This elective is designed to introduce senior students to the practice of Genitorurinary (GU) Oncology. Under the supervision of clinical faculty, students will have the opportunity to fully integrate in the clinical aspects of GU oncology. Students will evaluate GU oncology patients in the outpatient setting as well as participate in the operating room and on the surgical wards. Students will become familiar with routine work up of GU malignancies, epidemiology, biology and clinical management of those diseases. For students participating in a 4-week rotation 1 week will be spent divided between GU medical oncology and GU pathology.
Objectives
- Evaluate patients with newly diagnosed GU malignancies or patients with risk factors for GU malignancies
- Become familiar with routine operative management of GU malignancies as well as routine OR practices (sterile technique, suture placement, tying knots) and relevant operative anatomy.
- Learn routine post-operative care, including the surgical ward, of patients undergoing surgery for GU malignancies.
- Learn patient – physician skills of effective communication focusing on “delivering bad news”, surgical consent, and integration of patient preferences for care plans
- Participate in GU Tumor Board and Journal Club
- Prepare one topic with GU Oncology for presentation at weekly GU tumor board (10 minutes)
Evaluation
Students will be evaluated based on clinical evaluations completed by the course director. There is a graded oral presentation of a topic of interest in palliative care, graded by the attending physician. Grades are determined by: 40% clinical evaluations, 25% assessment and completion of patient interviews/clinical notes and required journal article reading, 25% oral presentation and 10% professionalism.