Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

A Critical Appraisal and Targeted Intervention of the Oncology Experience in an Internal Medicine Residency

  • Published:
Journal of Cancer Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Most oncology education is provided to residents on an inpatient oncology service, with limited outpatient exposure. There exists considerable need to develop effective education strategies to teach resident physicians basic concepts in oncology. We created a 2-hour small-group interactive workshop, using interactive cases, followed by a number of questions regarding curability, survival, and possible treatment options. All residents were asked to fill out optional questionnaires before and after this workshop. A total of 64 residents participated in this study with an average of 16 residents per session. Significant deficits in knowledge were identified, and prognosis was estimated correctly by 40% of residents when presented with a variety of clinical scenarios. We demonstrated an increase in comfort level in basic oncology concerns, comfort level at estimating prognosis, and managing toxicity based on pre- and post-level testing. Our results confirm that the oncology inpatient rotation may not be adequate in educating residents. The format of our workshop demonstrates that it is possible to create and implement a focused intervention with fairly limited resources. This can serve as a platform for evaluation of oncology medical education of internal medicine residents at other institutions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Tam VC, Berry S, Hsu T, North S, Neville A, Chan K, Verma S (2014) Oncology education in Canadian undergraduate and postgraduate medical programs: a survey of educators and learners. Curr Oncol 21(1):e75–e88. https://doi.org/10.3747/co.21.1667

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Back AL, Safyan RA, Edwards KA (2015) What residents learn from inpatient hematology-oncology: a call to rebuild a community of practice. J Oncol Pract 11(4):296–297. https://doi.org/10.1200/JOP.2015.005561

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. McFarland DC, Holland J, Holcombe RF (2015) Inpatient hematology-oncology rotation is associated with a decreased interest in pursuing an oncology career among internal medicine residents. J Oncol Pract 11(4):289–295. https://doi.org/10.1200/JOP.2015.003798

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Goldvaser H, Milman Y, Dujovni T, Stern A, Mahamid M, Hanovich E, Zivony A, Shochat T, Yerushalmi R, Gafter-Gvili A, Brenner B, Shepshelovich D (2016) Perception of prognosis of cancer patients by non-oncologists. Int J Clin Pract 70(12):1027–1032. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcp.12909

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Klabunde CN, Ambs A, Keating NL, He Y, Doucette WR, Tisnado D, Clauser S, Kahn KL (2009) The role of primary care physicians in cancer care. J Gen Intern Med 24(9):1029–1036. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-009-1058-x

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Lycan T, Hansen K, Miller D (2017) Impact of curriculum content on resident attitudes towards cancer care. J Cancer Educ 32:280–282. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-015-0908-y

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. American Cancer Society (2017) Cancer Facts & Figures 2017, https://www.cancer.org/research/cancer-facts-statistics/all-cancer-facts-figures/cancer-facts-figures-2017.html, accessed Mar 29th 2020

  8. International Germ Cell Consensus Classification (1997) A prognostic factor-based staging system for metastatic germ cell cancers. International germ cell Cancer collaborative group. J Clin Oncol 15(2):594–603. https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.1997.15.2.594

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Ilett EE, Langer SW, Olsen IH, Federspiel B, Kjaer A, Knigge U (2015) Neuroendocrine carcinomas of the gastroenteropancreatic system: a comprehensive review. Diagnostics (Basel) 5(2):119–176. https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics5020119

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Larkin J, Chiarion-Sileni V, Gonzalez R, Grob JJ, Rutkowski P, Lao CD, Cowey CL, Schadendorf D, Wagstaff J, Dummer R, Ferrucci PF, Smylie M, Hogg D, Hill A, Márquez-Rodas I, Haanen J, Guidoboni M, Maio M, Schöffski P, Carlino MS, Lebbé C, McArthur G, Ascierto PA, Daniels GA, Long GV, Bastholt L, Rizzo JI, Balogh A, Moshyk A, Hodi FS, Wolchok JD (2019) Five-year survival with combined nivolumab and ipilimumab in advanced melanoma. N Engl J Med 381(16):1535–1546. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1910836

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. FitzGerald JD, Wenger NS (2003) Didactic teaching conferences for IM residents: who attends, and is attendance related to medical certifying examination scores? Acad Med 78(1):84–89

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Chu C, Anderson R, White N, Stone P (2020) Prognosticating for adult patients with advanced incurable cancer: a needed oncologist skill. Curr Treat Options in Oncol 21(1):5. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11864-019-0698-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Fraser T, Sargsyan Z, Baggett TP, Baggett M (2016) Quantitative study of the characteristics of effective internal medicine noon conference presentations. J Grad Med Educ 8:185–190. https://doi.org/10.4300/JGME-D-15-00132.1

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ghulam Rehman Mohyuddin.

Ethics declarations

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethics Approval

This study was approved by the institutional review board.

Consent to Participate

All participants consented to participate in this study.

Consent for Publication

All authors agreed to publish this in the most recent format.

Availability of Data and Material

All data can be readily shared on demand.

Code Availability

N/A

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(PPTX 2522 kb)

ESM 2

(DOCX 21 kb)

ESM 3

(DOCX 19 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mohyuddin, G.R., Dominick, A., Black, T. et al. A Critical Appraisal and Targeted Intervention of the Oncology Experience in an Internal Medicine Residency. J Canc Educ 36, 1290–1294 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-020-01766-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-020-01766-6

Keywords

Navigation