chicken on counter, girlfriend is asleep and mad that we didn’t get to hang out. Eat chicken, drink Lagavulin 16, and watch South Park until midnight. Plan to repeat next day.

Samuel Shem, Jr., MD

 

[Neuronix]

I actually got negative feedback on my evals from a resident for reviewing contours with him at 9 PM...

 

[You shall know the Truth]

I actually got negative feedback on my evals from a resident for reviewing contours with him at 9 PM...

Why?

 

[abish]

Location: Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, South Asia.
Me: MD, Rad Onc. (But does Med Onc, Palliative Care too)
-
Wake up at 5. Breakfast at 6. Drive 15 miles (45 mins) to Radiation Center (Hospital 1). Rounds (10 patients), 3x CT-Sim (along with Technicians), a few contours. Patients on 20 x RT with issues (skin, oral ulcers, constipation).
-
0930: Drive to Hospital 2 (General Hospital with no RT). Rounds (admitted for chemo, supportive/palliative cases). Consultations from other depts. Walk in patients/Appointment at the Clinics ( 4-5). Day care chemo cases review (till last year, I prepared chemotherapy).
Lunch. Tea. Stuffs. SDN. Patient data entry, which never completes. Meh !
1830: Drive Home listening to songs wondering if chemotherapy actually works.
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Night: Phone by the bed side. Rings 'Patient on Bed 610 has pain, and I gave morphine 1 hour ago'. Me: 'Give again PLEASE' and sleeps.