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Interpersonal and Communication Skills

1. Objectives:  The resident is expected to learn sufficient communication skills to be able to effectively gather information, provide test results, and communicate his/her own thought processes in arriving at diagnostic conclusion.
2. Plan:  In the process of working up a case, the resident is expected, when necessary, to contact clinicians to obtain additional historical information.  In the process of gathering relevant laboratory data for the diagnosis, the resident may also interact with the faculty and staff of other laboratories such as flow cytometry, cytogenetics, molecular diagnosis, and surgical pathology. The resident will discuss the case with the attending hematopathologist and express the decision making process. In addition, the resident is also expected to communicate the results with the clinical services and provide consultative input into the interpretation of the results in the clinical context. Finally, residents on service will rotate weekly as the "Day Call" person. This resident will be the primary contact person for lab staff and trouble-shoot problem cases and situations identified by the laboratory staff or others, conferring with the attending hematopathologist when necessary. In this way, the residents learn to function as laboratory consultants, providing input into the proper utilization and interpretation of laboratory tests for the patient work-up.
3. Assessment:  Direct observation by hematopathology faculty, fellows, clinicians, and technologists.