Ascension St. John Hospital Cytopathology

Residents spend a total of two 4-week blocks in the cytopathology rotation. Resident education in cytopathology includes all aspects of specimen collection, processing, staining, screening, and diagnostic interpretation, through direct instruction, hands on experience, observation, and reading. Resident education in cytopathology is supplemented with a weekly didactic lecture to include teleconferences from national organizations (e.g. American Society of Cytopathology) & a slide review conference where residents and pathology staff review interesting and diagnostically challenging cases with follow-up when available. Resident supervision includes specimen sign-out on a daily basis with one or more of the cytopathologists, specimen preparation and staining techniques with laboratory personnel, performance of fine needle aspirations with the cytopathologist or colleagues in the Nuclear Medicine or Surgery Departments and review and discussion of study sets with the cytopathologists.