Guest pilotgrrl Posted August 30, 2003 Report Share Posted August 30, 2003 Of the med school hopefuls I've spoken to, many have said that they want to go into pediatrics, geriatrics, surgery, etc. But no one has mentioned pathology! This is what I want to get into and I'd like to know how common it is to have these aspirations. Just curious... 8o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted August 30, 2003 Report Share Posted August 30, 2003 Not common - it's usually not the most popular choice in the CaRMS match. It probably gets an unfair rap - if you enjoy that type of work, it really is a great career: great pay, excellent hours, the residency program won't kill you, and I believe as a hospital employee it's one of the few specialties that earns a pension. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DrSahsi Posted August 30, 2003 Report Share Posted August 30, 2003 Extrordinarily uncommon for people to aspire to pathology. The first reaction to a resident announcing they're in pathology is "oh, too bad, what did you really want to go into?" It's often presumed that those who go into pathology do so because they couldn't get another speciality. It's entirely unfair to jump to those conclusions, and if its an area in which you have an interest, than I'd encourage you to pursue it as a career -- especially given the need for good pathologists, and the difficulty many programs have in filling their positions. CaRMS is a funny beast. The residency match each year varies in terms of what proportion of residents try to match to each discipline. Based on the trends, if you want pathology, you probably won't have too much trouble... but one can never assume. - Rupinder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jmh2005 Posted August 31, 2003 Report Share Posted August 31, 2003 I definately have to pass on pathology, heck I hated microscopes in high school so I avoided them in university!!...I think it's the one discipline I ruled out in my 2nd week of medical school...however, I do agree with Rupinder...it is one that is SO important as I recently found out when I did my general surgery elective (you wait anxiously to get those path reports back, always hoping for good news)... If you love cell biology, enjoy quiet time, like to work at your own pace (usually) and/or have an interest in forensics (forensic pathologists do neat work...any CSI fans out there??) pathology may be for you!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted August 31, 2003 Report Share Posted August 31, 2003 Path is an extremely cool field from a number of different perspectives. You are relied upon by virtually every other specialty in medicine, and your judgement really sets the groundwork for the decisions made by other clinicians. You are the "doctor's doctor" in that you have a great deal of influence over what other doctors end up doing. The work itself is something that you have to see if you enjoy. Patient contact is limited, but some people really enjoy that ability to focus on the actual basic science and medicine aspects of a case without getting mired in all the social issues that come with being in clinical medicine. You will no doubt hear over and over again that the lifestyle of a pathologist is right up near the very top of the medical spectrum. Path occupies a niche right up alongside specialties like Dermatology, Physiatry, and Psychiatry. You can work in the hospital (saving you lots of income that clinicians spend on renting offices, hiring secretaries and nurses, and buying medical supplies, etc), or you can go private by opening up your own lab, or buying into a pre-existing one. The residency is pretty benign, which means that while you are spending 5 years of your life in residency, you are not giving away 5 years of your life in residency, as might be the case for more intensive residencies like Surgery. Anyway, if you are interested in the field, more power to you. As alluded above, we definitely need more pathologists out there. Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted August 31, 2003 Report Share Posted August 31, 2003 Hi there, Just to add, pathologists can also have a great deal of flexibility and variety if they assume the role of hired guns. At MDS Laboratories (for those who don't know, a massive diagnostic lab corporation; once a branch of IBM) we had a team of pathologists-on-contract who would parachute in to our different locations to interpret specimens, e.g., haematology slides and results, etc. They were never required on weekends and seemed to come and go as they pleased. I doubt their billings were much to sniff at either, given the rate at which they could read trays of slides. Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest QTeee Posted September 1, 2003 Report Share Posted September 1, 2003 You've heard hopefuls interested in geriatrics? That's news to me. Tends to be very unpopular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pilotgrrl Posted September 1, 2003 Report Share Posted September 1, 2003 I've had limited exposure to pathology so I really appreciate everyone's input (as always!). Back in high school, I attended this one week introductory pathology course at Queen's. We were given the opportunity to see some of the things that go through the pathology lab (ie. a digestive tract, brain, tumors, etc) and had various lectures, including one on foresic patho. It was all so fascinating. I also spent time volunteering in a hospital patho lab (which was much less interesting because there was limited interaction with the staff there). And I've also done some staining (immunohistochem, peroxidase and H & E staining), which is quite rewarding when you get the colour just right! All in all, I'm leaning towards forensic pathology (how morbid!) or general surgery. What does frighten me about surgery are the long hours and sheer exhaustion that many surgery residents have to face. Don't know yet if it's something I'm ready to handle. On the other hand, there is much less patient interaction with pathology, which concerns me. It's always nice to see how you've directly affected people's lives for the better. Anyways, there's lots of time to decide. Thanks again, everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest macMDstudent Posted September 2, 2003 Report Share Posted September 2, 2003 Last year I had my pathology group tutored by two forensic pathologists. They told us about, and showed us slides of many of their cases. It can be quite disturbing dealing with death, even if it just seeing photos of real deaths, not Hollywood stuff. For example, they do autopsies on the "floaters" that get pulled out of Hamilton harbour, the children who die from menigitis, child abuse or SIDS, and the partially decomposed remains of those who die alone in their apartments or murder victims found out in shallow graves. Pretty digusting and sad stuff, actually. I found the autopsy pictures of babies and little kids particulary hard to see. There are the "CSI" things like figuring out if somebody was murdered with a Robertson, Phillips or slot screwdriver by checking the imprints (true case from Hamilton!). We had a tutorial on stabbings and gunshot wounds that was pretty interesting from a technical standpoint, but pretty gross to look at the pictures. Our tutor told us about his fellowship year in Washington DC when the police called him to look at a gang-style shooting victim. While they where on the scene, the rival gangs broke out in another gun battle, with bullets whizzing past the police and coroner team! There can be dangers involved in that kind of work! The forensic pathologists also have to spend a lot of time with lawyers and in court rooms for all the cases that are investigated by police. It is a lot of report writing involved in that field as well. That aspect of it may become somewhat less fascinating over time, I imagine. However, the forensic pathologists I met were very concerned with determining how somebody died and what circumstances led to the death. They take their work very seriously and do truly feel that they owe it to the deceased to explain the death. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest notold Posted September 15, 2003 Report Share Posted September 15, 2003 If I decide to do other than FM I will go for pathology. I find it fascinating. Well all very premature as I am just beginning my university spin at 52 and by the time i get into and finish med school I may end up having a piece of myself on some other pathologists slide.:lol Pathology is one of my "hobbies" . jo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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