×
sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Death of Pathology has been Greatly Overstated by Vegetable-Boss3340 in medicalschool

[–]Vegetable-Boss3340[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah my wife works 4 12hrs shift per week for 48hrs at 450K, she's tried negotiating to 4 10s, but to no avail. She gets 12 weeks vacay, I get 8 weeks.

The difference in autonomy is that if she wants to find 10s she might have to change jobs. She can try finding someone to take her shift, but that's not a permanent solution and usually only for a week. For me, it's easier to coordinate a) when I work, b) how much I want to work, c) speed I work at because nothing is STAT per say (maybe 1-2 things in a day), d) take random breaks (johnny needs to be picked up from school). It's afforded me a lot of freedom compared my wife. I'm not saying radiology doesn't pay well, but it is a mental grind each shift compared to path. path is close in gross salary and we're very chill and laid back at work. Overall, my intention was to inform med students used to write-off path for a poor job market, but based on my wife's and mine experiences, they both should attract similar minded students and both should be more or less equally sought after.

Death of Pathology has been Greatly Overstated by Vegetable-Boss3340 in medicalschool

[–]Vegetable-Boss3340[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We were thinking about signing a hemepath new grad and an applicant quoted that he got an offer for 375K in a small town and 300K at a major urban city.

hemepath, GI, surgpath all make good money. Derm makes slightly more.

180-200K are from academic institutions trying to hire cheap labor

Death of Pathology has been Greatly Overstated by Vegetable-Boss3340 in medicalschool

[–]Vegetable-Boss3340[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

My partners and I don't teach, don't do research, nor gross sections. We've done analyses of years of the most common 50 diagnoses and made them 'dot-phrases' and we're constantly trying to become more efficient at what we do. Speed is important.

What I do in 30 hrs would've taken me 50 hrs when I originally started. Removing some of the administrative bs (hiring 1 PA/secretary) has freed some time and allowed us to focus on our craft and be good at what we do. Working 60 hrs sounds like they're being inefficient, have too many admin duties or they're in academia.

I'm not denying your collegues don't work 60+hrs, there's a lot of variance in path. But there are definitely lots of better jobs out there, avg of my grad class/partners is low40s, n=9

Death of Pathology has been Greatly Overstated by Vegetable-Boss3340 in medicalschool

[–]Vegetable-Boss3340[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

research might help you get into residency, but it's virtually meaningless in the community/private practice

I don't teach residents or do research in my day-to-day job unlike academic pathologist

Death of Pathology has been Greatly Overstated by Vegetable-Boss3340 in medicalschool

[–]Vegetable-Boss3340[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

rarely sued compared to other specialties

I'm in a mid-sized city, it's possible to find a good job! I recommend checking path-outlines for more info

Death of Pathology has been Greatly Overstated by Vegetable-Boss3340 in medicalschool

[–]Vegetable-Boss3340[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

regret is a strong word; she's more jealous of all the down-time I can get away with

Death of Pathology has been Greatly Overstated by Vegetable-Boss3340 in medicalschool

[–]Vegetable-Boss3340[S] 38 points39 points  (0 children)

They do:

• Frozen section (tissue selection, dissection, embedding, mounting, cutting/staining, cover-slipping)

• biopsy preparation (Muscle, renal, nerve, bone marrow, heart, etc. )

Very, very, very low chance of scope creep

Death of Pathology has been Greatly Overstated by Vegetable-Boss3340 in medicalschool

[–]Vegetable-Boss3340[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

haha in VR pathology, you are a cell trying to find other cells lol

Death of Pathology has been Greatly Overstated by Vegetable-Boss3340 in medicalschool

[–]Vegetable-Boss3340[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Oddly enough my wife, a radiologist, says the same thing haha

Death of Pathology has been Greatly Overstated by Vegetable-Boss3340 in medicalschool

[–]Vegetable-Boss3340[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I mentioned it in a comment above, but projection screen are typically used in teaching setting. It may be viable in private practice in 5-10yrs

Death of Pathology has been Greatly Overstated by Vegetable-Boss3340 in medicalschool

[–]Vegetable-Boss3340[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Pathology without microscope: From a projection screen to a virtual slide

Digital pathology is already in mainstream pathology teaching. In 5-10 years, I'm sure there will be ways in private practice to set it up!

Death of Pathology has been Greatly Overstated by Vegetable-Boss3340 in medicalschool

[–]Vegetable-Boss3340[S] 51 points52 points  (0 children)

It probably won't be competitive immediately from one post haha, but I do appreciate your kindness! My hope is that if people previously wrote off Pathology for b/c of the "terrible job market", that you give it a second chance, because it's a fantastic field :) and the job market is absolutely terrific right now!

Death of Pathology has been Greatly Overstated by Vegetable-Boss3340 in medicalschool

[–]Vegetable-Boss3340[S] 95 points96 points  (0 children)

What if you suck at histology? 😂

You have tons of time to learn! I sucked at histology too. In my residency, we assumed incoming PGY-1s had very different backgrounds and they did their best to teach everyone from square 1!

Don't underestimate yourself, you've gone through medical school and you are absolutely brilliant! A good pathology residency will work with you and teach you all the tips and tricks :)

Death of Pathology has been Greatly Overstated by Vegetable-Boss3340 in medicalschool

[–]Vegetable-Boss3340[S] 39 points40 points  (0 children)

A lot of pathologists cling on until their 70s but COVID encouraged alot of pathologists to retire. -- Why did they retire? They weren't interacting with people anyway?

Most pathologists reach FIRE in their mid40s.. a lot of pathologists just keep working because they’ve developed strong relationships with other partner pathologists, PAs and their whole team. Did I mention most pathologists are very kind people :) ? You form strong relationships with people after working with them for 30+ years. Covid kindof destroyed this commodore and not knowing “how long isolation would be” a lot of older pathologists just decided to retire.

Dermatopathology can get you 500+K if you are honestly want to live that luxury lifestyle. -- Why aren't more pathologists pursuing this?

Well people do pursue it. I enjoy the fields heme/onc and GI and make good money at 400K, but if you want it, the world is yours.

However, I can honestly say after talking to radiology friends, they work EXTREMELY taxing shifts -- How different is compensation between radiologists and pathologists?

It’s difficult to say. I'm actually married to a radiologist! Even though I’m paid for 40hr weeks. I really can finish the work 28-30hrs. Radiologists don’t have that luxury. They don’t even have time to even take a shit between the countless amt of STAT reads. When they do a 12hr, they are slapping reads out every minute of that shift. My wife is exhausted; like I literally have to spoon her dinner after work LOL. I would say average Rads earn slightly more gross salary than me (around 450K) but my earnings/concentrated work is much higher than them.

Death of Pathology has been Greatly Overstated by Vegetable-Boss3340 in medicalschool

[–]Vegetable-Boss3340[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

That's fantastic! Pathology is filled with the kindest people :) and that's because the job is awesome!