You’re welcome and thanks for watching! And let me know if there are any other questions you have along the way!

I’ll keep it in mind 😉 thanks for watching!

I did wonder if I would feel that way at all but after seeing my first autopsy I felt fine. I’m guessing that had been from going hunting with my dad growing up and seeing things there.

@@canadianpathassistant9066 I've been utilizing autopsy.online since I can't find any shadowing opportunities right now. It seems like being in the learning state of mind and knowing more about what you are looking at seems to help eliminate any instinctual response one might have.

I haven’t used it myself but I’ve seen autopsy online before and I think it’s a great resource for getting some exposure to this type of experience if you can’t shadow. And I know shadowing is tough right now. Plus I think it’s right too about staying in the learning state of mind when you’re viewing this kind of thing. Definitely helpful tips!

For context: I currently work as a lab assistant for a Histology lab and see tons of different biopsies/excisions/ shaves & punches all the time, which I can stomach. But I don’t think I’d do well around dead bodies.

It depends! Some hospital sites don‘t have an autopsy service and send their bodies to another site for it (eg less than half the PAs in my city do autopsy because of this). But if you apply to a site that has an autopsy service you’ll be put in the shift rotation for it unless you have a medical exemption as to why you can’t. But there are plenty of sites where the PAs only gross - this would be something to look out for when you’re job hunting down the road :)

What exactly do you mean by a good way to start? Do you mean a good way to start with getting work and educational experience before applying to a PA program? If you are interested in being an autopsy tech, a PA program probably isn't the right fit. Yes PAs are involved in autopsy but for most of us autopsy is only small part of the job (10-15%) and the majority of our training focus is on grossing surgical specimens. But if you are interested in a PA program and are looking for a good to start I would try and leverage connections you have from the surgical tech work into a possible tour of a pathology lab or some shadowing with workers from that lab.

No, not everyone will have an autopsy performed on them and in actuality only a small percent of bodies are autopsied. In hospitals, they most often occur when a physician or family member requests it (eg maybe the family doesn’t believe the person could have died from x disease, the person had multiple diseases at once and it’s not clear which led to the death or the physician might want to know if the death was related to a recent medical intervention that was done). Overall, people with a known terminal disease or obvious cause of death are less likely candidates for an autopsy. And depending on the circumstances surrounding a death, if next of kin don’t give their consent an autopsy it won’t take place. In contrast, if a death occurs unexpectedly or it can’t be explained, these cases are typically sent to a medical examiner for investigation and are more likely to be candidates for autopsy, regardless of the consent of next of kin.

Are you wondering me personally or PAs in general? For PAs in general it depends on where you work. A lot of PAs aren't involved in autopsy because the hospital/lab they work at doesn't do them, even though they are trained to do so. I would estimate ~75% of PA jobs are grossing only and are not involved in autopsy. Personally, every 6-8 weeks I'm scheduled in our morgue for a week at a time and I am involved in every autopsy case that occurs over that week (these are only the autopsy cases that occur at the hospital and does not include medical examiner cases which are done elsewhere).

It depends mostly on where you work. PAs definitely can work only in a morgue but that is usually in a position at a medical examiners office where they do autopsies exclusively. I haven’t heard of any hospital positions where you only do autopsy - it’s mostly surgical work and sometimes you go to the morgue for autopsies. Or, like at my job, we have a primary morgue person who is assigned there every second week while the rest of us rotate through once every 6-8 weeks. That’s probably the most you can hope for in a hospital position.

@@canadianpathassistant9066 thank you for the detailed response! That's good to know! I am def interested in the autopsy aspect so maybe surgical path a would not be my first choice.

@@maddieek6865 That's a good distinction to make up front. With you being most interested in autopsy and not surgical path I would consider at looking at becoming an autopsy tech instead of a PA - it could take a lot less time and be a less expensive endeavour (PA school in the US could run you 50-100K USD). Whereas working as an autopsy tech you are more likely to be able to train on the job or get a job with minimal requirements. Again you would still be qualified to work as an autopsy tech at a ME's as a PA but in my experience it's a bit overkill if that is what your focus is on.

Thanks for the question. At my workplace we aren't allowed to record and publicly post footage from our lab or from the morgue - there are a lot of conflicts with patient privacy.