A mind is a terrible thing to waste

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roygbasch

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Anyone out there doing path after switching residencies (more common) or after finishing in another specialty (probably much less common)? If so, how are things working out for you? I like basic science and reading medicine but practicing it has grown stale, to say the least. I'm considering the RAP (rads,anesth,path) and like things about each. I didn't really enjoy histo or path class in med school, but from reading this forum, it looks like that doesn't mean I wouldn't enjoy path as a career. I think I would like the thought process involved, but I am concerned about mastering the "fund of knowledge" of path. It seems intimidating, lots of classification and memorization. Path people seem laid back, interesting, and pretty balanced as best I can tell. Not too many gunner types, lots of PhD's though--what's up with that?

Also, is it true about the aesthetic qualities of path? Surely you recall mindy's fantastic, slightly erotic post--if not, I offer a short exerpt:

"There is a pleasant aesthetic to the swirling of pinks and blues on a slide with a mysterious encrypted message waiting for the right person to be able to read it. Pathology is for people who like mysteries, codes, and a little bit of voodoo magic. It is for people who have a reflective meditative side hidden underneath their obsessive compulsive personality. Pathology is the field for the artists and dreamers who carry themselves with cold hard scientific scrutiny. If you sit down at a microscope and find you can make some sense out of the tissue in front of you, and you find pleasure knowing that most people can't (i.e. no critiques from armchair pathologists), and you like the unobtrusive intimacy slides and specimens provide, then maybe the field is for you. "

Wow. Thanks for any info.
 
roygbasch said:
Anyone out there doing path after switching residencies (more common) or after finishing in another specialty (probably much less common)?
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Have posted my story here-w/out re-duplicating it in toto, now in Path rez after 19 yr.of FP. PM me if you want more details, etc.
 
roygbasch said:
Surely you recall mindy's fantastic, slightly erotic post--if not, I offer a short exerpt:

"There is a pleasant aesthetic to the swirling of pinks and blues on a slide with a mysterious encrypted message waiting for the right person to be able to read it. Pathology is for people who like mysteries, codes, and a little bit of voodoo magic. It is for people who have a reflective meditative side hidden underneath their obsessive compulsive personality. Pathology is the field for the artists and dreamers who carry themselves with cold hard scientific scrutiny. If you sit down at a microscope and find you can make some sense out of the tissue in front of you, and you find pleasure knowing that most people can't (i.e. no critiques from armchair pathologists), and you like the unobtrusive intimacy slides and specimens provide, then maybe the field is for you. "

Wow. Thanks for any info.
Click to expand...

Mindy needs to lay off the psychedelics. Only the neophyte would romanticize ANY aspect of medicine like. Trust me this shiat is a job and by large can be fairly boring especially once you start grinding it out in real world. Im not a big fan of residency switches unless you are fairly early in your training or really really unhappy (which may not change even if you do make the switch).

Is this how MGH residents see the world?
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