Which programs are known to be more laid back?

[TheSeanieB]

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I have heard that some pathology programs are 40 hours a week and not very stressful. While some will work you to death. Can anyone provide some specifics on the reality of their program?

 

[mlw03]

I hear Johns Hopkins is a pretty chill place. UCSF and the Harvard-affiliated programs too.

 

[stickyshift]

I have heard that some pathology programs are 40 hours a week and not very stressful. While some will work you to death. Can anyone provide some specifics on the reality of their program?

Yeah, Wash U is also pretty laid back. You'd love it there!

 

[2121115]

I have heard that some pathology programs are 40 hours a week and not very stressful. While some will work you to death. Can anyone provide some specifics on the reality of their program?

A residency that is "40 hours a week and not very stressful" will get you an attending job that is "more than 40 hours per week and very stressful", and vice versa is true as well.

 

[pathstudent]

I hear Johns Hopkins is a pretty chill place. UCSF and the Harvard-affiliated programs too.

Well there are cultural differences between programs even amongst those you listed above. It is about ten years ago now, but when I interviewed at MGH, at the lunch with the residents, they proudly stated that they would stay at the hospital until 10pm and then return at 3am on some of the AP rotations. While at Brigham the residents stated they had a bit more of a balance in their lives than their counterparts at MGH

I did a surgpath rotation at UCSF and I don't remember any residents implying they lived at their desks/gross room.

 

[yaah]

"work you to death" is more than a slight amount of hyperbole. It used to be that the programs with the most excessive workloads and expectations had residents working 16 hours a day (sometimes more) but now the "malignant" programs are probably more like 12 hours a day. There really aren't any more programs that I know of that I would consider "malignant," unless you are talking about attending-resident interactions and environment, things like that. Work hours not so much. Some of this has come about because of the ACGME work hours policies, some because of just general attitudes changing, some because programs are hiring more PAs, some because the good candidates stop accepting it as a prerequisite. But I think now we have to be careful about going to far in the other direction. 40 hours a week for residency seems rather weak to me.

 

[deleted314957]

I have heard that some pathology programs are 40 hours a week and not very stressful. While some will work you to death. Can anyone provide some specifics on the reality of their program?

never let any clinical colleagues (surgeons, IM, ob/gyn) hear you complain about hours.

 

[moosepatrol77]

I have heard that some pathology programs are 40 hours a week and not very stressful. While some will work you to death. Can anyone provide some specifics on the reality of their program?

There are less stressful programs out there, but definitely do your homework. If you want to practice surgical pathology, places with <15,000 specimens might be more laid back, but your training will certainly suffer.

 

[DermViser]

A residency that is "40 hours a week and not very stressful" will get you an attending job that is "more than 40 hours per week and very stressful", and vice versa is true as well.

But doesn't the name carry a lot of weight in Pathology? Hence even though they're only "40 hrs a week" supposedly: UCSF, Harvard, Hopkins, etc. are big names that will get you a good job. Or do you mean, you'll be so unprepared as an attending, it will take you >40 hrs. per week once you're out of residency?

 

[smallcat]

I understand the concern, and working 100+ hours a week grossing specimens without having a chance to push glass is certainly not good for anyone's learning, but... your question makes you sound kind of lazy. I hope you phrase it differently when you are interviewing.

 

[Substance]

Aren't there something like 10 programs worth attending? Regardless of hours, I think it would be in the OPs best interest to attend one of those programs. If they're an AMG they can probably do so without much difficulty. If an IMG, then I guess it doesn't really matter.
Two pieces of advice from someone without a clue:

1. Don't go to any New York programs. They're IMG heavy scut factories.
2. Check out my gross-horse programs post on this forum - there's a good list of programs to avoid there. It was making some headway until one particular questionably sane poster decided to hijack it with the ramblings of a hate-fueled vendetta.