Radiology Application Update: When Is An Experience An Experience?
Trying to demystify the "Commitment To Specialty" domain, last call for the MedEd course & deadline for our national prizes
Since the dawn of time, philosophers have tried to answer the real meaningful questions. What is the meaning of life? What is happiness? But even the greats, I’m talking about Confucius, Plato and Socrates, couldn’t seem to find an answer to the greatest question of all ‘when is one radiology experience different from another’?
Now obviously we’re trying to put a humourous spin on the madness unleashed after the new radiology portfolio went live. Literally, it was like opening Pandora’s box. Whilst some of it was pretty straightforward, one that caused a lot of issues was Domain 1: Commitment To Specialty.
At first glance, it was clear how the recruitment panel have shifted to focusing more on “exposures” to clinical radiology and that marks would only be given to “exposures” that were meaningfully different. However, on a more forensic analysis, you realise how subjective this domain can be. Like what does “meaningfully different” mean? Does it mean that my exposure to radiology has touched me on an emotional level, made me shed tears and resulted in me becoming the lead drummer for a band called the “Dark Room”? Obviously it doesn’t, cause “Dark Room” is such a lame name for a band and instead you’d call it “Rage Against The CT Machine”, but you can see where the confusion steeps in!
Realising this, the recruitment panel have provided a bit more context to their scoring algorithm. In particular, they gave a few examples which included taster weeks, student-selected components and radiology based clinical research projects where you worked in a radiology department. Quite varied but there are a few themes that we want to make evidently apparent to you:
It must be at least 3 whole day equivalent - this is the timeframe they have used to define as “significant exposure”. So, saying you got a significant exposure to how radiology was amazing when you sat in the MDT won’t count since in reality, you were 99.9% more likely questioning your life decisions as your mind wandered (ours still does).
Medical student experiences count - prior to this year, they wanted to see more emphasis on your exposure as an all grown up doctor (aww, how cute). Fortunately, that’s changed and things such as student-selected components (SSCs) and electives count. Now, most of us probably dossed around in our SSCs/electives but make sure to think long and hard about if you can make it work. For example, did you do a radiology placement during your medical school training? If so, can you get evidence of this and reflect on what you learnt?
The focus is on getting exposure to the “work” of a radiologist and/or how the radiology department focuses - doing a fancy pants research project on this shiny new artificial intelligence algorithm whilst cool, especially for bragging rights on LinkedIn, isn’t what the recruitment panel seem to be looking for. Rather, they want to see that as part of this experience, whether it’s a research project or something else, you actually got to work with a radiologist and/or got exposure to the radiology department and how it functions. So, when you’re getting evidence of your achievements for this domain, please keep this in your mind.
Taster week madness - this caused the biggest headache of all not only to candidates but also to radiologists all across the UK. Within minutes, their inboxes were spammed with requests, nay pleas, for them to be merciful and grant them a taster week in their department. Evidently, the recruitment panels realised their “oopsy” and recently removed this caveat from the original portfolio scoring criteria. So what does this mean? Well, it basically means that even if you go do a DGH taster week now (or tertiary one), if you do the exact same thing as your prior taster week then it won’t count. So what should you do? Well, at RadCast HQ we’ve been thinking about this and what we advise is for you to focus your second taster week on an area of radiology you didn’t experience previously. A good way of thinking about this is focusing your second exposure to a niche area of radiology e.g. breast, paediatrics, interventional. Why? Because the day-to-day working pattern of these radiologists differs from the general radiologist e.g. breast screening/symptomatic clinics.
Evidence is key - we always rant on about this point but honestly, it’s going to be super critical this year. Make sure the letters/certificates are EXPLICIT. I repeat, EXPLICIT. No, we don’t mean nudes but they are EXPLICIT in what you exactly did. Generic comments like “Karen had a good time in the radiology department” isn’t going to cut it. What did Karen exactly do? What did Karen observe? When will Karen ask for the manager?
Last Calls For The MedEd Programme
We’ve been blown away by the interest in our MedEd programme but honestly, we’re about to hit capacity. To ensure we can cater to all of you who have recently signed up we’ll be closing enrollment at the end of this week. That’s not because we hate you guys, we love you 3000, but it’s to ensure we give each of you the personalised support you need during the MedEd programme.
So, if you want to sign up then let us know via email by clicking on the button below:
National Prizes Up For Grabs
To ensure the winning candidates can claim for their national prize before the application deadline closes, we’ve set a deadline of the 20th November, 23:59 (GMT). If you’re interested in submitting a piece of work, check out the categories available on our Radiology Crash Course and our Clinical Radiology Application Course
A Final Thank You
Yesterday we got a random email telling us we had been awarded the “Unsung Hero Of The Year Award”. Honestly, at first we were confused. We thought Jamie had nominated himself for some modelling competition (have you seen his cheek bones). But after clarifying, we did indeed win! Now, we are truly blown away and want to thank each and every one of you from the bottom of our hearts, yes radiologists do have those, for nominating us. When we started RadCast many moons ago, we didn’t do it with the intention to win accolades. Rather we like to operate in the darkness, just call us Batman, and built RadCast to show the world how cool radiology is. But over time, we’ve found a new meaning, one more dear to us than any prize ever could be: to give each and every one of you a fighting chance to get into radiology, the career you’ve worked your butt off for. So, once again, thank you <3
Now, you can stop playing the world’s smallest violin, and get back to smashing your portfolio and MSRA prep (eww).
Till next time RadCasters,
From your “it’s not X-Ray, it’s plain film” friends,
Jamie, Uzoma and Muhammad