What does one do in an oncology rotation?

[bacillus1]

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The reason I'm asking is that I signed up for one, but I have a small time window to switch. I'm debating to switch to internal medicine, as that may be more beneficial for residency (my other acute care is ID, and I'm keeping that). So I'm just trying to get an impression of what it's like, and whether I should keep it.

Also, will it hurt me when I'm applying for residencies if I don't have an internal medicine rotation (but instead ID and oncology for my acute care)?

 

[All4MyDaughter]

I would try to switch to Internal Med. Not because I think oncology sucks (I kinda do, though...😛) but because it will give you a better general overview.

 

[VeraShield]

I don't think it would hurt residency-wise, but it is definitely different. I learned a lot on my oncology rotation, but I'm not likely to ever use most of what I learned there ever again unless I did a PGY2 in oncology.

Of course, this is also rotation specific. Some might do more general IM type things in addition to hem/onc responsibilities.

 

[Sparda29]

I just had one last month. It wasn't a hospital but a clinic where people got screenings, met with doctors, and got chemotherapy.

What my usual day was like:

Make IV pre-medications
Work on my journal clubs/monographs
Occasionally go into to see patients with the doctor. (I didn't learn much at this part. Most of the appointments were follow ups after receiving chemo or surgery. Didn't see any diagnoses made while I was there.)

I didn't mind the easiness of the rotation too much because I had just done consecutive months of an intensive Internal Medicine rotation and a pretty intensive retail rotation as well.

 

[bacillus1]

I just had one last month. It wasn't a hospital but a clinic where people got screenings, met with doctors, and got chemotherapy.

What my usual day was like:

Make IV pre-medications
Work on my journal clubs/monographs
Occasionally go into to see patients with the doctor. (I didn't learn much at this part. Most of the appointments were follow ups after receiving chemo or surgery. Didn't see any diagnoses made while I was there.)

I didn't mind the easiness of the rotation too much because I had just done consecutive months of an intensive Internal Medicine rotation and a pretty intensive retail rotation as well.

This would be inpatient oncology vs. internal med. I just didnt really like our oncology block in therapeutics (but then again, it was taught poorly), and I'm thinking I could get exposed more stuff on internal medicine. The thing is, what if oncology is my true calling and I never find out if I switch out?

 

[bacillus1]

After talking to some people in real life about this, and reading some of your posts, I think I'm gonna go try to switch it (and maybe put oncology as a backup if ID or internal med isn't available). Let me know if I'm making the wrong decision. ID+IM was my original plan, but I changed it to ID+onc last minute because I liked it when I shadowed a pediatric oncology pharmacist for a day. I liked all the investigational protocols she got to deal with, but I don't think there'd be as many of those in an adult population. There's no pediatric oncology for us in a location desirable to me.

 

[Quiksilver]

After talking to some people in real life about this, and reading some of your posts, I think I'm gonna go try to switch it (and maybe put oncology as a backup if ID or internal med isn't available). Let me know if I'm making the wrong decision. ID+IM was my original plan, but I changed it to ID+onc last minute because I liked it when I shadowed a pediatric oncology pharmacist for a day. I liked all the investigational protocols she got to deal with, but I don't think there'd be as many of those in an adult population. There's no pediatric oncology for us in a location desirable to me.

WRONG decision!

There are many patients that are on protocols and involved in research trials. When you get to stage VI CA what do you think patients do? The choices is either palliation or investigational. Even sometimes before that there are studies. Oncology advances faster then any other disease state, and if you follow NCCN guidelines, you would know that these guidelines are updated sometimes as much as three or four times yearly. Not only are new agents tested, but also new regimens of old drugs.

Oncology pharmacy is about managing all the stuff you typically manage (IM) in the context of oncology. You get to see ID, IM, Critical care and etc.

You also get to learn drugs that will be on the boards that you otherwise would have never heard of before. You learn about new uses of drugs that you never knew were used in oncology. Most importantly, pharmacists often shy away from helping manage patients who have active CA and you might not be so afraid of it anymore. But thats my 2 cents.

 

[rxlea]

After working at my hospital, oncology is at the top of my list. We do lots of investigational meds, too. Some really interesting stuff I would otherwise not see at the typical community hospital. To each their own. I suppose it depends on the rotation site and preceptor, too. But Quicksilver is right. In my experience, you see a little of everything in oncology.

 

[powertoold]

I don't think internal medicine is a dispensible rotation. For your oncology rotation, the quality depends on your attending, like any acute care rotation, lol.

 

[janeno]

I had oncology rotation and absolutely loved it. I spent 4 weeks in oncology clinic - learned about chemo regimens for various cancers, made sure of proper anti-emetic use, counseled patients on their anti-emetics, and practiced counseling on first-dose chemo. I looked up literature on herbals and chemo interactions to answer patients' questions. In addition to that, I spent 1 week rounding on inpatient oncology floor. On inpatient side, pharmacists made sure that chemo regimens were appropriate which meant sometimes pulling up original articles to see what regimens were used in the studies. We also monitored pain, anti-emetic, and anti-infectives regimens. Rounding was very interesting because you got to see the full work-up to diagnosis and treatment of such conditions as leukemias.

Yes, oncology is very specialized but, like someone said above, you will gain much better understanding of medications used in this area. I highly recommend oncology rotations especially since cancer is number 2 killer in the country. Patients are extremely nice and thankful for every little help you can provide. Plus, oncology is one of the areas that could allow you to practice in both inpatient and outpatient setting.

 

[ucrx]

I got way more out of my onc rotation than my IM rotation. I think it really depends on the quality of the site and preceptor. Do you know anything about the specific rotations from previous students?

 

[bacillus1]

I got way more out of my onc rotation than my IM rotation. I think it really depends on the quality of the site and preceptor. Do you know anything about the specific rotations from previous students?

No. Too late now though, I signed up for IM. Don't feel like "un-signing" up. I know there are 2 possibilities for me for IM. 1 of them is great, the other I have no clue. For oncology, no one seems to tell me. Maybe if confettiflyer is here, he can comment on how the oncology rotation at Christiana is, if he knows.