Let me preface this by saying that I am a radiology attending who has been very involved in medical education throughout my career from resident, to fellow to now. I have worked at big academic centers as well as community programs and have spoken to many of my radiology friends about these issues. Also, this is just one man’s opinion so take this with a grain of salt, but here are the top 5 things I have seen completely tank ones chances on “audition” rotations:
1. Don’t be annoying.
I know this seems obvious, but this is actually much harder to do on a radiology rotation than on any other rotation. In fact, I’ve only seen a handful of people do this well. Talk enough to seem interested, but not so much that you’re interrupting the workflow. Ask some questions, but not too many. Make some jokes, but not too many. The problem is that there is no good way to be helpful to your radiology resident. In medicine or surgery or any other rotation, you can go see a patient, write a discharge summary, or do some other task to help lighten the load of your resident. In radiology, you can’t help them look at a CT or MRI and you can’t help them dictate the study. And if you’re sitting next to an R1 (1st yr radiology resident), chances are you’ve had just as much radiology training as they have so it’s essentially the blind leading the blind. Overall, your days on a radiology rotation will consist of you sitting behind one or two people who are working on a computer in a dark room, mostly ignoring you. The trick is to try not to fall asleep and walk that fine line of looking interested without coming off as eager beaver. I was interested in radiology during my 4th yr rotation and I was bored out of my mind, no joke. It’s like watching someone else play video games – not fun unless you’re doing it. And, the kicker is that if you ask “What’s that?” too many times, you’ll get blackballed from the program, even though it’s a very relevant question for you because chances are you’ve never been exposed to anything radiology related until now.
2. Don’t correct or point out things to your radiology resident.
More often than not you’ll get stuck next to an R1, which means that they have had 4yrs of medical school and 1yr of IM or Gen Surg under their belt (but zero radiology training). And if you’re the type of go-getter medical student who reads books on rotations to impress, you may know more than the person driving the car. It’s really hard to sit behind someone and watch them breeze over a finding or what you think is a real finding (but is actually not) and bite your tongue. The nice medical student just wants to helpfully point it out, but really really really try to resist the urge. It may work out and the R1 will be thankful you are there, but more often than not it will completely backfire and you will come off as a “one-upper”, especially if you do this in front of the attending. Correcting your R1 or “helpfully” pointing out their mistakes in front of their attending is an automatic blackball for you in that program. There is a subtle way to play dumb and point out something in a nonthreatening way, but you have a greater chance of hurting rather than helping yourself, so I’d just advise you to not do it.
3. Hygiene, Hygiene, Hygiene (Professionalism).
I cannot tell you how many times a medical student has worn too much cologne, too much perfume, or no deodorant. Sometimes I feel bad for them because no matter how brilliant that person is, that is the only thing that people will remember about him or her. I’ve even seen attendings who are supposedly “allergic”, ask medical students to leave or sit 5ft back from them at all times. Kind of hard to interact if you’re sitting across the room from the action. At the end of the day you are auditioning for a role to sit next to someone in a small dark room 10hrs a day for 4yrs. Would you want to sit next to someone who has not discovered the wonders of deodorant? In summary, no cologne, no perfume, yes deodorant/anti-perspirant.
4. Don’t be late and don’t fall asleep.
Yes, radiology is somewhat of a vacation rotation for most people, even the ones going into the field. You typically show up at 8am, take a seat and hang out until about 1-3pm when the resident next to you lets you go home early because you’ve sat around long enough for the day. But just because it’s relaxed, it doesn’t mean that you can show up late, fall asleep, or ask to go home early. That gives the impression that you think their profession is unimportant and their time is not valuable enough to take seriously. Be professional.
5. Work hard on your end of rotation project.
We don’t ask much of you during your rotation. In fact, it’s mostly half days worth of work. So, when we ask that you give us a meaningful 5min powerpoint presentation at the end of 4wks, don’t blow it off. It’s insulting when medical students slap something together last minute because we know how much time you’ve had to prepare for this project. We can tell who has put in the time and who hasn’t. There is so much information out there and you can actually teach us something we didn’t know. Do some research, read some papers, present the latest papers on the topic from a credible radiology journal. Put together something valuable on the topic instead of presenting the surface/Wikipedia facts on the subject. This project is another great way to interact with attendings and residents in a meaningful way besides sitting in the background and every hour asking, “what is that?” or “what does that mean?”.
1. Don’t be annoying.
I know this seems obvious, but this is actually much harder to do on a radiology rotation than on any other rotation. In fact, I’ve only seen a handful of people do this well. Talk enough to seem interested, but not so much that you’re interrupting the workflow. Ask some questions, but not too many. Make some jokes, but not too many. The problem is that there is no good way to be helpful to your radiology resident. In medicine or surgery or any other rotation, you can go see a patient, write a discharge summary, or do some other task to help lighten the load of your resident. In radiology, you can’t help them look at a CT or MRI and you can’t help them dictate the study. And if you’re sitting next to an R1 (1st yr radiology resident), chances are you’ve had just as much radiology training as they have so it’s essentially the blind leading the blind. Overall, your days on a radiology rotation will consist of you sitting behind one or two people who are working on a computer in a dark room, mostly ignoring you. The trick is to try not to fall asleep and walk that fine line of looking interested without coming off as eager beaver. I was interested in radiology during my 4th yr rotation and I was bored out of my mind, no joke. It’s like watching someone else play video games – not fun unless you’re doing it. And, the kicker is that if you ask “What’s that?” too many times, you’ll get blackballed from the program, even though it’s a very relevant question for you because chances are you’ve never been exposed to anything radiology related until now.
2. Don’t correct or point out things to your radiology resident.
More often than not you’ll get stuck next to an R1, which means that they have had 4yrs of medical school and 1yr of IM or Gen Surg under their belt (but zero radiology training). And if you’re the type of go-getter medical student who reads books on rotations to impress, you may know more than the person driving the car. It’s really hard to sit behind someone and watch them breeze over a finding or what you think is a real finding (but is actually not) and bite your tongue. The nice medical student just wants to helpfully point it out, but really really really try to resist the urge. It may work out and the R1 will be thankful you are there, but more often than not it will completely backfire and you will come off as a “one-upper”, especially if you do this in front of the attending. Correcting your R1 or “helpfully” pointing out their mistakes in front of their attending is an automatic blackball for you in that program. There is a subtle way to play dumb and point out something in a nonthreatening way, but you have a greater chance of hurting rather than helping yourself, so I’d just advise you to not do it.
3. Hygiene, Hygiene, Hygiene (Professionalism).
I cannot tell you how many times a medical student has worn too much cologne, too much perfume, or no deodorant. Sometimes I feel bad for them because no matter how brilliant that person is, that is the only thing that people will remember about him or her. I’ve even seen attendings who are supposedly “allergic”, ask medical students to leave or sit 5ft back from them at all times. Kind of hard to interact if you’re sitting across the room from the action. At the end of the day you are auditioning for a role to sit next to someone in a small dark room 10hrs a day for 4yrs. Would you want to sit next to someone who has not discovered the wonders of deodorant? In summary, no cologne, no perfume, yes deodorant/anti-perspirant.
4. Don’t be late and don’t fall asleep.
Yes, radiology is somewhat of a vacation rotation for most people, even the ones going into the field. You typically show up at 8am, take a seat and hang out until about 1-3pm when the resident next to you lets you go home early because you’ve sat around long enough for the day. But just because it’s relaxed, it doesn’t mean that you can show up late, fall asleep, or ask to go home early. That gives the impression that you think their profession is unimportant and their time is not valuable enough to take seriously. Be professional.
5. Work hard on your end of rotation project.
We don’t ask much of you during your rotation. In fact, it’s mostly half days worth of work. So, when we ask that you give us a meaningful 5min powerpoint presentation at the end of 4wks, don’t blow it off. It’s insulting when medical students slap something together last minute because we know how much time you’ve had to prepare for this project. We can tell who has put in the time and who hasn’t. There is so much information out there and you can actually teach us something we didn’t know. Do some research, read some papers, present the latest papers on the topic from a credible radiology journal. Put together something valuable on the topic instead of presenting the surface/Wikipedia facts on the subject. This project is another great way to interact with attendings and residents in a meaningful way besides sitting in the background and every hour asking, “what is that?” or “what does that mean?”.
