Pathologists are also inherently more fun to be around

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yaah

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Don't you think this as well? Aside from the obvious lifestyle choices that make picking any field over pathology a silly and futile exercise, there other possibilities, among them are:

1) Pathologists have (at least it appears to me) a wider knowledge base than almost any other specialty.
2) Better sense of humor. Pathologsts don't get as ticked off when they are made fun of, and don't take it out on poor unsuspecting residents or patients.
3) More free time, and thus more time away from the hospital. Thus, every frame of reference does not revolve around the hospital.
4) Much more of a sense of the history of medicine and the fascinating things that come along with that.
5) A "weekend off" does not mean having to be on call saturday and having from 5pm saturday until monday morning off.
6) Everyone calls you to get the answers, not the other way around.
7) People love their jobs, and are not doing them just to get it over with.
8) Pathologists don't have to deal with drug reps quite as often.
and of couse, 9) Minimal Poo exposure, which goes along with the attractiveness thread and is explained there. Is it more fun to be around someone who smells like poo or someone who does not? Only a surgeon would say the former. Poo and flatulence are the surgeon's noble substance and gas.

p.s. we have officially been passed by ophtho. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. Let them have their fun, they have to deal with eyes as a career.

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I have to agree. Of course, I'm a bit biased :). Think about it, though. Even rads, with their decent lifestyle, have to do a transition year and are usually pretty busy on their calls (in residency anyway). I think path is the best kept secret in medicine. With the rise in applications, though, it looks like it's a secret no longer.
 
BCMD said:
I have to agree. Of course, I'm a bit biased :). Think about it, though. Even rads, with their decent lifestyle, have to do a transition year and are usually pretty busy on their calls (in residency anyway). I think path is the best kept secret in medicine. With the rise in applications, though, it looks like it's a secret no longer.

I think parts of the secret are getting out, but parts of it remain a mystery. Most people still have no clue what a pathologist does. More people are learning about some of the possibilities of doing a path residency, and certainly more people are learning about the lifestyle, but still, lots of unknowns. Most of it revolves around autopsies, as I have said before. And still, lots of people think that either 1) they themselves are too fantastic at interpersonal relations to pass up a career in a field with more patient contact; or 2) Most pathologists are curmudgeons, antisocial, too analytical, and unfun to be around.

Number 2 is obviously false.

Number 1, well, you can't tell someone to not do a certain field. But pathology needs good people too, and given how many people I have seen in medicine that really have minimal interpersonal skills (yet, at the same time think they are the ideal physician), I think a lot of people are deluded.
 
yaah said:
Number 1, well, you can't tell someone to not do a certain field. But pathology needs good people too, and given how many people I have seen in medicine that really have minimal interpersonal skills (yet, at the same time think they are the ideal physician), I think a lot of people are deluded.

I agree. In fact, many of the pathologists I've met have been the most personable physicians I know. A lot of it is inherent in their characters, but some of it is surely due to being able to go home at 5 or 6 each day and not being up all night admitting patients. Which of course, ties in to the theme of this post: pathologists ARE inherently more fun to be around.
 
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