Still want to know general medicine..

[shad420w]

I am a medical student with a question about Rad-Onc education:

I was listening to the radio today about how someone was having a seizure on a plane and they were looking for someone on the plane with medical training for assistance. I started to think about my desire for Rad Onc and started to wonder if I would still be able to help out in cases in like this (not seizures exactly)...

In other words.. do any of you feel like you have lost too much general medicine (non-oncology) training?

Is it possible as a radiation oncologist to still keep up with general medicine by working/volunteering at a free general clinic?

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[Gfunk6]

General practioners (Family medicine, Internal Medicine, etc.) are good at what they do and we have no business stepping on their turf. Some patients in Rad Onc clinic will insist that you tinker with the meds for HTN, hypercholesterolemia, or DM. This is a very bad idea. One year of internship hardly qualifies you to fool with such medications which are becoming increasingly sophisticated and complicated.

Emergencies are a slightly different issue. You can (and as a resident are mandated) be up to date on basic life support. In case somebody codes, you can at least provide a useful service until more qualified help arrives. However, practice makes perfect and unless someone codes ~48 hours after your latest BLS re-cert exam you might not remember what to do.

So the bottom line is this. If, after four years of med school and five years of residency you are STILL interested in keeping up with gen med then subscribe to JAMA and/or NEJM and have at it. However, other than codes you really have no business practicing gen med. If you are so concerned about this you might consider other procedure-heavy fields who can manage some gen med (ER, gen surg).

 

[radonc]

your medical school training should be enough to prepare you for that type of situation. if you find yourself interested in genmed, you should stick to IM or FP.

I am a medical student with a question about Rad-Onc education:

I was listening to the radio today about how someone was having a seizure on a plane and they were looking for someone on the plane with medical training for assistance. I started to think about my desire for Rad Onc and started to wonder if I would still be able to help out in cases in like this (not seizures exactly)...

In other words.. do any of you feel like you have lost too much general medicine (non-oncology) training?

Is it possible as a radiation oncologist to still keep up with general medicine by working/volunteering at a free general clinic?