General guidelines

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Revision as of 13:34, 21 December 2021 by Mikael Häggström (talk | contribs) (Wording)
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Author: Mikael Häggström [note 1]

General advice

Priority
1. More invasive intraoperative consultations
(such as open surgery)

2. Less invasive intraoperative consultations
(such as skins)
3. Fresh lymph nodes
4. Fresh breast tissue (should be in
formalin within an hour from surgery)
5. Other fresh tissue

  • When making a mistake, admit that you did it and learn from it so as to focus on not repeating it.
  • Try to fit findings with the clinical picture, but do not make up answers that you do not know, or findings that you do not see, even if it would otherwise be expected. Similarly, generally avoid omitting potentially relevant findings, even if they do not fit an otherwise typical condition or picture.
  • Ask for help whenever needed, such as first time you are doing something, or whenever you are not sure about what to do, especially when doing something potentially irreversible. Also ask for help in moments whenever there is a high risk that you will not achieve what you need to do within a clinically acceptable time. For prioritizing when you have more than one thing ongoing at the same time, the list at right can be used. Still, before asking, try to do as much as you can, as long as you do not do anything potentially irreversible, so that you can evaluate how you did it compared to the standard, and thereby know better how you will do it next time.
  • Do not wait for the whole pile. Whenever you can, do not be idle or do less urgent work while there is a pile of more urgent work gathering for you elsewhere. Instead, be familiar with where such piles are forming, and go there and grab whatever you may start working on right away.
  • For larger specimens that need fixation before final grossing, you can still start writing a report of measurements and other externally visible findings to save time for later.
  • Ask yourself if your report is clinically plausible, but at the same time, do not make up things that you do not see just to fit the clinical picture.

Topics

Further reading:

Notes

  1. For a full list of contributors, see article history. Creators of images are attributed at the image description pages, seen by clicking on the images. See Patholines:Authorship for details.

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References


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