What type of call do residents take?
We take home call with weekends (usually four per year) and weekdays (usually twelve per year) evenly divided among second and fourth year. First year residents do not take calls. The call schedule is put out for the entire year so you can plan your life, but since the unexpected things can, most residents end up switching call nights or weekends with other residents.The typical weekday call sometimes consists of "cleaning up" any frozen sections that may be lingering in the operating room after 5:00 PM, these are finished by 6:00 PM. After that, we do have to come into the hospital on occasion to evaluate transplant livers, small bowels and kidneys, or an acute leukemia. Most often, all issues can be handled from home by the telephone. Weekend call is similar except that autopsies are also covered on the weekend by the call resident.
How is vacation time handled?
We get four weeks of vacation per year. Usage of vacation days is flexible although somewhat dependent on the workload of the rotation and requires that appropriate coverage of interdisciplinary conferences, call and clinical duties has been arranged if necessary.
What fellowships are available at Nebraska?
Hematopathology, surgical pathology and microbiology fellowships are all offered at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
What about fringe benefits such as book funds, travel funds or lunch programs?
We receive $1,000 per year for books or education expenses. In addition, you can apply for funding if presenting at national meetings. The university pays an additional $63 per month on top of your salary to help cover health/dental/life/eye insurance. We also get $5.50 weekday lunch card to use at any of the hospital cafeterias or coffee carts.
How do residents interact with the fellows?
The fellows do not detract from the resident experience as the case load is large enough to split among everyone. The fellows actually perform a large amount of teaching, and provide invaluable perspectives into the fellowship application process, boards and the job market.
What is a typical day on Surgical Pathology like?
After the 8:00-9:00 AM didactic conference, the resident on Surgical Pathology begin their day.
When there are three residents on Surg Path, the resident spends day one (gross day) of the three day rotation by heading to the gross laboratory to begin cutting in cases as well as covering all frozen sections. The certified pathology assistants are able to help distribute the workload as well as assist with frozens. Most often, the grossing resident is finished with work between 5 and 6 PM. The next day (the read one day), the resident spends the morning previewing all the cases he/she cut in the day before as well as all of the biopsies that were grossed in by the pathology assistants. The resident generates a preliminary report, and depending on the level of the resident, he/she may also get consultations or order special stains. Any leftover cases or cases that are undergoing fixation from the day before are grossed. Then, the afternoon is typically spent at the microscope with the attending pathologist who gives feedback regarding your diagnosis and report as well as teaching points. Further ordering of special stains or molecular tests is performed along with any consultations that are required. Day three of the rotation (read two day) finishes up any complex cases or cases that required additional stains as well as looking at any new biopsy material that was assigned to your team. By the end of day three, the resident has been able to see all of the cases that they cut in from start to finish, with adequate time to preview the case as well as to see the followup from any ancillary tests that were ordered.
When there are four residents on the Surg Path rotation, day four is spent covering all of the frozen sections. Therefore, the resident grosses every four days, and does not have to cover frozen section while grossing.
How close do residents park to the hospital?
Residents are assigned a covered parking permit in a parking garage that is located across the street from the hospital. It takes less than one minute to walk from your car to the hospital.
How does Nebraska approach clinical pathology rotations?
The clinical pathology rotations incorporate a balance between hands on learning at the bench, didactics, department meetings, quality control, clinical consultations, research and development issues and independent studying. This allows enough structure for the residents to learn the practical and daily duties of a pathologist in charge of a clinical laboratory while still allowing study time to learn the more esoteric aspects of clinical pathology that we need to pass the boards. Anatomic pathology responsibilities such as autopsy sign out or other service obligations do not overlap or detract from clinical pathology rotations.
