Direct Patient Care Pathologists

[fulmino]

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I'm an MS-III thinking about path and have been told several times some pathologists work outside of their full-time job doing ER/urgent care and even some FP stuff. Can anyone enlighten me as to if this is common or even possible? Couldn't find this topic discussed elsewhere. Thanks.

 

[mlw03]

this has definately been discussed before, so i'd suggest you keep hunting. the answer that usually comes up is that if you want a significant amount of patient contact, don't pick path. pathologists certainly are not trained to provide urgent care of any type, nor FP type of stuff. while the pathologist can tell you in great detail how hyperlipidemia damages coronary vessels, they're not trained to manage those patients either acutely or chronically. the only direct patient contact pathologists get is doing fine needle aspirations. i expect you'll get multiple responses saying that you should only go into path if you can reconcile that you won't have significant patient contact on a regular basis.

 

[mcfaddens]

Some of the folks in my residency in the past have done some moonlighting in the ER ect after they got their license, but as far as afterward (post residency)I think that the scope of work in path should keep you plenty busy. If you want to do something with alot of diagnostics and a good chunk of Pt contact look in to Rads.

 

[yaah]

Frankly, I doubt many people would give you much moonlighting opportunity in this fashion unless you do a general internship (at least). I may be wrong, however.

 

[mlw03]

in this token, would you feel comfortable if you went to the ER and were being treated by a pathologist? as much as i respect path, when it comes to clinical medicine i think that's best left to the clinicians.

Frankly, I doubt many people would give you much moonlighting opportunity in this fashion unless you do a general internship (at least). I may be wrong, however.

 

[fulmino]

Thanks for the responses.

My question was more due to my perception that once done with residency, most pathologists have more free time than other specialists. Figured working outside your regular job could take care of school loans quicker.

 

[yaah]

Well, the best response to that would be to supplement your work in pathology. Do Locum tenens work in addition to your job. Do autopsies for people. I dunno.

 

[mcfaddens]

Frankly, I doubt many people would give you much moonlighting opportunity in this fashion unless you do a general internship (at least). I may be wrong, however.

Hey dont shoot the messenger here. Im just relaying some info that actually happened. A couple have actually switched to ER and IM due to their enjoyment of their moonlighting experence. I guessing they had a clinical year under their belt ,not positive, but did posess an unrestricted license.

 

[yaah]

Hey dont shoot the messenger here. Im just relaying some info that actually happened. A couple have actually switched to ER and IM due to their enjoyment of their moonlighting experence. I guessing they had a clinical year under their belt ,not positive, but did posess an unrestricted license.

There are probably (but I don't know for sure) areas of the country where as long as you have a medical degree and have passed step III you can get some sort of license which is sufficient to do certain moonlighting positions. But I doubt this is very common these days.

 

[mlw03]

Thanks for the responses.

My question was more due to my perception that once done with residency, most pathologists have more free time than other specialists. Figured working outside your regular job could take care of school loans quicker.

perhaps this is true. like yaah, i'd suggest doing pro bono path stuff. is there a free clinic for the poor in your area? i bet they do pap smears and colposcopies - someone has to read those and they're probably not going to get paid for it. i'm sure there's other similar things in path one could do to help out their communities and fits better into the training a pathologist receives.

or you could actually have a life outside of work, something i hear may be quite difficult in a lot of other specialties - yet another reason path keeps looking so good.