Absolutely I'm willing to do a wide range of pathology. I'm comfortable with frozens, head/neck, cytology, GI, G/U, etc. I realize that doing only one thing is probably a pipe-dream. And I wouldn't want to do only one thing forever anyway. I genuinely enjoy looking at slides from all parts of the body to keep fresh (except brain, neuropath I probably would opt out of). In the right job situation I'd be willing to do autopsy if techs were provided to help eviscerate quickly. I'm doing these two fellowships to strengthen my marketability in addition to my general surg path skills. On the surface , derm and heme may seem to exist on separate planes of existence, but there are a lot of clinical and histologic overlaps (not just cutaneous lymphomas), plus it's boardable which may or may not mean anything to anybody. On that note, what other fellowship would be an appropriate combo with derm? Surg path? Other than soft tissue, vulvar GYN, and some superficial head/neck stuff there isn't a lot of intersection other than having diversified skills in addition to dermpath for a large practice of course. I could name almost any fellowship and someone would say its a strange complement to dermpath ie. cyto/derm, GI/derm, transfusion/derm. For many people, they have to delay a start to dermpath fellowship because there is sometimes a 3-year wait, so you gotta do SOMETHING in that gap year, why not choose another favorite. Furthermore, almost everyone in my class and in recent years is doing two. When it came down to it, I decided on hemepath as a second year because I really liked it, plus I have a special place in my heart for Wright stains.
To answer your question smallcat, I haven't started the job search yet, just tapping into general sentiments and polling the blog. I start fellowship in July, so may not be in your immediate timeline for your practice needs, but feel free to private message me if you want to chat more! I'm flexible geographically, looking in west coast, midwest, southwest, southeast. Will probably call around to cities in these places once I start fellowship to see what places could possibly use me in a year or two. Maybe one of my mentors will be able to connect me, who knows?? I'm jealous of my clinical friends who get daily emails offering them jobs. I was having a beer with an ENT resident friend who said he already has job contract lined up for 2016; I switched to bourbon.
Thanks to everyone who has given their input thus far! I opened myself to this, so please feel free to blast me! I'd rather be hardened and calloused to the coming pain of the Pathology job market than soft with a spirit that is easily broken.
