PA in the MEs office?

[BurntPancakes]

Hello everyone,

 

I have absolutely no idea where to put this, so I apologize if this is misplaced. Obviously, this is a question about a specialty, but it's not listed under the specialties on the designated page and asking about it on some unrelated speciality page seemed a bit off, so I thought I'd ask here.

 

So my question is: has anyone heard of a PA working with a medical examiner? I ask because I know a PA that works in a Pathology lab at a hospital, so she works under the supervision of a pathologist. A ME is usually just a pathologist that completed a fellowship in forensics, so I was wondering if it was possible/desirable for a PA to work for them as well, or if there wouldn't be much for a PA to do in that setting. This might be a better question to ask on the pathology boards at SDN, I don't know.

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

[medic25]

Check out the NYC Medical Examiners office; they used to a fair amount of PA's.

[EMEDPA]

there is also a separate career path for pathologist assistants but they can't work outside of that field as they are trained and licensed differently.

here is a link to the program at duke:

http://pathology.mc.duke.edu/Path/Academic/PA_Program/AP_PathAssistMain.aspx

[physasst]

there is also a separate career path for pathologist assistants but they can't work outside of that field as they are trained and licensed differently.

here is a link to the program at duke:

http://pathology.mc.duke.edu/Path/Academic/PA_Program/AP_PathAssistMain.aspx

 

Yep, Pathology Assistants go by the same "PA" acronym, but it is a separate profession....Good folks....when I was going through PA school, I was working at Cleveland Clinic, and they used them in pathology there. Got to do some extra dissection work with them. It was helpful....

[rpackelly]

Suffolk County NY Office of the Medical Examiner, NYC office of the Medical Examiner, and Washington DC Office of the medical examiner use licensed physician assistants for medical examiner duties. They declare and investigate death in the field to help determine cause of death on scene, interview relevant medical practitioners and family and then the likely path of the body or crime (autopsy, morgue, criminal investigation, etc.) The medical parts of a forensic investigation. Pathology Assistants work in the path lab grossing specimens, making preliminary tissue determinations, etc. Completely different duties. Forensic Medical examiners use dieners (unlicensed helpers) for autopsies; regular pathologists rarely do autopsies any more but usually do not use pathology assistants in these either.

[crystaltide]

In the hospital I worked at previously, Pathology Assistants and Pathology residents did the grossing, residents did autopsies, and there were no physician assistants in the department.

[BurntPancakes]

I thought there might be a role for physician assistants in death investigation as I know some nurses perform death investigations, but I wasn't sure. Thanks for clarifying, medic25 and rpackelly, and thanks for everyone's input! I'm planning to apply to PA school this cycle and I thought I'd use this year to more fully explore all the places a PA can work, since I've only seen them in the hospital environment.

[EMEDPA]

the county coroner for pueblo colorado is a pa.

do a search. he has a webpage.

[Guest JMPA]

its a dying field

[EMEDPA]

its a dying field

working with stiffs and deadbeats