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Indiana University School of Medicine
Indiana University School of Medicine
Radiation Oncology

Policies

Operational policies that apply to Medical Physics Residents at IU School of Medicine are described on this page. More detailed policies may be found in the Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology Residency Program Handbook and the IU School of Medicine GME Handbook. Most benefits and policies in the GME Handbook apply to the Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology Residency program. In particular, the salary structure for the Medical Physics Resident may not be consistent with the published house salaries in the handbook. Questions regarding detailed program policies and salary information should be directed to program officials.

Residents are not scheduled for more than 80 hours per week, averaged over a four-week period. Residents have at least one full (24-hour) day out of seven free of clinical duties, averaged over a four week period. Residents are not assigned call more often than every third night, averaged over four weeks. Continuous time on duty (call) is limited to 15 hours. Residents have a minimum rest period of 10 hours between duty periods. When residents take call from home and are called into the hospital, the time spent in the hospital must be counted toward the weekly duty hour limit.

A medical physics resident can be dismissed for activities of professional conduct considered to be disruptive to the operations of the hospital or the quality of patient care or the teaching programs or activities which constitute a material breach of the contract of appointment.

If specific program requirements are not met, then serious disciplinary actions may be taken. These requirements include, but are not limited to, failure to be immediately accessible while on call and completion of duties therein; failure to respond to paging; failure to maintain appropriate and timely documentation of services, use of computer for non-educational purposes, especially for review of pornographic or deviant material; use of departmental resources, especially long distance telephone lines for personal purposes. Referral for sanctions, up to dismissal, can be made for gross neglect of duties or substandard performance.

IU School of Medicine has a provision for summary suspension if immediate threatening circumstances so warrant. A hearing under the auspices of the Associate Dean is available to appeal orders for dismissal. Final action is taken by the Dean of the School of Medicine upon recommendation of the Associate Dean.

The resident is supervised by faculty physicists for all aspects of training. Faculty physicists having ABR (American Board of Radiology) certification and/or eligibility, are named as authorized medical physicists on an NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) license, or are authorized by the ISDH (Indiana State Board of Health) may serve as supervisors to the medical physics resident.

Ultimately, resident/fellow performance is under the direction of the director of the residency training program. The competence of the medical physics resident is evaluated on a regular basis. The program maintains a confidential record of the evaluation.

Medical physics residents are discouraged to but are allowed to moonlight; however, no compromise in the training requirements are made to allow the residents to moonlight. Additionally, although residents are given as much advance notice as possible regarding schedule changes, residents may be expected to modify scheduled hours with little advance notice. Duty hours requirements are always be respected, but moonlighting obligations may not be honored, especially if at the expense of clinical training or patient safety.