Anyone heard of Psych residents switching to Pathology??

[fly77]

I am just curious if you guys know anyone that was in a psych residency and switched to pathology and if so how does that work? Do they have to repeat a year or can they switch into a PGY2 position?
Thanks )

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[djmd]

I am just curious if you guys know anyone that was in a psych residency and switched to pathology and if so how does that work? Do they have to repeat a year or can they switch into a PGY2 position?
Thanks )

No I don't, but if you switched into pathology, you would start your training at PGY1. I don't know of anything you could do before Pathology that would exempt you from PGY1 year of training..


However, you generally, get paid as a PGY II. That is not pathology, that is just post graduate year x, payscale.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

No I don't, but if you switched into pathology, you would start your training at PGY1. I don't know of anything you could do before Pathology that would exempt you from PGY1 year of training..


However, you generally, get paid as a PGY II. That is not pathology, that is just post graduate year x, payscale.

Ditto. People transfer from a variety of fields...a person switching from psych wouldn't be much of a surprise to me.

 

[mlw03]

perhaps in the past when path required an internship year the psych resident switch could count towards that, but since it no longer exists i'd think anyone switching would have to start with the pgy-1 level stuff. path is so different than everything else there's really no overlap.

 

[jjmack]

perhaps in the past when path required an internship year the psych resident switch could count towards that, but since it no longer exists i'd think anyone switching would have to start with the pgy-1 level stuff. path is so different than everything else there's really no overlap.

i never knew that paths didn't have to do an internship. I'm not sure how i feel about that.

 

[mlw03]

i never knew that paths didn't have to do an internship. I'm not sure how i feel about that.

one of the residents (yaah? deschutes?) can probably tell ya the year the change was made (early 2000s i think), but pathology no longer requies an internship type year. you go straight into pathology training out of medical school. as to whether that's a good thing or not, that's another question of course - one i've thought about myself. i suppose i could see the benefit of a transitional year type of pgy1 year, but i guess i also trust that the people overseeing pathology education have thought about all the pros and cons of an internship and have made the best consensus decision.

whatever our opinions are, unless someone wanted to do a prelim year on their own and then go into path, we don't have a choice, since funding doesn't exist for the internship year in path programs.

 

[yaah]

I don't think you would necessarily get paid as a PGY2 if you switched and started path as a PGY1. It's probably institution dependent, but if you switch fields that's your own business and don't expect programs to pay you more than any other first year resident.

The reason pathology is a four year residency (AP/CP) is so you do the four years. A year in another field doesn't translate at all. It's almost like doing a year of law school before med school.

 

[djmd]

i never knew that paths didn't have to do an internship. I'm not sure how i feel about that.

Jealousy?

Intern years would have almost nothing to do with pathology.
One could more easily complain about how surgeons and medical students are not required to rotate through pathology. (of course when they do, as either, they usually treat it like a holiday and don't spend any time learning pathology or even what we do)

Hell most surgeons would benefit from even a 5 min tour of pathology starting with the processors.
Here is where the tissue if fixed in formalin and turned into slides. This takes time. It is NOT pathology being lazy, formalin is a slow process...


I am a little fuzzy on this, but I thought that most Intern or anything else years counted as PGY years regardless(for pay purposes), but maybe I am mistaken. I thought this was because GME was in charge of pay and other benefits, and they don't care what you are just how many PGY years you have...

 

[Matte Kudesai]

Hell most surgeons would benefit from even a 5 min tour of pathology starting with the processors.
Here is where the tissue if fixed in formalin and turned into slides. This takes time. It is NOT pathology being lazy, formalin is a slow process...

It baffles me that so many physicians have no idea what we do. Maybe they should incorporate a mandatory pathology rotation in the second medical school year.

 

[King Arthur]

thank Jeebus there's no intern year!!!

 

[yaah]

I am a little fuzzy on this, but I thought that most Intern or anything else years counted as PGY years regardless(for pay purposes), but maybe I am mistaken. I thought this was because GME was in charge of pay and other benefits, and they don't care what you are just how many PGY years you have...

Well, we have residents who had done varying years of training in other specialties, and they are paid at the same level as other residents in their same class here. That includes one who did 3 years of IM.

 

[Gene_]

I am just curious if you guys know anyone that was in a psych residency and switched to pathology and if so how does that work? Do they have to repeat a year or can they switch into a PGY2 position?
Thanks )

I know a trained psychiatrist that did a path residency. I'm pretty darn sure she didn't start out as a PGY-5.

 

[LADoc00]

I want to reiterate we have probably 30-50% MORE pathologists being trained than can be comfortably assumed into the job market. If you have a single shadow of a doubt, I would look into other bottomless pits of medicine which could always use more people. Surgery comes to mind. Internal med-->GI fellowship. Neurosurgery is a HUGELY under trained. Even family med in many areas. Pathology, not so much so. Dont do path because you somehow imagine a cush gig working from 9-4 Mon-Thurs...I have a lock on that market. go away, nothing to see here.

 

[fly77]

Thank for your replies. Sorry if I made some of you become defensive. I was just curious or maybe just wanted to confirm something I already had assumed, which you have reiterated. I spent two months in pathology rotation during my clinical years. I enjoyed it, but missed patient contact.

Sometimes I regret not picking path because it is more peaceful since corpses and slides don't talk back to you. Besides, you don't have to deal with insurance companies, etc. Anyways, Thanks again

 

[Thaitanium]

Thank for your replies. Sorry if I made some of you become defensive. I was just curious or maybe just wanted to confirm something I already had assumed, which you have reiterated. I spent two months in pathology rotation during my clinical years. I enjoyed it, but missed patient contact.

Sometimes I regret not picking path because it is more peaceful since corpses and slides don't talk back to you. Besides, you don't have to deal with insurance companies, etc. Anyways, Thanks again

Don't worry about making ppl defensive. Medicine is full of these types of ppl with sticks up their arses...your question was a legitimate one...no need to apologize. Ppl in medicine got to learn how to chillax sometimes.

 

[yaah]

I want to reiterate we have probably 30-50% MORE pathologists being trained than can be comfortably assumed into the job market.

Don't a lot of these individuals end up leaving the country anyway though after residency? (And not because they can't find a job here). That was my impression that there were quite a few who train here but then leave (either from their own volition or because they are forced to). There are too many residency programs though, I do agree.

Agree also about not going into path if you have any doubt.

 

[deschutes]

Sometimes I regret not picking path because it is more peaceful since corpses and slides don't talk back to you. Besides, you don't have to deal with insurance companies, etc.

Watch what you wish for. When four frozens (each requiring a diagnosis within 20 minutes) hit the floor at the same time and one is a basal cell carcinoma requiring en face margins all the way around (what is this, mini-Mohs?), it's a zoo. And you, are the zookeeper.

Repeat ad nauseum throughout the day.