The Evolving Role of Regional Radiation Oncology Societies in Resident Education

The goal of this study is to develop insight into how a regional radiation oncology organization like the New York Roentgen Society (NYRS) can best assist in the education and development of residents. From April to June 2012, an electronic survey was sent to all 41 post-graduate year 2-4 radiation oncology residents in the New York metropolitan area. Questions were formatted using Likert scales (ranging from 1 to 5), and the Friedman and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare the mean ratings of each answer option. Surveys were completed by 34 residents (response rate 83 %). The three highest rated features that residents hope to get out of their membership in the NYRS included "networking" (mean 4.21), "career mentoring" (mean 4.18), and "education" (mean 4.15), all of which were rated significantly higher (p < 0.002) than the lowest rated "physics boards review" (mean 3.36) and "radiation biology boards review" (mean 3.15). The three highest rated types of subject matter for meetings included "boards review" (mean 4.03), "debate on a controversial clinical topic" (mean 3.97), and a "career mentoring workshop" (mean 3.93), all of which were rated significantly higher (p < 0.001) than the lowest rated "lecture on a research topic" (mean 2.40) and "lecture on a radiation biology/physics topic" (mean 2.07). Residents favor networking, career mentoring, and clinical educational content (particularly as it relates to boards review) from their regional radiation oncology society. These findings may be applicable to similar organizations in other cities, as a guide for future programming.