Why does pathology not require an intern year?

[odyssey2]

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Always curious about this. Is this just an accident of history or are there good reasons for why pathologists don’t need to do a prelim year while the rest of us poor dermatologists, radiologists, anesthesiologists, etc, do?

 

[dr4n6]

Up until about 15 years ago pathology residencies did require a clinical year. The nature of that clinical year was rather loosely defined however and most of us were able to substitute clinically oriented pathology electives, amongst other options, for doing a proper internship if someone did not wish to do a formal internship.

 

[KeratinPearls]

Always curious about this. Is this just an accident of history or are there good reasons for why pathologists don’t need to do a prelim year while the rest of us poor dermatologists, radiologists, anesthesiologists, etc, do?

Poor dermatologists, anesthesiologists and radiologists 😂 ?

 

[deleted314957]

Back when they were required (which was a good idea) you could not duck doing a “real” internship if you went the military route.

My experience is that a real internship with or without following practice gives the standard pathologist more “ street cred”

 

[SunBakedTrash]

Also would be nice to have it as a QC mechanism. It could certainly weed out some of the more troublesome participants in our specialty. Right now all you need is a pulse. I don’t even think you need to show an interest anymore, a good bunch who interviewed at my old program would openly state they were not able to match IM.

 

[LADoc00]

It did once. It was dropped not because it was thought to be not useful for the practice of pathology but simply due to the fact there was NO ROOM anymore and we were low man on the totem pole for GME.