Residency Programs with Mostly General Pathologists: Good or Bad?

[Unty]

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I was wondering if someone can give me an opinion in regards to residency programs that have mostly general pathologists as attendings (or pathologists who call themselves GI pathologists when they never did a fellowship) vs. programs which have pathologists who have done a fellowship in their particular area or to the extreme, have experts in-house?

Does signing out with general pathologists result in poor training? Yes, I think if you have a pathologist who has done a fellowship in his/her area that would be better when it comes to teaching vs. a general pathologist.

Just wanted to know everyone's opinion in regards to this...

I guess the best case scenario would be attendings who love to teach and are experts in their respective fields, but that is not always possible in every program.

 

[mcfaddens]

I was wondering if someone can give me an opinion in regards to residency programs that have mostly general pathologists as attendings (or pathologists who call themselves GI pathologists when they never did a fellowship) vs. programs which have pathologists who have done a fellowship in their particular area or to the extreme, have experts in-house?

Does signing out with general pathologists result in poor training? Yes, I think if you have a pathologist who has done a fellowship in his/her area that would be better when it comes to teaching vs. a general pathologist.

Just wanted to know everyone's opinion in regards to this...

I guess the best case scenario would be attendings who love to teach and are experts in their respective fields, but that is not always possible in every program.

Once again this whole fellowship training does not make someone a superior diagnostician. Your training is to become a general pathologist rarely will you work in an environment where all you do is lets say heme for example.
The major concern for you is finding a place where the attendings take time to teach you, thats all. They dont need to be experts in their field, many "experts" are not always good teachers. Time and experience trump all fellowships. By the way GI is general path and there is no board exam for GI pathology and many of the gurus in the field probably didnt do a GI specific fellowship. Out in practice with or without a fellowship when making a rare or controversial diagnosis you will always get a second opinion regardless of your training. So again find a place where the attendings will take their time with you, teach you, and kick your butt if necessary to train you to read glass. Thats it the rest is up to you.

 

[Pathoresident]

That's true. All what you need is pathologists who teach you how to approach the sldies "teaching on the microscope".

 

[112641]

For residency all you need is good teachers who know good general pathology, they will not be able to exhaust what you could reasonably learn in 4 years.

Unless you know or have a strong feeling what your subspecialty (if you're going to have one) is going to be. Then it may be important to at least have one well connected BC or fellowship trained person in what you're interested in at your program.

 

[Gyric]

Go someplace with “famous” surgical pathologists (not necessarily fellowship trained); these are the experts who are routinely consulted by community pathologists for their opinion on problem cases (i.e. they have their own personal consult service). These pathologists tend to be excellent in all areas of surgical pathology, are good teachers, have great material, and can set you up in an excellent job/fellowship, if you impress them. There is no real difference beyond that.

 

[2121115]

So again find a place where the attendings will take their time with you, teach you, and kick your butt if necessary to train you to read glass. Thats it the rest is up to you.

This pretty much sums it up completely. Do not go to a program where the attendings and/or the general environment lets you slack off. Not saying find someplace malignant, but invariably at some point in residency you'll need an attending to kick your tail and hold your feet to the fire because you will get tired/complacent/distracted at some point. Its not pleasant when it happens, but its necessary and you'll thank them later.

Fellowship training of the attendings, particularly the older attendings is less important or even a non-factor.