My comment was suggesting that if people are miserable in pathology, they should take their own advice and make the transition to a different specialty rather than hijack every single post, including ones from medical students, with fLeE pAtHoLoGy nOW!!!!!11!!!
The flee pathology posts are of the past. Thrombus, Drifter are mainly gone. The pathologists that do post on here including myself have recommended any other specialty (see Derm vs Path thread or the Rads. Vs Path threads) over pathology, except internal med (primary care) and family medicine. But if you are choosing path over a clinical medicine oriented field you shouldn’t be in pathology anyways.
The main reason I wouldn’t recommend path, at least for me based on my own experience, are limited number of jobs locally and depressed salaries comparable to primary care after 6 years of training.
To tell someone “to go to a different specialty” despite admitting there is a significant problem in path (see below)-oversupply-makes no sense. Maybe you should realize that the complaints on here are valid and you just admitted the problem. So instead of telling people to “go to a different specialty” maybe you should realize, yes, we got a problem and I understand where we are coming from.
Pathology needs more good people not less and the tactic of scaring away talent does nothing but attract the desperate and maladjusted personalities.
You want good people aka strong candidates? Then solve the problem which is oversupply. Limit the number of graduating trainees (aka like “dermatology) so each trainee that graduates is treated like a golden nugget not a low paid professional who comes out to a job market that values you at 200-260k a year and you got fight for a job if you are geographically restricted.
Make the field stronger, end fellowship roulette, collectively shun garbage jobs and let the problem types drive cabs instead of harm patients. This would significantly alleviate many of the issues we discuss here.
“Collectively shun garbage jobs”? In some cities, there are limited numbers of jobs (at least the ones that post publicly on pathoutlines), so you can’t really shun some of these garbage jobs if that’s all you have to choose from and you are geographically restricted to a certain city because you want to be close to family and friends like most normal people.
The good jobs with strong groups are never advertised making the issue worse. Good jobs are filled by a phone call to the local (insert strong training program) where members of the group have connections and no one ever hears about the job.
The problem types will always exist in pathology as long as there are enough residency spots for them to match into. You limit the number of spots, the field becomes much more competitive and the problem types will realize that pathology is no longer a second option to apply to in addition to internal medicine or family medicine.
I know a guy who is finishing pathology residency and doesn’t even like Pathology LOL.
As for the comparison to unionizing trainees and nurses, it doesn’t make sense because pathologists are not unionized. It’s each person’s individual responsibility to watch their own back and shun abusive or manipulative work conditions.
What I can say is that a private practice partnership in a major metropolitan area is not promised to anyone in any specialty. A 400k salary is not promised to anyone in any specialty. Contrary to popular belief, other kinds of doctors work for their money doing things most of us showing up at 930am and sipping lattes in our offices would find distasteful.
Not true. Anesthesiology private practice jobs are promised. The job market is booming with tons of jobs in both metropolitan cities and outside of large cities as well. My friend who is in anesthesiology when I showed him an anesthesiology job ad for a 400K job in a large city near me told me that’s actually a lowball salary. There are plenty of private practice jobs to choose from in gas and in other competitive fields where the numbers of graduating trainees are NOT in surplus.
We need to be real about the limitations of a very small, very specialized field where one person can essentially staff a hospital solo if need be. Even if 80% of pathologists dropped dead today, there would still be saturated geographic areas.
So here you are admitting we have an oversupplied job market, which is the MAIN problem in pathology and the sole reason why most people have complained on here for the past 20 years. You are basically admitting pathology has a PROBLEM and at the same time you are trying to attract good candidates to a field that has a problem, a significant problem that every medical student (especially with a lot of debt) should know about before deciding a career in Path.
I mean by saying “eliminating 80% of pathologists (which is a crapload of pathologists LOL) and still having geographically saturated areas SAYS A LOT ABOUT THE PROBLEM and you are trying to attract med students to Pathology?
It’s like taking a 1990 Honda accord, waxing it to make it look all shiny and trying to sell that Accord to medical students when you got better options out there (Ferrari, Porsches aka derms, rads, gas) for competitive med students.
Good candidates know and accept this. They choose to compromise on salary, geography or job requirements. People who applied to 10 different specialties, match pathology at a grossing sweatshop and can’t independently function after 2-3 fellowships don’t and then show up here to bash pathology.
If you come into pathology knowing that there will be limited number of jobs available for you locally and you may have to move for a job AND you are ok with that then you should be fine.