Nicolette Sawicki

July 2020
AAMD Annual Conference

The field of radiation oncology is always changing. Continuing education can help
professionals stay current with the new technologies, latest developments, and different
techniques. At the beginning of the year, I had planned to attend and volunteer at the American
Association of Medical Dosimetrists (AAMD) Annual Meeting. I was in contact with the
individual in charge of the volunteers regarding what my duties would have been and which
seminars I would attend. However, a few months later, I did not know that it was all going to
change. COVID had hit at an all-time high and affected the annual meeting. After hearing that
they were not going to have the meeting in person, I was expecting to have to find another
volunteer opportunity. However, the AAMD had come together with other organizations and
made the meeting still happen, but with a twist, it was going to be virtual.
Although the meeting got converted into a virtual meeting, I was able to still volunteer.
They have an AAMD Student Facebook group that does shoutouts and posts about board review
sessions and upcoming conferences. With this resource, I was able to help out other students. As
a volunteer, I had to submit which seminars I planned on attending. From there, I was assigned
as either a lead or support to the lead for specific topics. If I were a leader, I would have to create
a Facebook post reviewing the seminar, whether it was fun facts or a general outline. If I were a
support of the lead, I would comment on their post to engage interaction with other students.
I felt that this was a great alternative to attending the meeting in person. I was able to
learn a lot and attend as many seminars as I wanted, but I was also able to interact with students
and other certified medical dosimetrists (CMD). There were a lot of classmates from my
program within the volunteers, which was fun because I was familiar with them already. Seeing
the whole dosimetry community come together to make this meeting happen was an excellent
experience. I was also able to watch our very own Nishele Lenards present on non-RTTs in
dosimetry! This topic spiked my interest because I fall within this category. Although I think the
in-person meeting would have helped me network with CMDs more, I was still happy to be able
to help other students and be a part of keeping the annual meeting scheduled. Below is a picture
of one of the posts I created.