We provide all M3 students with a surgical pathology clinical experience within the Surgery/ObGyn block. The students receive a 1 hour didactic lecture during ground school orientation week. During the block, the students have 2 clinical hours within Surgical Pathology. The first hour is within the gross room and histology laboratories. The second hour is 1 on 1 with a surgical pathologist in which the students participate in Surgical Pathology sign out at the microscope. The students have a choice of 5 different Surgical Pathology subspecialties for the second hour. This clinical experience is unique in the United States, leading to the publication “Implementation of a required 3rd-year medical student surgical pathology clinical experience” (PMID 35573389, see figure). From 2013-2024, the Department of Pathology has been a preceptor for 1,820 M3 students in Surgical Pathology. This experience has formal objectives listed below and explained in detail which are tested in the Perioperative Services examination.

Objectives

• State information needed on the pathology requisition
• List steps and timing of specimen processing including accessioning, grossing, histology, immunohistochemistry, case sign-out and intraoperative section analysis
• Describe how to submit a surgical pathology specimen for routine processing, intraoperative consultation and lymphoma work-up
• Understand the role of a synoptic report
• List the components of pTNM staging
• Explain limitations of surgical pathology