Resident Perspective

[Autopsy101]

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I am looking for some different resident perspectives. What tasks are you asked to perform in your pathology residency duties that you view as not educational or "scut work"? How do you respond when attendings ask you to perform a task that is "scut work"? Is there any policy in place at your institution to minimize "scut work"? Thanks in advance for the insight.

 

[KCShaw]

Maybe I was fortunate, or maybe I'm just a year or two too far removed to remember. At one of our associated institutions residents were expected to perform cassette labeling and some other secretarial/tech oriented tasks while the techs played on the internet and the secretaries..well, who knows what the hell they were doing. The attendings pretty much took it up the neener too, in part because they were weak willed despite a couple being otherwise talented pathologists, and in part because they were tired of fighting The Establishment. (FWIW this has been a recurring theme in state or federal government managed places I've trained/worked.) Unfortunately we needed the extra institution for money & training positions, so home base encouraged us to suck it up.

I don't recall any specific anti-scut policies at any of the places I trained, beyond highlighting secretarial, tech, and resident/fellow job descriptions. I do recall there being a resident or three around at all times who were willing to tell an attending to go to hell if they asked them to do something particularly useless..but I don't recall that happening terribly often. For the most part, gruntwork I was asked to do had at least a little educational value or a strong link to real-world-job necessity (such as noting appropriate billing codes per case), and didn't really hamper my ability to stay involved in high-yield activities. Personally.

 

[lipomas]

I'm not a resident anymore but when I was, opinions on this were quite varied. For some residents, asking them to do ANYTHING qualified as scut. Gross a colon? Scut! Take call? Scut! Go show this fascinating case to the GI expert? Scut! Cut this frozen for me? Scut! Some even considered previewing cases as scut. Not surprisingly, some of these residents then had trouble finding good jobs.

To me, "scut" was stuff that is unnecessary for residents to have to do and adds nothing to your learning. Grossing endocopy biopsies (although it is important to learn how to do this to see how things get done). Collating paperwork. Delivering slides. Cleaning up the morgue. Making phone calls for attendings. Faxing things.

I tended to find that if you were repeatedly having to do something worthless or that was someone else's job (doing it once was usually just a coincidence), it was a result of some systematic problem or the like. Thus, complaining about it is just whining. Find out why you had to do it and propose a solution. If you are labeling cassettes then take notes, go to the program director, and demonstrate that you spent 45 minutes each day labeling casettes instead of learning. And show them that someone who could be doing this was wasting time that could be better served labeling. Present solutions, don't present problems.

 

[Torsed]

I'm in my fellowship now, but during residency, I considered scut work type stuff like making your own cassettes, fetching slides from immunohistochemistry staff because they were to lazy to walk them to you, and putting together all the protocols, etc. I have no idea why residents have to do the common worker's tasks, but it was always one of those things that one just did to get through the day and attempt to get out of the warzone at a reasonable hour. I'm certain everyone here knows what happens if you attempt to get lazy workers to do a smidgen of extra work.

I wouldn't call grossing scut, maybe 50 GI biopsies perhaps could be considered scut, but hey! Thats part of the magic of residency. I used to get ticked off about it all, but I guess my memories of some of the idiotic tasks of residency fade and just chuckle now when those left behind gripe and whine about things.

I used to complain about how many presenations I had to do as a resident and then I got to fellowship and it was like Tumor board on crack cocaine with the number of cases.

My suggestion is just keep that flask of vodka in your back pocket, plow through residency and then break away into that green pasture of being done with it all, all after a little 2 day vacation to Tampa of course.

 

[KCShaw]

..snip..
I tended to find that if you were repeatedly having to do something worthless or that was someone else's job (doing it once was usually just a coincidence), it was a result of some systematic problem or the like. Thus, complaining about it is just whining. Find out why you had to do it and propose a solution. If you are labeling cassettes then take notes, go to the program director, and demonstrate that you spent 45 minutes each day labeling casettes instead of learning. And show them that someone who could be doing this was wasting time that could be better served labeling. Present solutions, don't present problems.

Good point, and generally true in my experience as well. The pessimist in me would suggest that a PD/chair who treats you like a whiner for pointing out problems and not acting except to take credit for a fix you lay in their lap, is the source of the systematic problem(s). Generally those in power may prefer to back and reap the rewards rather than deal with problems like enforcing the lazy or habitual into working or changing their habits. Nevertheless, knowing this or complaining about it rarely gets anything accomplished by itself.

Also generally agree that most scut-like work I recall was stuff secretaries &/or techs typically should have been doing. And that work does not equal scut per se; just because it isn't enjoyable or have a clearly educational role doesn't mean it isn't relevant to the job you may be complaining isn't out there when you finish.

 

[Autopsy101]

Thanks for all the posts about your experiences. I am just trying to judge if the tasks I expect residents that I work with to complete are of educational value. I am feeling a little "out of touch" with the resident perspective. Thanks for the insight.