Finished up a rotation in Radiology, a specialty which is in many ways a natural fit for me. I knew going into this rotation that it wasn't going to be a field I was ultimately interested in, as I had thoroughly explored it in pre-clerkship, but it is still a specialty that I have a definite affinity for. Nevertheless, here are my take-aways from my Rads rotation.
1) Imaging is great for learning, especially anatomy
At my school, radiology is thrown into our surgical core rotation as a selective, which sounds somewhat odd, but I found fit quite nicely. Imaging is a big part of most surgical practice and is excellent for learning the finer points of anatomy. Particularly for those who need to visualize anatomy to understand it well, diagnostic imaging provides an opportunity to look inside the human body safely in an applied fashion. I've long thought we should be learning more anatomy off diagnostic images rather than cadavers, especially since most medical students will spend far more time looking at imaging than at dissected bodies. The rotation was a decent way to brush up on anatomy for the rest of my surgical block, where that knowledge is kind of important!
2) More patient interaction than expected, still not enough
The common assumption about Radiology is that they never see a patient, and this isn't quite true. Interventional Radiology has quite a bit of patient contact. Even those not in Interventional Radiology can interact with patients reasonably often, through biopsies or other image-guided procedures.
However, there is still a lot of time in dark rooms looking at imaging. That's tough for me to swallow. I like looking at images. I'm even ok with dark rooms! But what I enjoy about medicine is talking to patients, particularly when I get to be a part of patient education. That's not really a focus in Radiology, even in IR. It's a great fit for those who want some patient contact but who are perhaps more interested in human pathology (and how the physics of imaging interact with that pathology). Might not be the best fit for me though.
3) It's tough to be a student
Radiology is not the greatest place to be a student. I had great preceptors, but when their job mostly consists of looking at pictures and giving an interpretation, there's not a whole lot I can do to contribute or even participate. I tried to read the images as best I could to test my own eye and knowledge, which worked reasonably well to keep myself engaged, but with the diversity of images out there, I could only scratch the surface of "that looks weird" in many cases, despite having a background in imaging. It takes time and methodical practice to reach anything close to competence in image interpretation, which isn't really available in a 2 week rotation.
Those on longer rotations and those doing multiple electives would likely get some more in-depth experience, and of course residents are considerably more involved. For a 3rd year student though, it's a fairly shallow dive to be a student. Though on the plus side, they gave me plenty of time off to do independent reading!
4) The Happiness Test
Radiologists seem pretty happy. The residents at my school seem to have a rather congenial relationship with each other and their staff. The staff were largely personable and approachable. They all seemed to love what they do, even when rushed. It probably didn't hurt that their hours were pretty good and all the attendings made really good money (even with the cutbacks in Ontario).
Overall it was a good rotation, with plenty of learning opportunities and good hours. It's not the specialty for me, but unlike some other specialties, I see the appeal here.
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