The recruitment of pathology residents: a 1987 conference report on challenges and responses

There is general agreement within pathology that there is a serious problem in the recruitment of US medical graduates into the field. Basic to this decline is inadequate exposure of medical students to the pathologist as a physician who is important to the care of patients and open to a range of clinical and research opportunities unparalleled in other medical specialties. Programs designed to increase the familiarity of students with pathology, both within the curriculum and outside of it, beginning before medical school and extending after medical school, have been proposed to reverse the downtrend in recruitment. Changes in the basic structure of pathology training programs, which would shorten the time commitment, are also considered important in increasing the attractiveness of a pathology career.