Resident Council Develops Program to Attract Medical Students to Pathology Profession

The ASCP Resident Council’s goal for the year ahead is to reach out to medical students to encourage them to consider careers in pathology. To accomplish this, the Council has assigned each of its members to serve as liaisons to residency programs across the country. They, in turn, will recruit individuals in those programs to serve as ASCP Pathology Ambassadors at those schools.

“We have a list of over 150 ambassadors from all over the United States, representing more than half of all residency programs,” says Resident Council Chair Kelly Lynn Mooney, MD. “We aim to have at least one ambassador at each residency program and to create an outreach program that is sustainable.”

Other outreach activities include hosting case-based, interactive lunch talks combined with oncology and surgery interest groups, and bringing medical students from the operating room to observe a frozen section result.

The Pathology Ambassadors will also work to recruit more under-represented populations in pathology and laboratory medicine, and address burnout among younger pathologists.

“The Resident Council was involved in developing a survey about burn-out for pathology residents and fellows. Pathologists-in-training may be at risk for burn-out because of isolation, steep learning curves with higher stakes and disenfranchised stress,” Dr. Mooney says. “We hope to review survey results and perhaps use our Pathology Ambassador network to disseminate best practices in well-being for pathologists in training.”