2008 pathology applicants

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mlw03

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yeah, i know it's very early, but now that the 2007 ROLs are submitted, may as well start thinking about the 2008 group. i'm just starting this thread as a way for people to declare themselves as SDN members who'll be applying for pathology in the 2008 match. this way we can then PM or email each other to discuss things should we desire to do so. so at the bottom of this I'll start a list and then when people add to it please copy the prior list and add yourself, such that a cumulative list gets posted with each new declared applicant.

i'll also post the list of school i'm thinking about at this point in time - i welcome any comments ya'll may have:
UNM
Duke
UNC
UVA
UMN
CU
U Utah
U Washington
OHSU
U Michigan
Pittsburgh
U Kentucky
Mayo (Minnesotta)

best of luck to the 2007 applicants - i'm looking forward to seeing where you guys match as much as i'm looking forward to some people i know matching this year at my own school.

2008 Pathology Applicants:
mlw03 - USF COM

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Hey! I'm also pretty settled on Path. I just finished my first Surgical Path rotation and loved it. I'm sad that it's over, my internal medicine rotation starts on Monday.

Good luck to the 2007ers!
 
Hey, you can count me as a "likely" for 2008. I had been thinking about Rads for a long time and only recently started to get serious about Path instead. Hopefully in the next couple of months I will be confident enough to say for sure. It feels to me like this is the time in med school - towards the end of 3rd year - where everyone's choices start cementing in. Kind of a weird thing to watch, where people who once would say, "Well I'm kind of interested in Optho, but also Neuro and . . ." start to say, "I'm going into Optho." Now I'm picturing my classmates and surgeons, anesthesiologists, pediatricians, it's a weird experience.

Anyhow, I'm really glad the Path forum is so cohesive compared to some of the other specialty forums. It's nice to have a little community here to help figure out this kind of stuff.

Hang in there with Medicine tiki . . . Now that I'm thinking about going into Path, stuff like H&P's and office hours are filling me with dread. . . which is silly because I never had too much of a problem with it before. :p Oh well. A couple more weeks of outpt Med for me, then peds and psych to round out the year.

Thanks for starting this topic mlw03. Do I remeber you from the threads on applying to UPitt for med school or was that someone else?
 
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Anyhow, I'm really glad the Path forum is so cohesive compared to some of the other specialty forums. It's nice to have a little community here to help figure out this kind of stuff.

Hang in there with Medicine tiki . . . Now that I'm thinking about going into Path, stuff like H&P's and office hours are filling me with dread. . . which is silly because I never had too much of a problem with it before. :p Oh well. A couple more weeks of outpt Med for me, then peds and psych to round out the year.

In addition to H&Ps (esp pts with logorrhea) and office hours (cancellations/no shows and late arrivals), you don't have to deal with the occasional b!tchy nurse who pages you in the wee hours of the morning for laxatives, pain meds, etc.

I cannot wait for school to end and residency to start. Good luck to you next year whatever field you enter.
 
Thanks for starting this topic mlw03. Do I remeber you from the threads on applying to UPitt for med school or was that someone else?

That could definately be me you're thinking about, as I did apply and interview at Pitt. Didn't get in though, which disappointed me at the time, but in retrospect is probably good. I say that because I believe that most of their first two years is problem-based learning, and at USF we had 1 second year course based on PBL and I really did not like that style of learning compared to traditional lectures. But I really like Pittsburgh as a place to live and will consider their path program when I apply.
 
Hang in there with Medicine tiki . . . Now that I'm thinking about going into Path, stuff like H&P's and office hours are filling me with dread. . . which is silly because I never had too much of a problem with it before. :p Oh well. A couple more weeks of outpt Med for me, then peds and psych to round out the year.

Thanks. :) At least our internal med rotation is only inpatient, because I hate outpatient medicine. When I was on Peds, I thought I'd hurl myself over a bridge if I had to deal with one more rash or case of otitis media. :laugh:

Psych is nice to finish up with, I enjoyed the lovely hours of my psych rotation. I finish with Family Med, which to me is pure torture.

Anybody starting to look at away electives? I'm thinking about doing four weeks at University of Penn or Jefferson, and then maybe going to UVa or Emory for four weeks.
 
The issue of away electives is something I discussed for a bit with my advisor, who's the PD at my home program. I struggled with whether to do one at a place I'm thinking about, but in the end decided against it. She told me that they're not necessary for pathology applicants, but that if you're set on a particular program it may help. That's not the case with me - I really have no idea out of the 15+ programs I'm looking at right now which I want, and probably won't know until after interviewing. So in the end I decided not to do an "audition" elective. I hope it doesn't bite me in the arse in the end, but when I weighed the pros vs. cons, there just weren't enough pros to justify the major expense involved. There's also the issue of getting asked at interviews, "I see you did an elective at program X, but not here - why is that? Is program X your top choice?" I feel like if I were to do an elective at one of those schools I'd be picking a random number out of a hat.

However I am going to do a pathology elective thru the University of Nevada. They have a forensic pathology elective in Las Vegas that I'm going to do. It's not an audtion because UN doesn't even have a pathology residency - but my friend lives there and winter in LV is lovely, so I thought it'd be a fun elective that's get some autopsy experience before starting residency.
 
I feel like I have to do away electives because the hospital that I do my rotations at does not have its own Path residency. Fourth year residents from the main hospital come to our hospital to rotate there, but I really want to experience what it's like at a main teaching hospital.

Plus, UPenn right now is my top choice, but I've heard mixed reports on this board about the atmosphere there, so what better way to see what it's like then do an away there.
 
The issue of away electives is something I discussed for a bit with my advisor, who's the PD at my home program. I struggled with whether to do one at a place I'm thinking about, but in the end decided against it. She told me that they're not necessary for pathology applicants, but that if you're set on a particular program it may help. That's not the case with me - I really have no idea out of the 15+ programs I'm looking at right now which I want, and probably won't know until after interviewing. So in the end I decided not to do an "audition" elective. I hope it doesn't bite me in the arse in the end, but when I weighed the pros vs. cons, there just weren't enough pros to justify the major expense involved. There's also the issue of getting asked at interviews, "I see you did an elective at program X, but not here - why is that? Is program X your top choice?" I feel like if I were to do an elective at one of those schools I'd be picking a random number out of a hat.

However I am going to do a pathology elective thru the University of Nevada. They have a forensic pathology elective in Las Vegas that I'm going to do. It's not an audtion because UN doesn't even have a pathology residency - but my friend lives there and winter in LV is lovely, so I thought it'd be a fun elective that's get some autopsy experience before starting residency.

i have to disagree with some of these arguements. i did 2 away electives, in addition to one at my home program, and it was the most invaluable experience. i learned a tremendous amount about the many forms a residency training program can take...gen sign-out vs specialty, ap/cp integrated vs non-integrated, grossing schedules (cycle vs daily gross), the range of conferences, the list goes on and on....these experiences gave me the knoweledge base (a real one at that b/c i actually spent 4 weeks functioning in a given system) i needed to critically evaluate all the programs i interviewed at. in my mind, this is the purpose of an away elective...to gather the data you need to make an informed decision about what program is best for you, not only for training but also for future professional pursuits. it alway helps to know more. in addition, i was NEVER asked "why that program" (this type of malignant behavior is extremely atypical in pathology) but rather, was given mad props on how much experience i had in pathology....i cannot stress enough the extent to which i was complimented on this aspect of my application...i'm not kidding you. not to mention, one of my away elective turned out to be at a place that i do in fact want to go so it had the additional benefit of working for me in that regard. and that is no small thing either...no small thing at all.


i highly recommend doing a surg path elective over autopsy...it's more important to know how a surg path service runs at a given program (b/c that can vary with respect to number of cases, types of cases, cycle etc) than autopsy. also, surg path is the meat of a program, not autopsy. also, i highly recommend doing one at a place you consider to be an excellent program so that you can have a better sense what that caliber of training looks like, a sense of what to strive for in your own training.

i absolutely recommend away electives, not as an audition per say, but as an opportunity to acquire a more comprehensive knowledge of pathology training.

such electives are viewed as "not necessary in pathology" because pathology has been non-competitive in the past so doing an elective to better secure a spot has not been seen as necessary as it might in more competitive specialties. nevertheless, i believe pathology has grown to be much more competitve in the last few years and while an elective may still not be necessary to secure a spot, it will make you a stronger applicant and certainly pull your application out of the pile at that given program...as long as you're not a tool of course.

anyway, just thought i would share my personal experience with this topic.
 
i have to disagree with some of these arguements... this is the purpose of an away elective....
to gather the data you need to make an informed decision about what program is best for you, not only for training but also for future professional pursuits. it always helps to know more. in addition, i was NEVER asked "why that program" (this type of malignant behavior is extremely atypical in pathology)

It is definitely true that outside path rotations can be audition rotations, and can be helpful if you do not make a bad impression.
But as sequela said, they help everywhere. If gives you more experience in what to look for in a pathology program. In that sense if you can't find one that you really want to go to, try and find one that is different from your medical school. I did two path rotations. One at my medical school, (medium-small program) and one at CCF (large program).
It helped me realize that I would be happier in a large program...
that said if you cant afford it, you can't afford it.
But many programs have free/cheap housing options and other offsets for rotators..
 
such electives are viewed as "not necessary in pathology" because pathology has been non-competitive in the past so doing an elective to better secure a spot has not been seen as necessary as it might in more competitive specialties. nevertheless, i believe pathology has grown to be much more competitve in the last few years and while an elective may still not be necessary to secure a spot, it will make you a stronger applicant and certainly pull your application out of the pile at that given program...as long as you're not a tool of course.

anyway, just thought i would share my personal experience with this topic.

I agree with this based on what I see now. Wow! Things really have changed in 2 years, I must say. I really thought applying to pathology was a "gimme" when I applied. This is certainly not the case anymore as the increase in competitiveness is quite apparent.

Along the lines of what djmd say...these away electives are audition rotations. You are being watched...from a program's and residents' perspectives, this is great because we can figure out over the course of a whole month whether you're a "hero" or a "zero". But it's great for you because you get to see all the inner workings of a program, a lot of the program's dirty little secrets that are hidden from an interviewee on any given interview day, and whether you and the program represent a good fit. And let's say you have your sights set out on 2 programs...and you do two 1-month away rotations each...great opportunities to kiss a lot of ass, make impressions, and take numbers! And if a program really likes you, you're set...that will bump you up on the program's rank list significantly...and if you have a stellar record and make great impressions, you'll be ranked to match. So in all, these away rotations are a double-edged sword.

Now, do you NEED to do away rotations? If your home program has a strong pathology rotation, just stay there and do the elective there. The point of doing a pathology rotation is to determine whether pathology as a field is a good fit for you. Where you want to go is important only once you've made that determination. Definitely agree about the surg path comment. Do surg path. Autopsy rotation = useless.

sequela say...surg path is the meat; yes this is correct...this is the busiest aspect of a pathology residency program and a great way to learn what issues are important in pathology residencies and workflow. This is a great opportunity to formulate intelligent and practical questions for the interview trail so that when the interviewer asks, "Do you have any questions?", you'll have more to ask rather than the most boring, stupidest question in the book, "What's the specimen volume and variety?"
 
That could definately be me you're thinking about, as I did apply and interview at Pitt. Didn't get in though, which disappointed me at the time, but in retrospect is probably good. I say that because I believe that most of their first two years is problem-based learning, and at USF we had 1 second year course based on PBL and I really did not like that style of learning compared to traditional lectures. But I really like Pittsburgh as a place to live and will consider their path program when I apply.

Ah ok. I didn't get in either :oops: Although I might have gotten off the waiting list had I not decided to go to Temple. Anyhow, I'm actually in Pittsburgh now doing rotations at one of the hospitals affiliated with Temple.

Thanks. At least our internal med rotation is only inpatient, because I hate outpatient medicine. When I was on Peds, I thought I'd hurl myself over a bridge if I had to deal with one more rash or case of otitis media.

Psych is nice to finish up with, I enjoyed the lovely hours of my psych rotation. I finish with Family Med, which to me is pure torture.

I am kind of ready to get this stuff over with. But luckily I'm in a good situation, having cranked out all my surgery and OB and such early.

Anyhow, I am excited to do some Path electives. Maybe do one at Temple main campus and I'm not sure where else?
 
I agree with the above- away rotations are nice if you can swing them. They just overall show a good level of interest, and importantly you get to see how different programs do things (there are lots of differences). You can see what you like, what you don't like, what works for your style, etc.
 
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As a med student at the University of Nevada, I have had several classmates rotate through that ME rotation here in Vegas. I think the ME only expects you to observe one full autopsy the entire time you are there. I think a couple of people did some tox stuff also. Not sure about how great the teaching is. I'll ask some one for some more detail re: the rotation if you want. From a rotation perspective, I agree with everyone else: surg path>> autopsy.
 
As a med student at the University of Nevada, I have had several classmates rotate through that ME rotation here in Vegas. I think the ME only expects you to observe one full autopsy the entire time you are there. I think a couple of people did some tox stuff also. Not sure about how great the teaching is. I'll ask some one for some more detail re: the rotation if you want. From a rotation perspective, I agree with everyone else: surg path>> autopsy.

What's the point then?
 
As a med student at the University of Nevada, I have had several classmates rotate through that ME rotation here in Vegas. I think the ME only expects you to observe one full autopsy the entire time you are there. I think a couple of people did some tox stuff also. Not sure about how great the teaching is. I'll ask some one for some more detail re: the rotation if you want. From a rotation perspective, I agree with everyone else: surg path>> autopsy.

What's the point then?

exactly! that's his point.
 
Sorry to disrupt the conversation, but back to the original topic... :) I'm applying in 2008. I knew I wanted to do Path since the start of med school so it's been the light at the end of the tunnel for me throughout this experience otherwise known as third year. It actually feels a bit surreal that application time is approaching, but maybe it's just because I'm dead-a$$ tired.

Looking forward to meeting/talking with all of you. And best of luck to all of the "2007-ers".

-P.
 
Sorry to disrupt the conversation, but back to the original topic... :) I'm applying in 2008.

Welcome! :)


I just had my first day of Internal Med today, and all I can think of is how much I miss path. One of the geriatric attendings asked us all what speciality we wanted to go into during one of our intro lectures, and when I said Path I got the eye rolling and "Path??? But you won't be a clinician." This is going to be a long eight weeks. :smuggrin:
 
What's the point then?

I'll just go ahead and make the assumption that you are not in your 4th year. The 4th year med student has essentially the following responsibilities:
1) audition rotations
2) apply to residency
3) interview
4) match
5) vacation

Most 4th years are not trying to schedule difficult or trying rotations during their year. Most want a little taste of what something is like, but not if there is weekend work or if there is call. This rotation is perfect for the student looking to see a post and maybe have some time off for whatever reason. This doesn't exclude the fact that you can see more of them if you want to. What's the point of someone who matched into ortho in doing a bunch of ME posts (and I use the term "do" loosely)? Your zeal smacks of a gunnerish med student and may god have mercy on your soul.
 
Welcome! :)


I just had my first day of Internal Med today, and all I can think of is how much I miss path. One of the geriatric attendings asked us all what speciality we wanted to go into during one of our intro lectures, and when I said Path I got the eye rolling and "Path??? But you won't be a clinician." This is going to be a long eight weeks. :smuggrin:

Cardinal rule #1: Never divulge the specialty with which you'll be entering. Always shrug and say you don't know.
 
Welcome! :)


I just had my first day of Internal Med today, and all I can think of is how much I miss path. One of the geriatric attendings asked us all what speciality we wanted to go into during one of our intro lectures, and when I said Path I got the eye rolling and "Path??? But you won't be a clinician." This is going to be a long eight weeks. :smuggrin:

:laugh: Lol, I'm always nervous to tell people the truth to that question.
 
:laugh: Lol, I'm always nervous to tell people the truth to that question.

I used to be, but I think I've hit that point in the year where I just don't give a crap what people think of me anymore. I'm going to work my butt off and study hard for the shelf, because I want to do well, but I'm not going to lie and say I love old people just to make some attending happy.

And to think I started off the year so enthusiastic and sweet. :D
 
I used to be, but I think I've hit that point in the year where I just don't give a crap what people think of me anymore. I'm going to work my butt off and study hard for the shelf, because I want to do well, but I'm not going to lie and say I love old people just to make some attending happy.

And to think I started off the year so enthusiastic and sweet. :D

I pretty much started out not giving a crap :D I have been completely honest of my intentions of going into pathology on all my rotations and-- I'm being totally honest-- EVERY SINGLE attending and resident has told me what a great choice it is. I was expecting to run into some sort of unfavorable response and was pleasantly surprised.

I'm on medicine now for 2 months, then 2 months of Primary Care to end the year. Sigh.

Tiki, let the sweet hangover from your Path rotation carry you through :D

-P.
 
I used to be, but I think I've hit that point in the year where I just don't give a crap what people think of me anymore. I'm going to work my butt off and study hard for the shelf, because I want to do well, but I'm not going to lie and say I love old people just to make some attending happy.

And to think I started off the year so enthusiastic and sweet. :D

Yeah and luckily the sucking up isn't as important as some people think. I've seen people who are gung-ho and proclaim their love for surgery or whatever, and then get a mediocre grade. All that really matters is looking like a decent person on eval and then doing pretty good on the shelf.

Luckily so far a lot of the attendings have said "Oh, my brother/dad/uncle is a pathologist/radiologist/whatever I said I was interested in" or otherwise speculated about the interesting future of the field.

One of the surgeons didn't like the way I was holding a retractor and said, "You know what'll happen if you do something like that in Radiology? You'll knock over somebody's coffee."
 
Cardinal rule #1: Never divulge the specialty with which you'll be entering. Always shrug and say you don't know.

that may have worked in september, but this late in the year it almost looks weird if you still have no clue what you want to do. as for me, i'm honest and for the most part have gotten positive responses - although i have gotten some crap from the surgeons about the relatively fewer hours pathologists work.
 
I have been completely honest of my intentions of going into pathology on all my rotations and-- I'm being totally honest-- EVERY SINGLE attending and resident has told me what a great choice it is. I was expecting to run into some sort of unfavorable response and was pleasantly surprised.

Likewise. When I was rotating as a 3rd year, I'd express interest in Surgery to, e.g., Medicine types and they would roll their eyes. But as a 4th year I let everyone know I'm doing Path and, with the exception of one fellow, uniformly the response is "awesome" or "great choice" or "path is interesting" or "great lifestyle." Be proud of what field you have chosen and let anyone know who is interested enough to ask.
 
that may have worked in september, but this late in the year it almost looks weird if you still have no clue what you want to do.

Not really. At this point during my third year I was in the middle of my medicine rotation and still had family med and peds to go. There is plenty of room to be indecisive (and I actually was, so it wasn't a big deal to me). I think some residents/attendings may be less apt to spend time teaching or won't take you seriously (ie make snide remarks) if they know you will be doing something else. Even if I had known what I was going to do, there's no way I'd tell anyone (?maybe the last rotation) because of those reasons. I got some nice evals, so obvioulsy my indecisiveness didn't hurt.
 
Not really. At this point during my third year I was in the middle of my medicine rotation and still had family med and peds to go. There is plenty of room to be indecisive (and I actually was, so it wasn't a big deal to me). I think some residents/attendings may be less apt to spend time teaching or won't take you seriously (ie make snide remarks) if they know you will be doing something else. Even if I had known what I was going to do, there's no way I'd tell anyone (?maybe the last rotation) because of those reasons. I got some nice evals, so obvioulsy my indecisiveness didn't hurt.

I agree. I didn't decide on path until the first month of my 4th year and just told everyone that I was undecided. I found that I got much more out of my rotations if I approached them with the mindset that I might want to do that specialty. Residents know that everyone doesn't want to do what they do, but they are much more receptive and willing to teach people they perceive as having an open mind about learning that they do.
 
ya'll are definately right that residents seem to have vastly different attitudes towards students expressing interest in their field vs. students who do not. one would hope that it shouldn't affect evaluations, but i'm sure it does.

and PuGanDoo - thanks for brining it back to the original topic and welcome to the group, small as we are at this point in time. if we're the only 5 path applicants for all of 2008 i bet we'd have a pretty sweet match!!

Not really. At this point during my third year I was in the middle of my medicine rotation and still had family med and peds to go. There is plenty of room to be indecisive (and I actually was, so it wasn't a big deal to me). I think some residents/attendings may be less apt to spend time teaching or won't take you seriously (ie make snide remarks) if they know you will be doing something else. Even if I had known what I was going to do, there's no way I'd tell anyone (?maybe the last rotation) because of those reasons. I got some nice evals, so obvioulsy my indecisiveness didn't hurt.
 
ya'll are definately right that residents seem to have vastly different attitudes towards students expressing interest in their field vs. students who do not. one would hope that it shouldn't affect evaluations, but i'm sure it does.

and PuGanDoo - thanks for brining it back to the original topic and welcome to the group, small as we are at this point in time. if we're the only 5 path applicants for all of 2008 i bet we'd have a pretty sweet match!!


:hardy:
 
You'll always get **** from certain people who are either jealous of pathologists or don't understand the field. I wouldn't worry much about it. If you show up, do your work, and feign some level of interest you will pass. And a passing grade is really all you need, path program directors aren't going to care about most of your clinical grades significantly, as long as you pass.
 
You'll always get **** from certain people who are either jealous of pathologists or don't understand the field. I wouldn't worry much about it. If you show up, do your work, and feign some level of interest you will pass. And a passing grade is really all you need, path program directors aren't going to care about most of your clinical grades significantly, as long as you pass.
I was surprised as to the number of positive and encouraging comments I got when I told people I was going into pathology. Some of them, in retrospect, had wished they had gone into pathology themselves. I got **** from maybe one or two people...but I brought that upon myself as I was post-call during my sub-I and I was gloating as to how I would never have to take overnight in-house call and deal with stupid patients who just "happened to fall on a vibrator" and drug addicts who claim that despite finishing their one month prescription of oxycontin in just one week, their "***** still hurts".
 
AWESOME!!! :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Unless you want that dermpath spot, then you'll definitely need those clinical "honors" to get AOA and be competitive.











Note: Sarcasm present in the statement above.
 
Unless you want that dermpath spot, then you'll definitely need those clinical "honors" to get AOA and be competitive.











Note: Sarcasm present in the statement above.
:laugh: yeah but then he can go into derm instead of dermpath.
 
Unless you want that dermpath spot, then you'll definitely need those clinical "honors" to get AOA and be competitive.

I hear that it helps in getting a dermpath spot if you did well on the SATs. I got a 1390 so I was rejected. I volunteered in a leper clinic in 10th grade and even that didn't seem to help. GOD I LOVE SKIN WHY CAN'T THEY SEE THAT I'M NOT LIKE ALL THE OTHERS WHO JUST WANT TO MAKE MONEY. I'LL DO ACADEMICS, I PROMISE. not

:p
 
I hear that it helps in getting a dermpath spot if you did well on the SATs. I got a 1390 so I was rejected. I volunteered in a leper clinic in 10th grade and even that didn't seem to help. GOD I LOVE SKIN WHY CAN'T THEY SEE THAT I'M NOT LIKE ALL THE OTHERS WHO JUST WANT TO MAKE MONEY. I'LL DO ACADEMICS, I PROMISE. not

:p

Yeah...I heard this too from many people. See, I only got a 1290 so I knew that I had no chance in getting into dermpath fellowships. Hence, when I was on my dermpath rotation, I didn't even bother showing up. My fellow residents say that diagnosing this cancer called basal cell carcinoma is pretty routine. WHAT THE HELL IS A BASAL CELL CARCINOMA??? IS THAT THE SAME THING AS BCC??? :p :p :p
 
I've had another wonderful day on IM. Today I got to manually disimpact an elderly lady with constipation.

I rather deal with autopsy poo. :D
 
That's a tough differential, you know. It might be an SCC. WHAT DO YOU DO THEN, BIG GUY?
I consult yaah, dermpath fellow.

Tiki, poo is overrated. I was big on poo when I was applying to pathology. You know...after 1.5 years of residency, poo just doesn't do it for me anymore. I've moved on to bigger and better things...dermoid cysts. Mmmm...mmm...MMMMMMMM! They smell so gooooooood!
 
I've had another wonderful day on IM. Today I got to manually disimpact an elderly lady with constipation.

I rather deal with autopsy poo. :D

:laugh: My first day of third year. Show up for Trauma ICU rounds at 5am. Takes me like 2 hours to see 3 patients. I have no idea whats going on with vent settings (WTF is PEEP, I:E ratio, AC, pressure support?), sliding scale insulin, SCDS, lovenox, burr holes, etc. and neither do the other 2 students. I somehow make it through rounds and we come to the last patient, one whom I was assigned to that AM. I f up my report and mention that nursing says that this guy hasn't **** in like 2 weeks and TODAY, of all possible days, it becomes an issue. I mean, clearly this guy hasn't been filling his fecal pouch and someone (the intern) was noting it in the previous 4 days worth of TICU notes, but alas, no action had been taken. The attending looks at me and says, "Sorry, I hate to break you in like this, but this guy needs a rectal and a disimpaction." I about died right there. It couldn't have more brilliantly capped a frustrating and disheartening day than to hear that golden word: disimpaction. From then til now, I do not like poo (including the bowel run poo), nor people who are on Q2H PRN opioids, or patients who we purposefully snowball into constipation-- all of whom WILL inevitably need a disimpaction.
 
I hear that it helps in getting a dermpath spot if you did well on the SATs. I got a 1390 so I was rejected. I volunteered in a leper clinic in 10th grade and even that didn't seem to help. GOD I LOVE SKIN WHY CAN'T THEY SEE THAT I'M NOT LIKE ALL THE OTHERS WHO JUST WANT TO MAKE MONEY. I'LL DO ACADEMICS, I PROMISE. not

:p

Yeah...I heard this too from many people. See, I only got a 1290 so I knew that I had no chance in getting into dermpath fellowships. Hence, when I was on my dermpath rotation, I didn't even bother showing up. My fellow residents say that diagnosing this cancer called basal cell carcinoma is pretty routine. WHAT THE HELL IS A BASAL CELL CARCINOMA??? IS THAT THE SAME THING AS BCC??? :p :p :p

Didn't one say that Step 3 is all that truly matters?! :laugh: So you guys still have a fighting chance. ;)
 
Tiki, poo is overrated. I was big on poo when I was applying to pathology. You know...after 1.5 years of residency, poo just doesn't do it for me anymore. I've moved on to bigger and better things...dermoid cysts. Mmmm...mmm...MMMMMMMM! They smell so gooooooood!

Unfortunately, I haven't had the privledge of dealing with a dermoid cyst. But this poo was some unique poo, all snuggled up in a tight little poo ball. I have to remind myself next time not to eat lunch right before I'm digging for poo.

Darkside, that sounds like a rough way to start third year! Trauma ICU and a manual disimpaction. I think I would have ran away from the hospital crying. :laugh:
 
I'll just go ahead and make the assumption that you are not in your 4th year.

That's probably wise given that I'm a PGY-2. Not that I have scrutinized every post, but this thread seems to be centered around those medical students who are persuing pathology, not MS-IVs looking to screw around on light rotations. In light of that, I would hope that a path-bound med student would get in as deep as they'd let them at the ME's office -- I learned an incredible amount there that carried over into residency. Hence, my skepticism of a rotation where you "observe" one post, which is what someone had said, which invariably led me to my original statement: what's the point?
 
That's probably wise given that I'm a PGY-2. Not that I have scrutinized every post, but this thread seems to be centered around those medical students who are persuing pathology, not MS-IVs looking to screw around on light rotations. In light of that, I would hope that a path-bound med student would get in as deep as they'd let them at the ME's office -- I learned an incredible amount there that carried over into residency. Hence, my skepticism of a rotation where you "observe" one post, which is what someone had said, which invariably led me to my original statement: what's the point?

Considering that my school churns out an astounding 1 match per year in pathology, it makes a lot of sense to me that the rotation is "light" in terms of required work. I'm sure if you wanted to do more you could, but most people doing this rotation aren't headed into path and if you were, you wouldn't necessarily rotate at a place that doesn't have a residency program unless you had other reasons for doing so. :idea:
 
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