I am currently an active duty Air Force staff radiologist. I graduated from a military residency program and transitioned to staff 4 years ago. The transition process was made relatively painless by a supportive flight commander and colleagues. I want to share a couple lessons that I learned during the process.
1) Use your local radiology leadership as great resources. The departmental leaders (flight chief, medical director, etc.) are there to guide you through the transition process when you arrive at the first duty station. They have experienced the same transition before, so know the ins and outs of the process itself. Ask plenty of questions: for example, What is the typical daily work load by modalities? What types of procedures are performed? What additional military admin duties are expected for you and what are the time commitment? How frequent are the on-call duties? How to apply for specialty pay with AFPC? How to initiate the Off Duty Employment process?
Your leaders and colleagues are also wonderful source of information for life outside of work, for example, popular neighborhoods to live, good schools for kids, and exciting restaurants and recreational activities for the family.
2) Use the first 3-4 months to ease into the role as staff radiologist. As an independent staff radiologist, we no longer have the luxury of relying on the staff to check our reports. Your signature of each report is final now. This role shift generates a new mindset and greater responsibility. During the first few months as a new staff radiologist, I peronally focused on the accuracy of my reports while sacraficing some demand for speed, since I knew there were other more senior radiologists on the team who were supportive and were willing to contribute more to the workload. I would have a low threshold to consult my colleagues about more challenging cases. I always had my checklist handy especially for complex cases, to make sure I did not miss those common blindspots. I kept my ears open for feedback from other radiologists and clinicians. Once you develop a satisfactory balance between accuracy and speed over time, you can then focus on specific areas of radiology which may need additional attention and reviews of concepts and knowledge.
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Jason Zhao MD
Radiologist
Waldorf VA
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