Autopsy Technician / Pathology Assistant Employment
Found your site today as I tried to pursue information on ‘Forensic Autopsy Technician’ involving education required and position availability. I’ve been an RN for 30 years and this aspect of medicine has always intriqued me. Early in my VA career, they would call me down to autopsies to observe, because they knew I was so interested. I’m seriously considering this career detour. I haven’t found any concrete guidelines for educational guidelines in my research. Any advice? Thank you!
Maureen Santamaria
Maureen
I’ve gotten this question quite a lot over the last year, so I’ll respond to your comment in post form in case my answer is helpful to anyone else out there.
I’d start by calling your local Medical Examiner/Coroner office to find out if they hire their Autopsy Technicians/Pathology Assistants directly or if you have to go through a state or county agency. If they do there own hiring, pay them a visit to deliver a resume or fill out an application. This gives them a chance to see that you are professional and genuinely interested and aren’t someone just looking to meet their weekly unemployment application quota. It may make the difference between your application ending up on someone’s desk rather than the “to be shredded” bin.
There really isn’t any formal training available so it isn’t required in most cases. Reason being, even someone with minimal formal medical training can make equal or greater money doing something far less repulsive. If you start off with a salary in the low 20’s (even less in some parts of the country), you’re making the industry average. High school degrees or equivalents seem to be the norm because the pay is so unattractive. The only real financial benefit comes with the associated benefits and job security—total population and subsequent deaths only increase each year.
Most of the training for eviscerating bodies comes after you’ve already gotten the job. It helps to have some past experience in working on or around dead bodies or some exposure to some pretty nasty sights and smells. I guess that’s why individuals with previous employment in funeral services or as medical orderlies seem to succeed where others might quit before becoming “acclimated” to the tasks the job demands.
The moral of the story is if you’re looking for a job that:
–requires direct physical contact with some of the more questionable members of society as well as the potentially life threatening infectious diseases their tissue and fluids may contain…
–requires you to see and do things that common sense dictates you not share with the general public for fear of being regarded as an insensitive monster…
–causes many people to quit the minute they are faced with making their first cut on a decomposed body…
–provides a unique learning experience on a daily basis and allows you to feel as though you are contributing to an investigative process that is bigger than any single person or agency, then this is the job for you.
Good luck to you.
A Douglas
I’m also looking into a pathologist assistant career. however i understood that you had to get a master’s degree. i found a few programs that do this in the US (2-3 years) and i already have my B.A. in biology. So is it true you do not need this degree after all?
I wish the RN luck! it takes a certain kind of person to do this work. It is hard, messy, and mentally demanding.
I too, found your website simply by searching for training requirements and job availability for autopsy techs this evening. I feel like this is fate because my interest became piqued in the area yesterday during lunch with one of my co-workers. We are both pharmacy techs at a local hospital and have recently witnessed two autopsies being performed. I’m sure I can tolerate the stuff that would make any other normal person gag and I eagerly look forward to the learning experience such a position would bring. Thank you very much for replying in the post format. I will definitely take your advise and contact my local coroner’s office to find out their procedures!
I have to say that when I started reading this blog lo these many months ago, that I never expected to find you inspiring others to “bring out your dead” so to speak.
So I chuckle a little.
But mostly it makes me happy that a small helpful niche is being filled with such enjoyable writing.
Thank you for posting this. I am an 11th grader and I am seriously considering the coroner career, because th human body is so very interesting to me.
Even though im still in high school I have this job very interesting and I was just wondering if you could give me some tips that I could maybe use later in the future when I’m old enough to apply for this job.
Thx
I’ve been a Surgical Tech for 36 years & would love to get into this field!
Wayne State University has a B.S. in Pathology Asst. for all interested. It is hard to find work in Autopsy Asst. You might want to look into Medicolegal death investigating as well. Maybe you could get a Mortuary Science degree and try to get into a Medical Examiners office.
I have a question, concerning autopsies.
My 19 y/o son, Joshua, was found dead in Amsler Park/McGregor, Tx on Feb. 16, 2006. McGregor PD did not investigate.
The autopsy does not support the suicide theory.
Report:
“Tardieu spots on the anterior surfaces of the thighs, as well as on the posterior surface of the body.”
“Red-purple parenchyma with pulmonary edema.”
“Suicide/Hanging.”
No etiological specific disease/injury to attribute to the death.
No investigation, thus, no investigative findings.
Please refer to the above-mentioned website, click on Joshua Robinson. Attached documents, including a crime scene photo.
I too am an RN and curious about how to becoma a pathology assistant. The info. I found here has helped to put me in the right direction as far as looking into local agencies and positions.
I think i would be fully able to work under those circumstances. Im in school training to be a Medical Assistant when im finished with this i plan on furthering my education and becoming a Autopsy technician
Carlow University in Pittsburgh, PA has an Autopsy Tech Program.
Carlow University in Pittsburgh, PA has an Autopsy Tech Program.
I am a cuban physician who had arrived reciently to the Unites States as a desertor, am specialist on legal medicine with more than 20 years of experience in the field of the post mortem examination (as Thanatologycal examiner expert), working in the fascinating autopsies world investigation, causes of violent, natural,suddent or unexpected deaths, human remais, putrefactives bodies and more….with more than 5000 autopsies made personally and i am looking for a job as a forensic autopsy technician to introduce me in the wonderful world comunication with the dead bodies….Can you help me tofind this job?
Please answer me to my e mail…
I live in Louisiana, and am currently going to school for my B.S in Biology, and working as a Certified Nursing Assistant; I want to be a Forensic Autopsy Technician.
According to this site, all I need is just a high school diploma, along with my medical background??? Wow, that’s kinda cool to know!
Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan offers an Autopsy Assistant Certificate. It can be completed in 4 continous semesters (starting in Fall 2010) and has 500 training hours in the County Morgue. It is a competitive program as space in the morgue is limited but you really learn the day to day way the job works
I used to license autopsy technician (Forensic pathologist), I needed help getting my license. where do i go license? how to find job?
Im currently in school for my CMA, tryin to get in the NURSING Program. Lately, I have kinda changed my mind because with one of our classes we got to visit the State Medical Examiners’ Office & view an autopsy. I really found it very interesting and would love to start working towards a pathology tech…Will I need to totally change anything or do you need all the basics of a medical asst?
First of all the author of the article is true, there really isn’t any specific training for an Autopsy Assistant. Wayne State University Pathology Assistant program is just that Pathology Assistant. It is not a degree for Autopsy Assistant. You can get a job in a coroner/medical examiner’s office; however you would make more with a pathology assistant degree working in a hospital. Please understand Autopsy Assistant and Pathology Assistant is two different fields. They have also of similar description, but they are different. More offices don’t require an advance degree, but with the growth in interest in this field the requirement is change every day. Visit the website name.org; you will get the information of what you need to know about Forensic Autopsy Assistant and Pathology Assistant, and how each job is related to the world of forensic.