Senior Year Pathology Rotations

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As I will be starting my pathology clerkship (finally!) on Monday and will be doing pathology for these two last months of school, I thought it may be a good idea to start this forum. It's kinda like the antithesis of the Official Anti-Clinical Medicine thread.

Anyways, maybe those of us doing path clerkships this year can reflect on our experiences. Of course, we can always spend 99% of our time bashing clinical medicine 🙂
 
I just finished up 2 months of surg path electives. My first month was pretty hands off but the residents usually gave me some simple cases to preview and sign out with the attendings. I was somewhat disappointed that I only got to help with a few gross specimens. I also got to observe some bone marrows and FNAs. At the end of this month I felt pretty comfortable with basic histology and with recognizing the more obvious carcinomas. Second month I was more like a resident and did all my own grossing and previewing and now feel very at home in the surg path environment. Also got some autopsy exposure, which was good. All in all, 2 months felt like enough time to get familiar with the basics. I unfortunately have 4 more months of clinical medicine that I am trying not to think about.
 
I wonder what the typical dress code is for a student on a pathology rotation? Clearly I won't be wearing shorts and a T-shirt with sandals.

Neck tie vs. bowtie vs. no tie?
Short white coat vs. no white coat?
Pager vs. no pager?
Stethoscope vs. no stethoscope? (just kidding on this one).
 
Bolo tie, fanny pack, sandals with dark socks, and fake ponytail (if you can't sport a real one)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


___________________________________________________________
"If there's one thing Dr. Atkins taught us, it's that we're all gonna die!"
Ruby Ann Boxcar-"Ruby Ann's Down Home Trailer Park Cookbook"
 
wear a nice short skirt with jeans on underneath them, to make sure you aren't showing too much skin. and a bowtie. and a fake moustache.

take 2 stethoscopes and hold a raffle to give them away.

do these things and your success will be grand!

seriously....my path rotation at northwestern was super chilled....i wore a tie every day, but other students didn't even do that.....short lab coat is good...
 
If you're truly going to be a pathologist you have to show up in a muscle shirt reading "CLINICAL MEDICINE SUX" on the front and a picture of you whipping a clinician with your stethoscope. And wear a ski hat.

I dunno, most students (male students) wear a shirt and tie. Some wear scrubs a lot. When I was at Mayo you had to wear a suit. I think you could wear an open collared shirt and get away with it, since that's what most of the attendings and some of the residents do.

I always used to go with, "more is better."
 
More conservative. Like, if you're debating whether you should wear the tie or not, then wear the tie, especially the first day. If you're debating on the nicer shoes or the trashy shoes, go with the nicer shoes.

I'm not saying you should wear MORE clothes, like adding in the gortex jacket and the moon boots.
 
yaah said:
More conservative. Like, if you're debating whether you should wear the tie or not, then wear the tie, especially the first day. If you're debating on the nicer shoes or the trashy shoes, go with the nicer shoes.

I'm not saying you should wear MORE clothes, like adding in the gortex jacket and the moon boots.
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Well shoot, I was just going to wear my favorite sock
 
Just bought some new shirts and tie. I also bought a blank T-shirt so that I can do my own design. On the front it will say, "Ninjas are sooooooo sweet I wanna crap my pants!" (http://www.cafepress.com/realninja/151). On the back it will say, "**** Clinical Medicine"

So tomorrow on my first day of path, I may wear the T-shirt underneath one of my dress-shirt. And what the heck...I'll even throw in a tie.
 
The faculty and residents at my school are pretty laid back, but I agree you could just start out with white coat and tie for the first day or so and just go from there. I would suggest keeping the pager. There were a lot of days on my rotation that I was told to go "get some coffee" for a while and they would page me when something good came up, etc.


__________________________________________________________
"If there's one thing Dr. Atkins taught us, it's that we're all gonna die!"
Ruby Ann Boxcar-"Ruby Ann's Down Home Trailer Park Cookbook"
 
Stinger86 said:
Well shoot, I was just going to wear my favorite sock
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You mean like, one sock, strategically-placed?

Brings back memories of that elective student from Dalhousie who said that for their medshow one year, three guys in full cowboy regalia stripped down to one sock each.

Heaven knows what it is about med school humour and nudity.

~
Hey!! yaah's and Andy's paths are finally about to cross!
cool-smiley-030.gif

Do let me know how that goes.
 
deschutes said:
Hey!! yaah's and Andy's paths are finally about to cross!
cool-smiley-030.gif

Do let me know how that goes.
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That is a possibility...it could happen...it may not happen. I'm signed up for pathology during the next two months actually and I set up a research project with a surgical pathologist. I don't know how my schedule will work out this month whether I will be doing mostly lab work in the research lab or spending considerable amount of time doing other path related stuff like cytopath, autopsy path, chemical path, etc. I get the impression that my daily activities will be quite variable and flexible and that I am the "master of my own destiny." I do intend on getting exposure to many different contexts during the path rotation though so who knows, we may run into each other.
 
deschutes said:
You mean like, one sock, strategically-placed?
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Yeah, think that'd make a good impression?

It could catch on. I think it's already popular with the patients in our VA psych ward
 
Well, my first day of the pathology clinical clerkship is over...and it was...

AWESOME.

Spent the day at the surgical path room looking at biopsy slides with residents at a 5 or 6-headed scope. Saw some interesting stuff and to be honest, many of that flew over my head. I actualy feel motivated to read now...I've never felt this way during any of the clinical rotations.
 
AndyMilonakis said:
my first day of the pathology clinical clerkship is over...and it was...

AWESOME.

I actualy feel motivated to read now...I've never felt this way during any of the clinical rotations.
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Most excellent news I've heard all day! Glad to hear you're enjoying yourself hard at work - you earned it!! 😉

Meanwhile I am getting all whoop-dee-doo excited about the CALM and RENAAL studies. I acquired a new attending for the 3rd time today and I think she likes people turning up with journal articles. Obviously I can't refuse.

Captopril? Ramipril? Lisinopril? Once a day? Twice a day? Whee.
 
All these memorably-acronymized trial names are reminding me - I saw a cool acronym today, for the Group for Research In Pathology Education...i.e. GRIPE.

And they say pathologists don't have a sense of humour!
 
deschutes said:
Most excellent news I've heard all day! Glad to hear you're enjoying yourself hard at work - you earned it!! 😉

Meanwhile I am getting all whoop-dee-doo excited about the CALM and RENAAL studies. I acquired a new attending for the 3rd time today and I think she likes people turning up with journal articles. Obviously I can't refuse.

Captopril? Ramipril? Lisinopril? Once a day? Twice a day? Whee.
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Actually I couldn't read...I just came back from the bar.

Maybe I'll get up in 6 hours and do some webpath just for kicks. My days don't start until 9 am. Quite a pleasant change.
 
AndyMilonakis said:
Actually I couldn't read...I just came back from the bar.
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Ha! That has a tendency to get in the way of the strongest resolve.

AndyMilonakis said:
My days don't start until 9 am. Quite a pleasant change.
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And when you get to the holidays, that will be even better.
"Dude, whaddaya mean I don't have to work today??"
 
deschutes said:
Ha! That has a tendency to get in the way of the strongest resolve.

And when you get to the holidays, that will be even better.
"Dude, whaddaya mean I don't have to work today??"
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And I have to go to a farewell party tomorrow night too...at the bar!

Honestly, I don't know how much studying I'll be able to do during this rotation. I mean I work from 9-5...then I head to my old lab after that. I did get some good webpath from 6:30 to 7:30 during an incubation/blocking step. Then I put that sh1t in the fridge and joined my friends at the bar.

Tomorrow, unfortunately, the drinking starts at 6:30 pm. So maybe another hour at most of path study. The nice thing though...is that the pathologists are more laid back. They don't pimp you. They invite you to ask questions. The surgical path signouts are basically a nice conversation/teaching session. Today's signout was pretty kickass...it's been a while since I looked at biopsy slides (my 2nd year of med school was back in 1999) so it was nice to get back into the swing of things again.
 
AndyMilonakis said:
I work from 9-5...then I head to my old lab after that. I did get some good webpath from 6:30 to 7:30 during an incubation/blocking step. Then I put that sh1t in the fridge and joined my friends at the bar.
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Sounds quite like the life of a resident I had envisioned!

AndyMilonakis said:
the pathologists are more laid back. They don't pimp you.
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...and if they do, they inevitably admit they were being nasty.
I worship the ground they walk on.
 
deschutes said:
Sounds quite like the life of a resident I had envisioned!

...and if they do, they inevitably admit they were being nasty.
I worship the ground they walk on.
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agreed...totally cool and extremely respectable folk.
 
The thought has crossed my mind that I am not going to win this battle of the posts against Andy-"Speedy Gonzales"-Milonakis of the 11.46 PPD average.
 
deschutes said:
The thought has crossed my mind that I am not going to win this battle of the posts against Andy-"Speedy Gonzales"-Milonakis of the 11.46 PPD average.
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This is a battle? I never thought of it as such.

And who said alcohol is a depressant?!?! Shananagans! (sp?).

The thought of my average # of posts usually doesn't enter my mind. My PPD is 11.46? I gotta check this out now. I wonder what my total # posts are. Maybe yaah is right, I may reach 1000 in 2 weeks.

Man, yaah is so wise.


ADDENDUM: I just saw that this post was my 600th. I feel more like a loser now...wait...who am I kidding? I AM a loser!

11.48 now
 
deschutes said:
Battle? Naw. Merry-go-round perhaps 😀
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I'm cool with dat.

Random point...I went on for almost 30 minutes tonight talking to my buddies about the importance of being a compassionate pathologist...treating each biopsy specimen and slide with tender love and care. Now that was a battle...them laughing at me versus me trying to keep a straight face.

I lost that battle.
 
AndyMilonakis said:
Well, my first day of the pathology clinical clerkship is over...and it was...

AWESOME.

Spent the day at the surgical path room looking at biopsy slides with residents at a 5 or 6-headed scope. Saw some interesting stuff and to be honest, many of that flew over my head. I actualy feel motivated to read now...I've never felt this way during any of the clinical rotations.
Click to expand...

Yeah I notice I didn't see you down here in the "Bowels" (severe pun intended) of the hospital. We had a nice case. Two of your compatriots were here. Massive liver failure, fluid overload. The suction catheter put in overtime duty because it sucked out over 10 litres of fluid.

Glad to hear you enjoyed your day though, more to come I would wager. Who did you see cases with? The residents change tomorrow on the 1st.
 
yaah said:
Yeah I notice I didn't see you down here in the "Bowels" (severe pun intended) of the hospital. We had a nice case. Two of your compatriots were here. Massive liver failure, fluid overload. The suction catheter put in overtime duty because it sucked out over 10 litres of fluid.

Glad to hear you enjoyed your day though, more to come I would wager. Who did you see cases with? The residents change tomorrow on the 1st.
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Yeah, I heard that story about that autopsy yesterday....fluid everywhere.

I'm in room 2 this week with Ramsburgh. Today and yesterday was a lot of fun...why could I have not done a path rotation a year ago?
 
Ramsburgh is great - do you know his story? Was a vascular surgeon for many years, then decided he wanted to do path and entered residency in his 50s at the same place (U of M) where he had been a top surgeon for many years. Now he does lots of teaching surg path to the residents.

A good question for people to ask on interviews, BTW - how often do you have conferences and what do they involve? Some places are notorious for good conferences - like at Brigham the residents all sit with Dr Fletcher (if you don't know who Fletcher is you will) almost every day. At U Chi they sit with Dr Krausz. At Michigan we have bi-weekly sessions with Ramsburgh and other sessions on a rotating fashion with others. These are great sessions. Dr Krausz apparently would ask residents to bring interesting cases and they would talk about whatever. It was tough to not rank that place higher...
 
yaah said:
At U Chi they sit with Dr Krausz. Dr Krausz apparently would ask residents to bring interesting cases and they would talk about whatever. It was tough to not rank that place higher...
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Dr. Krausz was here.
Kindness is always in fashion, and he was a truly fashionable man.
 
yaah said:
Ramsburgh is great - do you know his story? Was a vascular surgeon for many years, then decided he wanted to do path and entered residency in his 50s at the same place (U of M) where he had been a top surgeon for many years. Now he does lots of teaching surg path to the residents.
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Yeah, I know of his story. He actually was one of my histopath small group teachers when I was an M2 several yrs ago.

I agree, he's a really cool guy...there are some fun times to be had in room 2. 🙂
 
yaah said:
Only pathology is such a field that will distract Andy from these forums for 24 hours!
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That's right! I'm not on internal medicine no more! Woot Woot!

Another night of drinking for me. Yaah you gotta check out Weber's. If you go there, order the belgian ale, "La Cheuffe" or something like that. It's good sh1t.

Pathology is treating me well...Yaah, I saw that you were at the VA hospital this month. It's too bad we won't be running into each other.

Pathology is fun stuff. Working with Ramsburgh is awesome. I actually feel motivated to read surgical path on free time 🙂

What the hell have I been doing for the last 14 months!?!?!?!?! I wish I could've done pathology clinical rotation sooner.
 
I am not actually at the VA. My rotation is "VA autopsy" but there are very few VA autopsies. If you get one you go over, otherwise you are at university hospital and you do university autopsies, alternating cases with the person on there.

Thus I am around. I was kind of all over the place yesterday. Page me and we'll have lunch.
 
yaah said:
I am not actually at the VA. My rotation is "VA autopsy" but there are very few VA autopsies. If you get one you go over, otherwise you are at university hospital and you do university autopsies, alternating cases with the person on there.

Thus I am around. I was kind of all over the place yesterday. Page me and we'll have lunch.
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Gotcha...I'll be the lone student doing autopsy during the 3rd week this month. Perhaps we'll work with each other on a case or two.

P.S. sent you a PM
 
Just so you all know...I just met Andy. He's not making this up, he is a student here! What he doesn't know is that I have a hidden camera in my lapel, and his picture will soon be all over the internet, just like poor Teri Hatcher. 😉

Well, back to my festering leg amputations.
 
yaah said:
Just so you all know...I just met Andy. He's not making this up, he is a student here! What he doesn't know is that I have a hidden camera in my lapel, and his picture will soon be all over the internet, just like poor Teri Hatcher. 😉

Well, back to my festering leg amputations.
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Yes, clearly I wasn't making that up. And as yaah found out in person today, I am truly the clinical medicine hating medical student I make myself out to be on these forums.

In any case, it was a pleasure to meet yaah in person. He DOES wear daddy pants into the hospital...no lie.

Now it's weird having you call me Andy. Well anonymity on the internet is a beautiful thing...alter egos I guess.

What yaah doesn't know is that "Andy" is an expert thief...that camera is in my possession. And when Andy starts referring to himself in the 3rd person, Andy's blood alcohol level has gotten way too low. This is gonna have to be mended.

Go Blue!
 
deschutes said:
Those meets are fun! It's curious how one's perception of another person based on their online presence can be so right-on in some ways and so wildly inaccurate in others.
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yeah i must agree. although, i felt like i was like 4 foot 2 when i met him in real person (i'm really 5 foot 4).

you know? if you come interview at michigan (did you apply?) we should all have lunch or something. we can shoot da sh1t about random stuff.

my perception of yaah online doesn't differ much from my perception of him in real life...unless he's hiding some dirty secrets 😛
 
AndyMilonakis said:
i felt like i was like 4 foot 2 when i met him in real person (i'm really 5 foot 4). if you come interview at michigan (did you apply?) we should all have lunch or something.
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I'm 5' 1". I probably reach to his belly button.

Just kidding. Great idea! If I make it there. UMich was not one of my first 11. But I am planning to apply - I remembered from last year that they didn't start downloading until November.

AndyMilonakis said:
My perception of yaah online doesn't differ much from my perception of him in real life...unless he's hiding some dirty secrets 😛
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Yes, but we have the unfair advantage of being able to crawl all over his diary.

Speaking of diary, yaah... regular HTML uses the arrow brackets < >, not the squares [] - it's just the SDN forums that are a little different.
To italicize in regular HTML you would type "< i >" and "< / i >" (without the spaces in between) on both sides of your word.
 
deschutes said:
I'm 5' 1". I probably reach to his belly button.
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nope try again.

deschutes said:
Just kidding. Great idea! If I make it there. UMich was not one of my first 11. But I am planning to apply - I remembered from last year that they didn't start downloading until November.
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well get on that sh1t!!! apply now! waitaminute...who am I to talk, I still haven't applied yet. i gotta get on that...time to put DOWN the beer and get my ERAS on!

deschutes said:
Yes, but we have the unfair advantage of being able to crawl all over his diary.
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yes his anonymity has been compromised. well i guess mine has too kinda...
 
yaah said:
Just so you all know...I just met Andy. He's not making this up, he is a student here! What he doesn't know is that I have a hidden camera in my lapel, and his picture will soon be all over the internet, just like poor Teri Hatcher. 😉
Click to expand...

waitaminute...i just caught this in passing...what happened to teri hatcher?
 
AndyMilonakis said:
nope try again.
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Don't be silly. yaah's belly button is 6' 5" - 5' 1" = 1' 4" from the top of his head.

Why the hell am I doing subtractions in imperial post-call.
AndyMilonakis said:
yes his anonymity has been compromised.
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I think what you mean to say is - he compromised his anonymity.
 
deschutes said:
Don't be silly. yaah's belly button is 6' 5" - 5' 1" = 1' 4" from the top of his head.

Why the hell am I doing subtractions in imperial post-call.
I think what you mean to say is - he compromised his anonymity.
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Even better question, why do you even remember how to subtract? I thought medicine was supposed to dumb a person down so far as to make him/her forget all elementary math.

OK...you win...he compromised his anonymity. Happy?

Enjoy call...hope it goes by quickly and painlessly.
 
AndyMilonakis said:
waitaminute...i just caught this in passing...what happened to teri hatcher?
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She had some pics get plastered all over the internet a few years ago, if I remember right. When she was on that Superman show. She became very popular because of the internet pics, so I guess maybe it wasn't too bad for her. She probably orchestrated the whole thing.

p.s. anonymity is overrated. Nobody cares anyway.
 
yaah said:
p.s. anonymity is overrated. Nobody cares anyway.
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The problem with anonymity is that once you lose it, it is difficult to get back - for the few times that it may be better to have. I tend to err on the side of caution, at least for now - until the point where I have acquired enough sense +/- maturity +/- comfort with my station in life to not care what people think of me.

Check this out. It doesn't know very much about yaah or stormjen, but it tells me that Andy Milonakis is a gay date.
 
deschutes said:
The problem with anonymity is that once you lose it, it is difficult to get back - for the few times that it may be better to have. I tend to err on the side of caution, at least for now - until the point where I have acquired enough sense +/- maturity +/- comfort with my station in life to not care what people think of me.

Check this out. It doesn't know very much about yaah or stormjen, but it tells me that Andy Milonakis is a gay date.
Click to expand...

deschutes is free
deschutes is any time
deschutes is forgiving and enjoyable :laugh:
deschutes is a little different here 👍

hey deschutes...it's on! Bring it!
 
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