An eight-week summer externship program offered by the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology turned out to be a perfect fit for Lindsay Adams, who is entering her second year of med school at UNMC.
Adams said her interest in exploring pathology was partly sparked by Dr. Geoffrey Talmon. “A lot of his lectures were really fun. I found that I really enjoyed the visual aspect of pathology a lot and the histology.”
She then shadowed Dr. Talmon a day and also met with Dr. David Wagner, the career specialty track advisor, who told her about the externship program. This summer, she learned about grossing, hematopathology, hot seat/tumor board, apheresis/blood bank, cytology, forensic pathology, dermatopathology and surgical pathology including gastrointestinal and genitourinary.
“You get to see so many different specialties. Every week I’m on a different specialty or sometimes even two,” she said. “Dr. Talmon described it as a smattering of things that pathologists do. It’s been perfect. I’ve worked with a lot of the residents. We’ll look at slides together, and there will be something I’ve never heard before, and they’ll direct me to a book where I can read about it. You can see the stack of books I have on my desk.”
Adams said she has particularly enjoyed G.I. “Dr. (Audrey) Lazenby—the attending I was with that week—gave me six cases to look at on my own of polyps. I was almost functioning like a resident and writing my diagnosis for the polyp and what I was seeing. Then she went through it with me. And I thought that was a really neat experience.”
Adams said her interest in medicine began at Millard West High School, which offered a health sciences academy. She got a track scholarship to Doane University, where she graduated with a B.S. in biochemistry. While in college, she worked as a certified nursing assistant and did well in her classes. “I think at that point I realized it was possible for me to be a doctor. For a long time I didn’t really know what that would look like or if I was good enough. I’ll be the first doctor in my family, so it wasn’t like super apparent to me. I didn’t have somebody else modeling it for me,” she said. “But it also helped me going to Doane, a small school. I had a lot of interaction with my professors, and they really support you a lot. I think that was important in my deciding to go to medical school after all. Going to Doane was really, really good for me.”
She said she would definitely recommend the externship. “I think it’s perfect for M1 to M2, where you’ve had exposure to a lot of the organ systems, and you’re seeing some of that again but then you’re going to get exposure for things you’re going to see in your M2 year.”
Additionally, “the department has been so friendly and welcoming. Everybody’s been very nice. The attendings and the residents love to teach, so that’s been great for me. It’s a pretty cool learning experience.”
Dr. Talmon said: “Lindsay’s experience is precisely what we hope that externs get while with us. Our goal is to give interested medical students exposure to the important role that pathologists play in clinical care to potentially see themselves in that role as career or understand how the laboratory works, no matter their specialty choice.”