Hot Topics: Preparing for the Boards, Career Planning, and Work-Life Balance Top Residents’ Concerns

Networking, career planning and identifying resources for job searches, and maintaining a healthy work life-balance are among the top priorities for pathology residents, according to the results of an ASCP survey conducted last summer. The survey, which is conducted every summer, asked residents about the top 10 topics that weigh heavily on their minds.

Other concerns listed by residents include identifying resources to help them prepare for the board exams; tips for conducting job searches, completing job applications, and negotiating contracts; considerations for working in private practice; and strategies for building self-confidence and competence throughout their careers.

Every summer, ASCP conducts a member survey to find out the topics that weigh on members’ thoughts. The chairs of ASCP’s four member councils—Council of Laboratory Professionals, Resident Council, Pathologist Council, and Council of Laboratory Management and Administrators—use the members' responses to help develop activities and programs for the coming year.

“I want to convey to our pathology residents that their voice really counts,” says ASCP Resident Council Chair Savanah Gisriel, MD. “The Resident Council really depends on their feedback in order to create programs and initiatives to serve their needs.”

One example of a new ASCP Resident Council initiative is "Ask Me Anything," which provides pathology residents and fellows with opportunities to connect with seasoned pathologists through the Society’s online Pathologists in Training community.  The Resident Council launched the first "Ask Me Anything" session in its online community in August, featuring forensic pathologist Nicole R. Jackson, MD, MPH, FASCP, Assistant Professor and Director of Autopsy and After Death Services in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and & Pathology at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington.

Dr. Jackson fielded questions ranging from whether one needs to be board-certified in forensic pathology to conduct autopsies to what the biggest contributors to health inequities in the United States are and ways to address these inequities. 

The concept for Ask Me Anything was initiated over the past year by Immediate Past Chair of the Resident Council Yembur Ahmad, MD. “Dr. Ahmad pioneered this idea,” Dr. Gisriel explains. “The idea came about because residents and fellows wanted more opportunities to talk with prominent pathologists in the profession. This was based on feedback direct from trainees.”

The "Ask Me Anything" initiative is also a way to encourage residents and fellows to use the online Pathologists in Training Community, where they’ll find a lot of resources geared toward their needs.  

“Residents and fellows are just about to enter the workforce,” says Dr. Gisriel. “By connecting them with pathologists who are well established in their careers, residents and fellows can hear about different career trajectories and how highly successful pathologists got to where they are and glean pearls of wisdom on timely topics such as work-life balance and time management.”

Meanwhile, residents’ concerns about preparation for board exams were addressed by guest speaker Kurt Shaburg, MD, during the Michele D. Raible Lecture for Residents at the 2024 ASCP Annual Meeting. Dr. Shaburg, who is the pathology residency program director at University of California, Davis, Medical Center, is well known for his online posts called Kurt’s Notes. He developed these notes as teaching aids for trainees. They include conditions commonly encountered by surgical pathologists and cytopathologists.  

“He mentioned that question banks are helpful but also emphasized the importance of learning through cases you see in real time while you are at the hospital working with patients. It is so true,” says Dr. Gisriel.  

Another resource for residents is the Resident Roundtable, which is held online every few months. The topics addressed during the roundtable sessions span several of the hot topics that residents have identified. If residents have other concerns which they’d like the Resident Council to address, Dr. Gisriel encourages them to reach out and share them with the Council’s leadership.

“The more feedback residents can provide us via the online Pathologists-in-Training Community, the better,” she says.