honesty in med school

[ilovepath]

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i've been leafing through your old posts, and most of you said you were pretty straight forward in declaring your intentions for path. did this come back to bite you in the ass? i figured just saying 'i have an open mind to everything' would work.... are there any pros to your honesty? did it give you more opportunities to check out biopsies during rotations?

 

[deschutes]

For me it was sometimes better to just say "I'm still keeping my options open" etc., since you could often tell without much difficulty the higher-ups on your rotation who would take it as a personal insult if you weren't going into their field.

Besides, during the time of application and at the beginning of med school, I certainly didn't know I wanted to be a pathologist.

 

[yaah]

I had already done a PSF, so I had some relationship with a lot of the surgeons I met during 3rd year. I thought it made things better. A lot of the time we talked about what they expect out of pathology, what information they prefer to get, what they dislike, etc. I don't think it really has a lot of bearing on much else. If anyone is going to grade you down because you aren't going into their field then they are petty and small and it isn't going to matter for you in the long run anyway. I was honest and said that I liked pathology a lot but was keeping my options open. I didn't think there was much chance I would pick a different field, but there was a chance.

 

[Anna Plastic]

i've been leafing through your old posts, and most of you said you were pretty straight forward in declaring your intentions for path. did this come back to bite you in the ass? i figured just saying 'i have an open mind to everything' would work.... are there any pros to your honesty? did it give you more opportunities to check out biopsies during rotations?

I came into medical school declaring my interest in pathology, as well as doing a PSF--I had no stomach for pretending to be interested in other fields when I knew what I wanted to do. I may have caught some 'tude from residents, but generally speaking, I had no problems in my rotations. I think it helped keep my interest in rotations where I may have otherwise been somewhat bored (my attending on OB/Gyn let me go after I finished my notes to go to gyn path signout and report back to the team any salient findings--now that was REALLY cool). Plus I had some moral authority when I said that I was not interested in doing a procedure. I avoided doing any suturing during my surgery or emergency med rotations because I firmly attested the only stich I'd need to know in path was a long running whip stich, which I could already do.

I think what is important is, when you tell people you are interested in path, don't use it as an excuse for blowing off the rotation. For example: when I said I didn't want to suture on Emergency Med, I would make sure to go to the lab to review a peripheral blood smear for an overworked resident. Or, you can get an abstract from the library on a weird pathologic entity and hand it to your resident before rounds. Offer to do a mini-review on glomerulopathies for your team when on renal. Stuff like this helps a lot, and I think it fosters the future relationship you are looking to cultivate for your clinicians: a bountiful source of information which helps them understand and manage their patients. Being genuinely helpful to your team goes a long way in getting good evals for your rotations (on top of the intrinsic rewards of helping to provide good patient care).

 

[deschutes]

Then there are the random potshots where residents sit their MSs around a table and ask them what they see themselves doing. And the one who says "pathology" gets a "Hmm, so you're not a people-person, are you?"

Gee that really makes me want to do peds right now. That and the resident who gets all snippy with med students and then turns around and drips honey all over the patient.

Yes I'm ranting - I remembered that it's the anniversary of the end of my Peds rotation, and dangitall I'm glad it's behind me!

 

[Gut Shot]

This is all strange to me, as I never got one iota of grief for my interest in pathology. Most of the time the person asking the question would stare into space for a moment (no doubt feeling the wheels of regret and/or envy slowly grinding) and say something like "wow, that's a great field."

Hey buster, not my fault you mistook Q4 ER consults for a good career move.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

This is all strange to me, as I never got one iota of grief for my interest in pathology. Most of the time the person asking the question would stare into space for a moment (no doubt feeling the wheels of regret and/or envy slowly grinding) and say something like "wow, that's a great field."

Hey buster, not my fault you mistook Q4 ER consults for a good career move.

Yeah, I didn't get any crap from anyone. But then again, I hadn't decided to do pathology until the end of third year. So the only folks I told about applying to pathology were a few surgeons (who thought it was cool that I was going into path) and some anesthesiology residents (who were slackers and praised me for going into a good lifestyle field).

I actually got more crap when I was telling people throughout the majority of third year that I was planning on doing short-track medicine/research track. People would tell me that that was a horrible idea because I would somehow be short-changing my clinical training (which I kinda agreed and disagreed with). Then we'd go into the whole discussion as to why I was in med school to begin with if all I wanted to do was research. Yada yada yada...STFU plz k thx!

 

[deschutes]

This is all strange to me, as I never got one iota of grief for my interest in pathology.

I just got that kinda face, man.

 

[Gut Shot]

I just got that kinda face, man.

Like a pregnant doe moments before the spine-snapping, rib-crushing, aorta-exploding impact of the LeSabre grill?

That reminds me, hey Andy, what happened to Angry Testicle?

 

[deschutes]

Like a pregnant doe moments before the spine-snapping, rib-crushing, aorta-exploding impact of the LeSabre grill?

My nuances ran closer to this:

That reminds me, hey Andy, what happened to Angry Testicle?

Andy's on sabbatical. And Angry is bound and gagged in an unnamed basement.

 

[Gut Shot]

My nuances ran closer to this:

Heh heh, that's kinda f-ed up. I like you.