Oncologist in the Hot Seat
![]() Dr. Daniel Rayson in the Hot SeatDr. Daniel Rayson is a medical oncologist at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre and Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Dalhousie University. He completed his medical training at Dalhousie, with subsequent fellowship training in Internal Medicine and Hematology/Medical Oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. His main areas of clinical care and research activities are in breast and neuroendocrine oncology. He is past Chair of the Nova Scotia Provincial Breast Cancer Site Team (2000-2009), current Chair of the multidisciplinary Neuroendocrine Tumor Group (2012- ) and past chair of the Clinical Trial Grant Panel Review Committee of the National Cancer Institute of Canada (2006-2009). He has been the Director of the Atlantic Clinical Cancer Research Unit (ACCRU) since 2008, is on the editorial board of the Art of Oncology Section of the Journal of Clinical Oncology and has been section editor of the Cancer Narratives Section of Current Oncology since January, 2013. In January 2015 he was appointed Head of the Division of Medical Oncology at the QEII Health Sciences Center.
I am a current medical school student with scattered experience in different medical specialties but I still have no idea what I want to do. Why did you gravitate towards breast and neuroendocrine oncology? Do you have any advice for a student trying to find the right career path?
When I was in medical school, I also had no idea what career path I was going to choose and was interested in a wide variety of specialties. I think that it is actually healthy to be undifferentiated for a good part of medical school although it can be stressful as well given the current pressure to make decisions in regard to residencies. I gravitated to medical oncology part way through my training in internal medicine. Mostly, it was because of the patients and the field itself having so much diversity as well as so much to offer. As time went on I realized that the specialty suited my personality and have never looked back. Paying attention to what might give you the most long term satisfaction in terms of mental/academic stimulation, the patient population and your own personality and drive/ambitions are key. There is really no ‘right’ career path. The best one is usually the one that fits with one’s character. If you have no idea, then perhaps choose a path which allows for other decision making a little further down the line such as internal medicine, general surgery or family medicine; three examples of specialties than can lead to a multitude of career options down the road.
I am a first year undergraduate student working at a pizza place. When I have a bad shift,
my mood and motivation goes down. I am hoping to pursue a career in clinical care but
I’m afraid that I won’t be able to separate work and personal life. Do you have any
strategies for maintaining a positive attitude despite work stress?
You are describing a key struggle for so many both within and outside of medicine. Work stress is a fact of life no matter what the job/career and managing it is key to work/life balance, quality of life and overall sense of happiness and fulfillment. Everyone goes through ups and downs in their work and it is important to realize that no job comes without stress and down days. What is key is to not get into a behavioral rut or trap whereby every down day leads to progressively negative thoughts or chips away at self-esteem. It is important to work at developing insight in to the aspects of the day, or job, that are outside one’s control, and therefore there may be not much to do except deal with the stress, and those aspects that are under one’s control. Focusing on the latter, it often helps to take stock every now and then about what you can do to help make the work environment better for yourself and to recall that you are not aloneeveryone has to deal with work-life balance issues and there is no one solution for all. Taking time at the end of the day for self-reflection- even if it is just on the walk or drive home- before jumping directly into family life has always been helpful to me in trying to balance work-life stress and responsibilities.
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As networking and mentorship are invaluable to medicine and advancements in the field of oncology, All in Cancer (AlinC) and Women in Cancer (WinC) were developed to improve mentorship connections, provide leadership skills resources, and improve collaboration amongst oncologists through a secure online networking platform.
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