tuffgrrrrl Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 Hi I am graduation from a CLS program next year and I love it. Trouble is the pay is not very good and I have already been advised by professionals in the field to not get complacent. I love everything about CLS and I also have an interest in public health oriented fields like epidemiology and infectious disease control. I am looking at either a PA in pathology which in my state is mostly a Masters Program or phD:=D: of pathology. I kind of understand the difference between the two in that a pathologist assistant will mainly do gross dissection and a PhD will do research. Can anyone who knows more shed some light on which may be better suited to someone with my background and interests. I love Pathology all around but the job functions of the two seem so different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crystaltide Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 Not sure if you're clear on this or not, but this forum is for the other PAs - Physician Assistants. Assuming you already knew that, I have some experience with Pathology Assistants, so maybe I can help. The Pathology Assistants that I know do gross dissections and dictations. They have to complete CME just like other health care fields, as well. I work at a teaching hospital, so the Pathology Assistants and the Pathology residents both gross, but the residents are also responsible for sign out and frozens (I work in surgical pathology). I'm assuming based on your post that you're not interested in your MD/PhD, though, just your PhD? In that case the fields would be worlds apart, and you would spend the majority of your time as a PhD doing research. I've never actually met any Pathology PhDs, though...all the ones I know are Surgical Pathology MD/PhDs. The MD/PhDs sign out with the residents, sometimes work frozens, and do research the rest of the time. The two positions are entirely different, and I think you would need to assess a lot more what you actually want to do. Becoming a Pathology Assistant is not really a stepping stone to becoming a PhD, but could be if you want to spend a whole lot of time in school to become an MD/PhD (although, why wouldn't you just do that from the start?). So it comes down to whether you prefer working with specimens on a daily basis or looking at slides and running experiments and writing papers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinntsp Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 Hi I am graduation from a CLS program next year and I love it. Trouble is the pay is not very good and I have already been advised by professionals in the field to not get complacent. I love everything about CLS and I also have an interest in public health oriented fields like epidemiology and infectious disease control. I am looking at either a PA in pathology which in my state is mostly a Masters Program or phD:=D: of pathology. I kind of understand the difference between the two in that a pathologist assistant will mainly do gross dissection and a PhD will do research. Can anyone who knows more shed some light on which may be better suited to someone with my background and interests. I love Pathology all around but the job functions of the two seem so different. As was already mentioned, you're on the wrong forum for that type of PA. But I'll add that if CLS is truly your calling then you should go to med school and become a pathologist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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