Karen Lang

Professional Event

November 27, 2018

In the final month of our schooling, I have been given the opportunity to share my
clinical experiences with other Mayo School of Health Sciences (MSHS) professionals and help
mentor future UW-L medical dosimetry students. Since medical dosimetry is a new educational
program for Mayo Clinic, I took advantage of the opportunity to teach other healthcare students
about our field and the collaboration with University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. The professional
event was led by Dr. Silber, the Dean of the MSHS and the small group of attendees were other
aspiring professionals working towards furthering their clinical education at the Mayo Clinic. I
wasn’t sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a very worthwhile experience. During our
informal luncheon, I was able to share my background, experiences and answer questions with
the other MSHS students. I feel very fortunate to work in an institution that puts so many
resources into teaching and developing medical professionals. I shared the floor with other
students pursing their Doctor of Physical Therapy, fellowship programs in occupation therapy
and physician assistants, lab technologists, paramedics and surgical specialists.

As a second part to my service project, I have gotten the opportunity to enrich future
UW-L medical dosimetry students and act as a resource and mentor. My role as a mentor has
been multifaceted as a go-to for school-related questions, teaching treatment planning
techniques, and starting a database of practice cases. When completed, the database will consist
of a large variety of practice cases with different planning objectives that our students (medical
dosimetry, radiation therapy, physics residents and radiation oncology residents) can use for
treatment planning practice. This will be especially useful to get exposure to more complicated
cases and planning expectations of our physicians. I am hoping to have over 20 anonymized
practice cases combined with a DVH planning objective worksheet by the end of the year.

Since getting accepted into the UW-L medical dosimetry program, I have also created a
folder with useful links, and resources for our upcoming students. Subsequent student can also
add relevant information to the folder that they found helpful. I am hoping that providing these
additional resources will contribute to the success of our upcoming medical dosimetry students
and provide a more seamless transition into the online learning environment. I have enjoyed my
training through UW-L and Mayo Clinic, and I hope I can pass some of my knowledge onto
future students!

Working with Noelle Deiter, a promising new intern scheduled to start her clinical rotation in
January 2019.