Pathology trainee manpower: APC program directors' questionnaire, 1989 results

Abstract

The shortage of pathologists is being created by a combination of three factors: inadequate trainee recruitment, high trainee attrition, and accelerating practitioner attrition. The current report provides comprehensive data on the first two factors. The third factor is, by every estimate, likely to become worse over the decade beginning in 1988. Demographics show that greater numbers of pathologists will be reaching retirement age every year. The trainee attrition problem appears to be very serious, and we currently do not have data on why residents leave pathology training, when they leave, or where they go (ie, to what other specialties, etc). Future APC program directors' questionnaires must address these issues. Yet, we must also solve a serious problem in recruitment. Currently, about 35% to 38% of all first-year pathology residents decide to enter pathology only after entering residency programs in other specialties with the intent to remain in that specialty. Therefore, we need to recognize both the problem of inadequate recruitment and the problem of high attrition in order to address the serious manpower shortage facing pathology. When shortages occur in specialties, practitioners tend to cease performing the most time-intensive tasks (eg, autopsy). However, shortages of the magnitude predicted for pathology suggest that many more tasks traditionally performed by pathologists may very well be in jeopardy. In such a setting, other specialties (especially subspecialties) are likely to fill the void. This is likely to be catalyzed by the emergence of the new resource-based relative-value scale. Subspecialties in medicine and surgery will be looking for additional ways to retain income when they cannot expect as much for their services as before. This scenario is especially worrisome given the necessity for the practice of pathology to expand into the domain of molecular biology. Unless problems causing the shortage in pathology manpower are addressed, not only are our traditional practices threatened, we are also likely to have inadequate manpower to take advantage of those areas crucial for the future of pathology.