Path and Volunteer Clinical Med?

india7 said:

If anyone can offer thoughts, that would be very appreciated.....I really like and enjoy Path so am seriously considering it, however I actually worked as a social worker before medical school and always thought I wanted to work in a homeless clinic again or do medical abroad trips. Is it reasonable to be a pathologist as your "pay" job and also do volunteer clinical work? I don't know if that's an obvious answer, it doesn't seem to me that one would "lose" their clinical skills, but just wanted any thoughts. Thanks.......

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I have no clinical skills whatsoever. On the upside, its unlikely that homeless drug addict types would either know or care.

LADoc00 said:

I have no clinical skills whatsoever. On the upside, its unlikely that homeless drug addict types would either know or care.

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You've still got the compassion/empathy thing going though.

Aubrey said:

You've still got the compassion/empathy thing going though.

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Well you know, its all about the "The Love." Mod med isnt about mad skillz or tech, its the lovveeeee.

india7 said:

If anyone can offer thoughts, that would be very appreciated.....I really like and enjoy Path so am seriously considering it, however I actually worked as a social worker before medical school and always thought I wanted to work in a homeless clinic again or do medical abroad trips. Is it reasonable to be a pathologist as your "pay" job and also do volunteer clinical work? I don't know if that's an obvious answer, it doesn't seem to me that one would "lose" their clinical skills, but just wanted any thoughts. Thanks.......

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I think with time clinical skills will deteriorate. You have to 'use it or lose it'. On the other hand though one of the advantages of pathology is that you will be able to volunteer in capacities other than clinical medicine (which are just as important and just as needed). There are plenty of Habitat for Humanity, for instance, programs that would love volunteers. I've found that I have to train myself to "think outside the medical box" on this subject. There are so many good things to do with your time and pathology will let you have some time (at least during CP months) to pursue them (while your counterparts are up all night in-house and sleeping it off the next day).

I am losing my clinical skills as we speak. Oops, there went the Mini-Mental exam. And what's the fourth component of the biophysical profile again?...

...all this is rapidly being replaced by pattern-recognition photographs of rare and rarer cancers, and things that look like them.

drPLUM is right - the thing with Path is that, you might actually have time to volunteer. Which is not to say that Path is by any means cush, it's just saner in comparison with other clinical medicine fields.

Speaking in terms of practicalities, I don't know how feasible it is that a clinical practice would allow time for volunteering and international medicine especially in the years during and immediately after training. I've heard of a urology residency at a private hospital in Michigan that allows you to do international electives but that's as close as I personally know.