Pathology Disaster - Key Findings of RISE, FISE, and FISHE surveys

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exPCM

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Among the key findings from the RISE survey:

* More than 90% of pathology residents apply for additional fellowship training after completion of their residency program.
* 61% of PGY-3 and PGY-4 residents intend to complete one fellowship.
* The top five fellowships that residents intended to apply for, in rank order, are surgical pathology, hematopathology, cytopathology, gastrointestinal pathology, and dermatopathology.
* Among residents who chose to go directly into the job market, about 40% received offers to remain as an attending at their training program. Another 40% failed to receive a job offer.

Highlights of the FISE and FISHE surveys:

* About one-third of forensics fellows and about half of hematopathology fellows received multiple job offerings. A significant number (approximately 15%) of fellows did not receive job offers.
* Most fellows found jobs fairly quickly, but one-fifth of hematopathology fellows were searching for at least six months.
* Nearly two-thirds of forensic pathologists received starting annual salaries less than $150,000.
* Three-fourths of the hematopathologists earned more than $150,000 per year to start.

http://www.ascp.org/PDF/Membership-Communications/Fellowship-and-Job-Market-Surveys-2009.aspx

Comment: Hard to put a positive spin on this. Nuclear medicine is probably the only field with a job market that is as bad or worse than pathology.
Most forensic fellows are getting offers that would appear to me to be no better or even worse than the typical offer for a graduating family physician.
http://www.merritthawkins.com/pdf/mha2009incentivesurvey.pdf

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Oh good, something new and different.

* Among residents who chose to go directly into the job market, about 40% received offers to remain as an attending at their training program. Another 40% failed to receive a job offer.


According to the survey data, <10% of graduating residents foray into the job market without fellowship training (page 3). On page 4, however, the number of these graduates surveyed is 120, which would mean there are >1,200 residents finishing in 2009. We all know that's crap.

Perhaps a more likely scenario is that graduating residents with fellowships lined up also apply for jobs and go with whatever works. Most of them are probably not shivering in the cold.

In raw numbers, 60% of these 120 individuals did find have job offers without fellowship training, which translates into 72 people. By my estimate this is ~15% of graduating residents, and is in line with my ancedotal experience.

exPCM said:
* Nearly two-thirds of forensic pathologists received starting annual salaries less than $150,000.

Not exactly news. Forensic pathologists are government employees, and the low salary often comes with a lot of government employee perks. The ones I know have excellent job security, top notch benefits, and a pension plan (increasingly rare these days). Besides, anyone in the biz knows you don't strike it rich in forensics until you've got a ton of experience and hit the professional witness circuit.
 
Not exactly news. Forensic pathologists are government employees, and the low salary often comes with a lot of government employee perks. The ones I know have excellent job security, top notch benefits, and a pension plan (increasingly rare these days). Besides, anyone in the biz knows you don't strike it rich in forensics until you've got a ton of experience and hit the professional witness circuit.

agreed. no big surprise there. i'm not going into FP for the salary. how about focusing on the job market for the average pathologist instead of a niche (though awesome!) subspecialty? it doesn't make sense to take these findings and generalize it to support "THE JOB MARKET SUCKS!!!" theme. i'm not disagreeing that things are tough right now, but use relevant data, please.
 
Dunno about "excellent job security." I'm sure that's true in some offices, but in some jurisdictions the jobs are as volatile as local politics, especially at the chief level. A portion of FP jobs aren't true government jobs, though the government generally supplies the funding. As compared to other jobs for recent finishing residents/fellows, though, maybe it is.
 
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