Charity Rogstad

Comparative Article Analysis Part I: Trade Journal

When looking at a trade magazine versus a peer reviewed journal the differences are
noticed at first glance. Peer reviewed journals are formatted and structured while trade
magazines are visually more enticing with different fonts, colors, and pictures. In the trade
magazine, ASRT Scanner, there were many individual experiences and opinions expressed. An
article from this trade magazine entitled The Career-Driving Power of Practical Education: An
R.Ts education is not complete without clinical experience by Mike Kudlas sparked my interest
because of both my past and current clinical experiences. Included in this analysis will be a brief
summary, advantage and disadvantages of the article and information on its usefulness.

In the article Kudlas associates learning to drive and all of its challenges to having an
instructor who allowed him hands on practice while providing feedback. He also associates time
during school, whether it be in the medical imaging field or nursing, and its importance of three
components: didactic or classroom, simulation in a laboratory and clinical instruction with actual
patients under the watchful eye of an experienced professional.1 He noted that there has been
about a 10% decrease in time spent in clinical rotations for nursing students over a 6 year time
frame. This in turn has resulted in new graduate nurses spending their first year of employment
in a learning role as they master their clinical skills. Kudlas included a couple of graphs that had
information regarding how many hours are required for each clinical credit and also the average
total clinical hours spent for each degree, Associate and Bachelors. At the end of the article there
were statements from new graduates who all agreed on the importance of clinical time during
their education.

I really enjoyed reading this article it was easy to read and understand the authors
information. It is very apparent that Kudlas wants to get students the best education possible and
he encourages educators to join in the conversations on the ASRT website. In this article it was
mainly the opinion and experience of Kudlas, even though this made the article more interesting
I do wish that it had more evidence. I think that there should have been more information about
how the clinical hours are spent, because eight clinical hours at a slow clinic is very different
than eight clinical hours at a busy hospital.

This article has great information not only for students in the medical imaging profession
but also for all students who need to perform clinical hours. I also find it very useful that the
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article gave an average of clinical hours for each degree, since each school and state have
different requirements regarding the hours needed for program completion. Even though this is
an article in an imaging journal there is great information for any student or potential student to
gain quality information regarding the amount of clinical time and hours needed to earn a degree.

Sometimes what the students and instructors see as important are very different. In this
article its very apparent that both the students and instructors agree that more time in the clinical
setting is needed to develop that sturdy foundation to becoming a healthcare professional.
Having hands on practice under the supervision of an experienced professional will not only
teach you the basics but prepare you for any challenges to come.
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References

1. Kudlas M. The career-driving power of practical education: an R.T.s education is not

complete without clinical experience. ASRT Scanner. 2016; 49(2): 34-37. Retrieved from
https://media.asrt.org/pdf/publications/SCAN17_DecJan.pdf. Accessed February 27,
2017
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Comparative article Analysis Part II: Peer-Reviewed Journal

The peer-reviewed professional journal, Medical Dosimetry, is a membership based

journal that includes research, professional issues, and technical topics.1 This journal is very
different from the trade journal in appearance and style of article. Peer-reviewed journals appear
to be very factual and to the point in comparison to a trade magazine article. They also do not
have advertisements, colorful pictures, or graphic design included in the journal. Another big
difference between the two is the number or authors and sources sighted, a peer-reviewed journal
has a significant amount more in both categories. In the article The comparison of 5 field
conformal radiotherapy techniques for the treatment of prostate cancer: The best for femoral
head sparing written by Zare et al, it was known immediately the topic of discussion and what
had been researched. This analysis will include an overview of the research that was completed,
conclusions that were made and a personal evaluation of the report.

In the title alone it is very apparent that this article is looking for options to reducing
femoral head dose in prostate plans. The introduction discusses a variety of planning options for
prostate cancer and the evolution of physicians going to higher doses because of the improved
treatment techniques available. A significant amount of studies have focused on rectal doses but
very few have addressed the probability of bladder and pelvic bone complications.2 The research
was conducted using ninety patients who were split into three separate planning groups. The
three groups were planned with the same constraints and goals with a variable of gantry position
for the five fields that were used. The data was evaluated using the same parameters for each set
of plans. All of which showed no significant differences in the PTV, Bladder, and Rectum doses.
Plan A showed the greatest sparing of the femoral heads. It was noted that many other studies
and beam arrangements had been conducted to evaluate similar parameters. As it is evident from
the literature there is no persistent agreement among different studies regarding the best 3D
conformal radiotherapy plan for prostate cancer when assessing PTV and normal organ doses
based on dose volume histograms.2

I found the article to be very factual and informative. With that being said I also have
been wondering if the planning in each group was done by the same dosimetrist, did the
dosimetrist know that they were trying to achieve a low femoral head dose, was the beam
weighting equal for all plans or was that left to the dosimetrist to decide, and did any of the
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patients involved have any radiation related fractures after receiving treatment. These questions
came about because all dosimetrist plan a little differently but can reach the same end goal. Also
constraints can be met if a guideline is given ahead of time. The results did come back as I would
have guessed due to Plan A patients not having true lateral fields, when using lateral fields its
hard to block out the femoral heads.

Through reading two very different styles of writing I surprisingly learned a great deal
about what style I like and why. I havent read a lot of peer-reviewed journals because in all
reality I thought they would be boring. I did not find it boring at all, actually this article made me
analyze and think about treatment planning a little differently. It brought up great conversation
with my coworkers and again I learned more than I thought I would. The next time I come across
an article that looks a little over whelming with a ton of authors Im going to read, analyze and
more likely than not learn a great deal.
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References

1. Lenards N. Weege M. Reading & Writing in Radiation Therapy & Medical Dosimetry.
[SoftChalk]. La Crosse, WI: UW-L Medical Dosimetry and Radiation Therapy Program;
2016
2. Zare M, Lashkari M, Ghalehtaki R, etal. The comparison of 5-field conformal radiotherapy
techniques for the treatment of prostate cancer: the best for femoral head sparing. Med Dos.
2016; 61: 296-299. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meddos.2016.06.008
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