Training Courses
Introduction
Our resident training course
is divided into two categories. One is designed for young physicians and surgeons
who have 3-5 years of clinical experience to allow generalists to specialize
in clinical oncology. Persons in this course are simply called residents.
Their training period is 3 years. We accept about 12 new residents each year.
A second more advanced two-year course is designed to produce future leaders
in specific fields. Up to 6 medical doctors with 5-10 years of clinical experience
enter this program every year, and they are called senior residents.
In July 1992, when NCCHE opened,
the resident training course began with 8 young physicians and surgeons. Although
there were many difficulties and problems in the beginning, they continued
studying as well as carrying out the daily clinical work in the hospital.
We have continued to develop our training systems in close cooperation with
hospital staff members. At the first resident graduation in 1995, NCCHE introduced
the senior-resident system and increased the number of residents we could
accept from 8 to 12. As our clinical and academic reputation has grown, NCCHE
has attracted quite a few voluntary medical trainees, including doctors, nurses,
and technicians. Accommodation is prepared for anyone of the voluntary trainees
who elects to stay.
Routine Activities
The resident curricula at NCCHE
consist of two parts, the special and rotating courses. For the initial 6
months, residents are trained in disease- or therapy-specific units (q.v.
index page) of their choice. After this, they move to the other clinical units
(rotating course) for one or one and half years to obtain a wide basic knowledge
and to learn the techniques of clinical oncology. After concluding the rotating
course they return to their chosen specialty to graduate as a medical or surgical
oncologist.
Trainees in the senior resident
course spend the first year as physicians or surgeons in specific clinical
units. The training program for senior residents is more targeted to particular
organs, diagnostics, and/or therapeutics. Senior residents work as coordinators
of residents, whom they support in clinical practice. The second year is devoted
to basic or clinical research. Staff members from the National Cancer Research
Institute and clinical laboratories support them at their request.
Voluntary trainees are divided
into two groups, those with guaranteed funding from a domestic or international
project and others. Various training courses are available for voluntary trainees,
although the training period is limited to less than a year for any one major
field.
New Developments
We have overcome many of the
difficulties we experienced when we first began the training program at NCCHE.
As a result, the number of trainees has persistently increased year by year,
as in the following statistics, and more than 25 articles have been published
in English journals by residents or trainees under the guidance of staff members
in the hospital and/or research institute in 1999.
|
Number
of Residents, Senior Residents and Voluntary Trainees (July 1992- December
1999) |
||||||||
|
Voluntary trainee |
||||||||
|
Resident |
S. resident |
M.D. |
Nurse |
Technician |
Others |
Total |
||
|
1992 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
|
|
1993 |
15 |
0 |
0 |
9 |
4 |
0 |
28 |
|
|
1994 |
23 |
0 |
9 |
12 |
1 |
0 |
45 |
|
|
1995 |
27 |
3 |
25 |
10 |
5 |
0 |
70 |
|
|
1996 |
31 |
6 |
37 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
80 |
|
|
1997 |
35 |
7 |
54 |
16 |
5 |
10 |
127 |
|
|
1998 |
36 |
12 |
56 |
20 |
4 |
1 |
147 |
|
|
1999 |
34 |
12 |
62 |
17 |
3 |
27 |
155 |
|
(S. YOSHIDA)
