which sub-I would be best?

[beary]

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Hey gang,
Which sub-I do you think is the best preparation for pathology residency? Like many here, I certainly am no fan of life on the wards so part of me wants to do something less time-intensive but non-useful like reproductive endocrinology. While I certainly don't like the idea of more time on the medicine/peds floors or the OR, I can see that this may have more relevance to a path career. What did you folks do? Thanks!

PS - Why don't they have pathology sub-Is?

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Hey gang,
Which sub-I do you think is the best preparation for pathology residency? Like many here, I certainly am no fan of life on the wards so part of me wants to do something less time-intensive but non-useful like reproductive endocrinology. While I certainly don't like the idea of more time on the medicine/peds floors or the OR, I can see that this may have more relevance to a path career. What did you folks do? Thanks!

PS - Why don't they have pathology sub-Is?

They should have pathology sub-Is damnit! 😡

I did two sub-I months in IM. Here we have to do a general/subspecialty teams month and also an ICU/CCU month. These months were painful (actually CCU month was pretty chill) and I was so glad when they were over. Personally I don't think sub-I's provide any significantly more preparation for pathology in compared to non sub-I clinical rotations.

If you want to do something less time-intensive during your sub-I months, I suggest doing surgery sub-I months LATE in the 4th year. I don't know about your school but here, if you do surgery sub-I's between February and May and you tell your chief that you are NOT going into surgery, you get to go home everyday at a very reasonable hour (like noon on some days) and don't have to take call.

 

[yaah]

There really isn't a specific sub I that is going to "prepare" you for pathology. Almost all of them will be instructive in some way. Just do something you like, that way you will learn more. You will see enough surgical specimens during residency, don't necessarily worry about doing surgery just to see this. Although, if it fascinates you and helps you to see how operations are done and how the specimens are provided, knock yourself out. I always thought a surgical oncology month might have been interesting and instructive, but wasn't that enthused about it. I learned a lot on Gyn-Onc though.

The one sub-I that won't teach you much pathology is probably pediatrics.

 

[cytoborg]

You can do a reproductive endocrinology sub-i??? Jeez, I think I went to the wrong school. 😉 IM, surg, peds, or OB/GYN for us! I picked IM because of the focus on pathophys so some of it is remotely useful to path. I considered surg, but in reality the sub-i would be mostly scut, and not treatment decisions (i.e. the path showed x so we'll do procedure y, which is the actual interesting stuff, right?). I did it at a community hospital that has a rep for being less intensive. I also did it in Nov. after the rush of sub-i's, like Andy said. However I wouldn't wait until spring to do the sub-i just because I wouldn't want something like IM hanging over my head that late in the year when I'd rather be doing fun stuff.

As an aside - ironically I got an attending who didn't give a crap about all the potentially path-related stuff in IM...all he wanted to talk about was diastolic dysfunction, wedge pressures, and side effects of cardiac drugs. 😡

 

[yaah]

all he wanted to talk about was diastolic dysfunction, wedge pressures, and side effects of cardiac drugs. 😡

Only thing worse that that triad is the phrase that always sent me screaming and running away in terror: PULMONARY FUNCTION TESTS.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Only thing worse that that triad is the phrase that always sent me screaming and running away in terror: PULMONARY FUNCTION TESTS.

the 3 words that did it to me was: EVIDENCE BASED MEDICINE.

 

[SLUsagar]

Hey gang,
Which sub-I do you think is the best preparation for pathology residency? Like many here, I certainly am no fan of life on the wards so part of me wants to do something less time-intensive but non-useful like reproductive endocrinology. While I certainly don't like the idea of more time on the medicine/peds floors or the OR, I can see that this may have more relevance to a path career. What did you folks do? Thanks!

PS - Why don't they have pathology sub-Is?

agree with others in choosing IM sub-I over peds, and def. psych.

see if your school offers a HEME-ONC subI, as mine did...(i ended up choosing IM b/c the hospital i'd rotate at was a breeze, and of course, b/c they gave $18 per day for food).

 

[Patholo-gyst]

I'd take IM. You need to know all kinds of things about all kinds of diseases for path, and IM will help you there (as would just about any other sub-I, really). My real reason for choosing IM, though, is that it's good general preparation for Step III, and in pathology it can help to have some extra Step III-subject review since you won't be getting much in residency. My advice would be to do something like IM and then take Step III as soon as possible to get it out of the way. Good luck!

 

[Pookies]

I just started 4 weeks of 12 hour days in surgical Onc. I believe it will help. The attendings know I am doing pathology and they are very helpful.

 

[deschutes]

the 3 words that did it to me was: EVIDENCE BASED MEDICINE.

Guess what I saw today? Headline in a medical newsletter: "Inappropriate prescribing in the wake of recently-published clinical trials". The vagaries of the well-informed decision-maker...

 

[LADoc00]

Heme Onc., medical onc, nuclear medicine, radiology and surgical onc are all solid. I would throw in forensics to see early if that is your cup of tea or not mainly because they want applicants for the fellowship 3 years in advance and many residents may not have rotated at the ME by then.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Guess what I saw today? Headline in a medical newsletter: "Inappropriate prescribing in the wake of recently-published clinical trials". The vagaries of the well-informed decision-maker...

YEs...these are the folks who hated reading during med school and who hate reading now