The MD Anderson transitional year involves six months of medicine at the affiliated hospitals of the University of Texas Houston and six months of rotations at MD Anderson. The year starts out with the six months of medicine at UT Houston. The breakdown is as follows: two months wards, one month unit, one month ambulatory, one month ER, and one month night float. You can replace one of the medicine ward months with a medicine subspeciality month (i.e. onc, cards, renal, etc.). The lasts six months of the year are at MD Anderson, which offers a great deal of flexibility in regards to the selection of rotations. In general, this involves one month gen surg, one month head and neck, one to two additional surgical months (chosen based on your interest, not by the program), one month path, and one month of research. Since MD Anderson is a cancer hospital, all of the surgery months are site specific surgical oncology rotations. Besides the gen surg month and head and neck month, nothing is set in stone in regards to your schedule for the last four months. This is worked out between you and the assitant program director of Radiation Oncology. Additionally, the MD Anderson months are designed to maximize your learning and understanding about oncology, which means that you are not a scut monkey during surgery months and that you spend most of your time in the OR. At most transitional programs, the interns rarely go to the OR and mainly take care of patients on the floor. This is not the type of surigical experience that is going to be beneficial for your life down the road as a radiation oncologist.
Having interviewed at several transitional programs last year, very few provide significant OR time for interns. Just something to think about when you make decisions about planning your intern year. In fact, at several transitional programs the surgery months were very cushy for the interns. This was because they did not go to the OR and only had minor responsibility for the floor patients. If you want an easy year, then that can be a big plus. If you want to learn something, then it is not so great. On the other hand at several other programs, transitional interns were just complete scut monkeys during their surgery months. Overall, I came away less than impressed about the surgery months at most transitional programs. Just speak to the transitional interns when you interview. I found them to be very upfront and honest about their experiences.
