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e21011 Background: The start of hematology/oncology fellowship involves an abrupt transition in disease management and a steep learning curve. Many fellowship programs have introductory lecture series over the first weeks or months, but fellows often need specialty knowledge prior to the completion of these. Methods: A 1-day session for incoming first year fellows at our institution was developed to provide brief overviews of common conditions in classical hematology, malignant hematology, and oncology, subdivided into a total of 12 topics. Fellows were surveyed before and after the session regarding their feelings of preparation for fellowship and having good disease frameworks for each of the 3 major content areas. Fellows also evaluated the content and length of each topic. Pre- and post-course knowledge assessments were conducted. Feedback was sought later in the year as well. Results: The session was well-received by fellows. Post-course assessments increased by a mean of 32% (SD 6%). The majority of topics were well-reviewed for length and content. Fellow responses to feelings of preparedness and disease frameworks were improved or unchanged from pre-course surveys. All fellows agreed that it was a good use of their time and would recommend it being a part of future orientation sessions. Fellows recommended splitting the session into 2 days. Conclusions: A 1-day introductory course for incoming hematology/oncology fellows is feasible and rapidly improves baseline knowledge to prepare fellows for clinics, consults, and being on call.
Pywell et al. (Sat,) studied this question.