Advice for MS3

[Ischemia]

Hi all,

I have an interest in pathology and am planning on doing an elective in it this summer.

I was hoping that, before I do so, you residents might give me an idea of what your typical day is like (ie, what time do you get in? what do you do when you get there? are there different services? such thing as sign-out? do you read slides endlessly? is it a laid back atmosphere or high stress? etc. etc. etc.). Any complete description you could give would be very helpful.

I looked at the faq, and there were a couple or relevant links, but none really with a good deal of information.

Thanks a lot!

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[magician]

do a path rotation. that's a reperfusion.

 

[yaah]

THere isn't really a typical day, that's the problem. There have been a few threads here in the past about typical days, I suggest a search for "typical" or something to that effect.

My day today:

6:30am: Arrive, gross in my afternoon GI specimens that fixed overnight (Whipple, esophagus CA)
7:30: kill time, read about penises
8:00: Slide consult conference on GU path including a few cases of penis cancer.
9:00 kill time waiting for fellow to show up for signout
9:30: Signout GI cases
11:15: Fellow goes to a conference, I have lunch (some kind of casserole + an orange + a cookie) and do some errands around the department, picking up slides, etc, then go over a paper I am writing to look for typos.
12:15-12:45: Finish signout
12:45: Pick up some special stains, gross in two liver explants, two small intestine specimens, a bunch of little crap.
2:00: Preview cases for tomorrow.
3:30: Pick up immunostains and recuts, etc, show to attending then dictate them, then turn in requests for more immunostains and organize things, etc etc.
4:30: Slide unknown conference - Testicles (Two sertoli cell tumors?)
5:15: Submit additional gross sections on two gallbags that had dysplasia without a gross lesion.
5:30: Finish previewing for tomorrow.
6:30: Stop by frozen section room and see a frozen being done (some sort of Hodgkin lymphoma)
6:45: Leave, go home, see wife.

 

[Circumflex]

Very few things that I have experienced in med school have made me cringe - now I have to add "penis cancer" to the list.

 

[ranmyaku]

THere isn't really a typical day, that's the problem. There have been a few threads here in the past about typical days, I suggest a search for "typical" or something to that effect.

My day today:

6:30am: Arrive, gross in my afternoon GI specimens that fixed overnight (Whipple, esophagus CA)
7:30: kill time, read about penises
8:00: Slide consult conference on GU path including a few cases of penis cancer.
9:00 kill time waiting for fellow to show up for signout
9:30: Signout GI cases
11:15: Fellow goes to a conference, I have lunch (some kind of casserole + an orange + a cookie) and do some errands around the department, picking up slides, etc, then go over a paper I am writing to look for typos.
12:15-12:45: Finish signout
12:45: Pick up some special stains, gross in two liver explants, two small intestine specimens, a bunch of little crap.
2:00: Preview cases for tomorrow.
3:30: Pick up immunostains and recuts, etc, show to attending then dictate them, then turn in requests for more immunostains and organize things, etc etc.
4:30: Slide unknown conference - Testicles (Two sertoli cell tumors?)
5:15: Submit additional gross sections on two gallbags that had dysplasia without a gross lesion.
5:30: Finish previewing for tomorrow.
6:30: Stop by frozen section room and see a frozen being done (some sort of Hodgkin lymphoma)
6:45: Leave, go home, see wife.

That sounds like my kind of day. I am MS2 and definitely interested in Path and teaching. I can't wait to do rotations.

When you were a 3rd year while on Surg or Med rotation...did you ever go to Path to check out what was going on with some of your patients?

 

[deleted113029]

When you were a 3rd year while on Surg or Med rotation...did you ever go to Path to check out what was going on with some of your patients?

I believe most if not all of us did that whenever the opportunity presented itself.

 

[mlw03]

I believe most if not all of us did that whenever the opportunity presented itself.

i'm about to start surgery soon, then medicine. any suggestions on how to get down to path as often as possible? did ya'll find your surgeons accepting when you asked to follow specimens down to patholoy, or did they yell at you and tell you to shutup and keep holding the panus?

 

[deleted113029]

i'm about to start surgery soon, then medicine. any suggestions on how to get down to path as often as possible? did ya'll find your surgeons accepting when you asked to follow specimens down to patholoy, or did they yell at you and tell you to shutup and keep holding the panus?

my surgeons encouraged visits to the path dept. especially since I expressed my desire to pursue a path career. let the assistants and staff retract...bold move but works most of the time. retracting does not increase my skill sets in pathology.

 

[DarksideAllstar]

Very few things that I have experienced in med school have made me cringe - now I have to add "penis cancer" to the list.

I'm sitting here looking at your location, and wondering if you have diabetes insipidus....make it stop! make it stop!

 

[mlw03]

my surgeons encouraged visits to the path dept. especially since I expressed my desire to pursue a path career. let the assistants and staff retract...bold move but works most of the time. retracting does not increase my skill sets in pathology.

thanks for the advice. i'm planning to do this and hoping to get a similar response to what you got. i figure worst thing is they yell at me a little and saying "you're here to learn surgery" to which i'll think "i'm here to pass the f-ing clerkship and move in". but hopefully they say, "sure, someone else can retract - go follow that tumor and see what the frozen section shows."

 

[Click Here!]

Definitely ask, especially if you're on one of those teams that multiple students go in but only one is at the field. If you find yourself on a step stool on the second row, make up anything to get out of there.

Gyn onc also has some good cases to follow.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

My day is quite variable depending on what rotation I'm on. But generally I come in at 8 am and leave by 5 pm.

 

[Ischemia]

Thanks to those who responded.

Bierstiefel, would you mind posting something similar to what yaah did for your current rotation?

Also, what is your current call schedule like, and what does it entail?

Finally, to all who wouldn't mind answering, about how many months of path elective did you do during your 4th year?

Thanks!

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Thanks to those who responded.

Bierstiefel, would you mind posting something similar to what yaah did for your current rotation?

Well, I'll try. But my schedule varies from week to week.

On surg path, I'll get in around 8 am which is when signout begins. Then I spend the rest of the afternoon doing a little bit of grossing (if necessary), previewing cases, following up on existing cases. On a bad day, I'll end up going home around 6-7 pm. Slides come out in the afternoon and I start previewing right then and there.

On days devoted to grossing in specimens, I'll get in around 8 am again and if I have a lot of specimens, I gross until 6 pm. If I didn't get many specimens, I'm usually done a lot earlier.

On days where I receive specimens, I usually have quite a bit to preview...again I get slides in the afternoon and I alternate between putting specimens in formalin after taking basic measurements (we don't cut many specimens fresh) and previewing. Again, I'm home by 6 pm.

On biopsy rotations, we don't gross. Signout starts at 8 am and we get slides in the early afternoon. I preview them, write up all the reports, and go home by 5 pm.

On elective/subspecialty rotations, it's just signout and previewing +/- minimal grossing. For instance, on dermpath, no grossing. On neuropath, we cover frozens which only demands our attention a few times per day. Basically hours are 8-5 pm.

On autopsy rotations, we alternate between doing autopsies and taking daytime frozen section call. 3 pm is the cutoff time for getting autopsy cases. And daytime frozen section call goes from 7:30 am to 5 pm. Again, I'm out of the hospital at 5 pm.

Nighttime call is taken about once a week for short stretches of time. Basically we are assigned one day per week on subspecialty rotations where there isn't grossing required. When I leave the hospital can really vary...some days I have gone home around 7 pm and I've stayed in the hospital as late as 10 pm (much time is spent sitting around waiting for cases to start and specimens to come out for frozen section analysis).

To answer your last question, I did one month of path elective and one month of path research where I basically spent half my day setting up and scoring impox slides. The rest of the time I spent in my old thesis lab hanging out with my old lab buddies and doing some experiments (I was getting postdoc salary during that time).

 

[Ischemia]

Thanks a lot. That was very informative.

Well, I'll try. But my schedule varies from week to week.

On surg path, I'll get in around 8 am which is when signout begins. Then I spend the rest of the afternoon doing a little bit of grossing (if necessary), previewing cases, following up on existing cases. On a bad day, I'll end up going home around 6-7 pm. Slides come out in the afternoon and I start previewing right then and there.

On days devoted to grossing in specimens, I'll get in around 8 am again and if I have a lot of specimens, I gross until 6 pm. If I didn't get many specimens, I'm usually done a lot earlier.

On days where I receive specimens, I usually have quite a bit to preview...again I get slides in the afternoon and I alternate between putting specimens in formalin after taking basic measurements (we don't cut many specimens fresh) and previewing. Again, I'm home by 6 pm.

On biopsy rotations, we don't gross. Signout starts at 8 am and we get slides in the early afternoon. I preview them, write up all the reports, and go home by 5 pm.

On elective/subspecialty rotations, it's just signout and previewing +/- minimal grossing. For instance, on dermpath, no grossing. On neuropath, we cover frozens which only demands our attention a few times per day. Basically hours are 8-5 pm.

On autopsy rotations, we alternate between doing autopsies and taking daytime frozen section call. 3 pm is the cutoff time for getting autopsy cases. And daytime frozen section call goes from 7:30 am to 5 pm. Again, I'm out of the hospital at 5 pm.

Nighttime call is taken about once a week for short stretches of time. Basically we are assigned one day per week on subspecialty rotations where there isn't grossing required. When I leave the hospital can really vary...some days I have gone home around 7 pm and I've stayed in the hospital as late as 10 pm (much time is spent sitting around waiting for cases to start and specimens to come out for frozen section analysis).

To answer your last question, I did one month of path elective and one month of path research where I basically spent half my day setting up and scoring impox slides. The rest of the time I spent in my old thesis lab hanging out with my old lab buddies and doing some experiments (I was getting postdoc salary during that time).