Are you anxious about needles and getting a pathology test?

More than a dozen of NSW Health Pathology’s trainee pathologists have graduated at the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) conference in Melbourne. They’ll now embark on their specialist pathology careers.

It was a big day for the grad­u­at­ing class of 2025 at the RCPA con­fer­ence in Mel­bourne on 22 February.

“We are delight­ed to have been able to keep so many of the grad­u­ates here at NSW Health Pathol­o­gy!” said Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gy Train­ing Coor­di­na­tor Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor Lisa Parker.

“It was so love­ly to see the hap­py faces on our for­mer trainees and to meet many of their fam­i­lies who are clear­ly just as delight­ed about the grad­u­a­tion as the new specialists.”

A/Prof Park­er says the train­ing pro­gram for pathol­o­gists is intense, with many exams, which can be hard on fam­i­lies as well as the trainees.

“Some are Spe­cial­ist Inter­na­tion­al Med­ical Grad­u­ates, who have pre­vi­ous­ly trained as pathol­o­gists in oth­er coun­tries, and are required by the RCPA to do addi­tion­al train­ing here in Aus­tralia. We wel­come them all into our spe­cial­ist workforce.”

Here’s what some of the grad­u­ates had to say about their train­ing and the prospect of work­ing as spe­cial­ist pathologists:

Dr Alice Ormandy says she was drawn to Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gy as it involves a wide range of body sys­tems and presentations.

“After work­ing in the hos­pi­tals for a few years I found AP to be one of the most diverse spe­cial­i­ties, where you can be report­ing cas­es from all dif­fer­ent organs and med­ical con­di­tions in one day – which is what I love about it.

“I was for­tu­nate enough to know peo­ple who had gone into train­ing before me, and spent some time in a few lab­o­ra­to­ries and felt like it would be a great fit for me.”

She admits the most chal­leng­ing aspect of the train­ing was the exams and bal­anc­ing oth­er work duties while studying.

“But I always felt well sup­port­ed and had lots of oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn and do prac­tice exams. I also remem­ber it being chal­leng­ing in my first years, ques­tion­ing whether I was pro­gress­ing or would I ever know ‘enough’. In ret­ro­spect, I def­i­nite­ly was. It is a steep learn­ing curve to begin with but there are plen­ty of learn­ing opportunities.”

Alice says now that the train­ing pro­gram is over, she is most look­ing for­ward to the new chal­lenges that work­ing as a staff spe­cial­ist provides.

“It is reward­ing to work with my col­leagues and oth­er med­ical teams to pro­vide patient care.”

She says she would encour­age junior trainees to enjoy all aspects of their train­ing (even cut-up!).

“It does­n’t always feel like it, but all the reg­is­trar tasks real­ly do pre­pare you to han­dle any­thing that comes up in your work day.

“Seek out as much expo­sure as you can to cas­es and report­ing styles to help devel­op your knowl­edge base and report­ing ‘style’. I was for­tu­nate to work across a num­ber of dif­fer­ent lab­o­ra­to­ries with many inspir­ing pathol­o­gists who all had some­thing dif­fer­ent to teach me.

“That expe­ri­ence in my train­ing has hope­ful­ly shaped me into a well-round­ed pathologist.”

Dr Geeti­ka KC Shrestha says as a med­ical stu­dent she always enjoyed his­tol­ogy and microscopy.

“You get to see the entire spec­trum of dis­ease, it’s almost like all of inter­nal med­i­cine in a slide. And you can get to the bot­tom of the cause of dis­ease,” she said.

Geeti­ka worked as an Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gist in Nepal for over 6 years before com­ing to Aus­tralia and said the train­ing has been chal­leng­ing but worthwhile.

“The lev­el of com­plex­i­ty and vol­ume of cas­es is much more here. There is more neo­plas­tic work here, par­tic­u­lar­ly more skin can­cers includ­ing melanomas, com­pared to more infec­tious dis­eases in Nepal. There are also more spe­cial stains and ancil­lary tests here than what we used to do in Nepal.”

Geeti­ka still hasn’t decid­ed where her career will take her.

“After a few years I might think about sub-spe­cial­is­ing, I’ll see where it goes. I’d like to spend more time with my fam­i­ly, espe­cial­ly my son. I’m look­ing for­ward to being more set­tled and hav­ing more stability.”

She says her advice to junior trainees would be that pathol­o­gy is a vast dis­ci­pline and there are lots of new skills to learn includ­ing cut up and microscopy.

“It’s not easy, but it’s bet­ter to start ear­ly and try to learn as much as pos­si­ble and report as many cas­es as pos­si­ble,” she said.

For Dr Abeer Hage­lamin, join­ing Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gy train­ing was all about the challenge.

“For me each case is a chance to chal­lenge myself and my way of think­ing,” she said.

“AP also gives us the chance to par­tic­i­pate in research and new devel­op­ments that help in improv­ing patien­t’s out­come. In addi­tion, anatom­i­cal pathol­o­gy is spe­cial­ty that gives me the oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­tin­ue learn­ing and advanc­ing my knowledge.”

She says the most chal­leng­ing aspects of the train­ing involved han­dling the con­flict­ing duties as a par­ent and a trainee.

“For exam­ple, the need to pre­pare for exams and pro­vide care for my chil­dren. It can be dif­fi­cult to man­age find­ing an hour or two to study on dai­ly basis.

“What has helped me dur­ing those times is the struc­tured day and the sup­port of the peo­ple around me.”

Abeer says she would encour­age junior trainees to con­sid­er each day as a new learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty and go to work with the mind­set that you are there to learn at the same time to share your knowl­edge with others.

“An impor­tant thing also, is to be sup­port­ive for your col­leagues espe­cial­ly around exam time,” she said.

“Anatom­i­cal pathol­o­gy can be chal­leng­ing and intim­i­dat­ing espe­cial­ly in the first few months as a trainee, but giv­ing your­self a chance and try­ing to engage with your col­leagues and par­tic­i­pat­ing in edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ties will help you through the ear­ly days.

“It is good to ask ques­tions, and there is nev­er a sil­ly ques­tion. Each ques­tion you ask adds to your knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence. At the same time, each ques­tion you are asked and unable to answer will be one of your strengths as a trainee and as a pathol­o­gist in the future as you will always remem­ber that ques­tion and how you reached the answer.”

Some excel­lent advice from our newest pathologists!

All three are now work­ing as spe­cial­ist Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gists with NSW Health Pathol­o­gy; Dr Ormandy based at St George Hos­pi­tal, Dr KC Shrestha at Wol­lon­gong Hos­pi­tal and Dr Hage­lamin at Liv­er­pool Hospital.