Anatomic Pathology

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pharmstudent993

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Hey all,
Out of curiosity, can anyone tell me what it's like to be an anatomic pathologist? What is the typical day for them, is it a challenging and fun career, etc? Thank you very much for your replies.:D

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Hey all,
Out of curiosity, can anyone tell me what it's like to be an anatomic pathologist? What is the typical day for them, is it a challenging and fun career, etc? Thank you very much for your replies.:D
Well, I considered it during 2nd year vet school, and decided against it. I think path is really interesting and useful, but most of the anatomic pathologists I know spend a great deal of their time behind a microscope, and doing necropsies. If that's your thing, then you'll probably think its great. It is also, in my opinion, the most difficult and lengthy specialization in vet med. I don't know much about human pathologists other than they make serious $$$$, probably for essentially the same work as a vet pathologist(AND for only one species! We have at least 8 common ones, that must be known in intimate detail).
 
Well, I considered it during 2nd year vet school, and decided against it. I think path is really interesting and useful, but most of the anatomic pathologists I know spend a great deal of their time behind a microscope, and doing necropsies. If that's your thing, then you'll probably think its great. It is also, in my opinion, the most difficult and lengthy specialization in vet med. I don't know much about human pathologists other than they make serious $$$$, probably for essentially the same work as a vet pathologist(AND for only one species! We have at least 8 common ones, that must be known in intimate detail).

Thank you for your reply:). I actually find histology and histopathology really fascinating. Is it possible to shadow an anatomic pathologist?
 
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Thank you for your reply:). I actually find histology and histopathology really fascinating. Is it possible to shadow an anatomic pathologist?

It should be. You can also get a job in a pathology lab (depending upon the set up you might have more or less contact with the actual pathologist. I worked in a path lab and it was great experience, though not a ton of vet path interaction due to our set-up. Of course, those vet paths worked mostly reading slides (which is a lot of it) so you might want to also find vet paths to shadow/work with/talk to who can give you a broader view of the specialty.
 
It should be. You can also get a job in a pathology lab (depending upon the set up you might have more or less contact with the actual pathologist. I worked in a path lab and it was great experience, though not a ton of vet path interaction due to our set-up. Of course, those vet paths worked mostly reading slides (which is a lot of it) so you might want to also find vet paths to shadow/work with/talk to who can give you a broader view of the specialty.

Thanks for the information VAgirl:). I'll look that up. Any more information about anatomic pathology is greatly appreciated.
 
another place to get good experience with board certified pathologists is at a biomedical research facility. from experience, there are several at these sorts of places and i'm sure you could do a summer internship or something of the like. the above posters are correct though, the majority of the time is spent doing necropsies and looking under a microscope. although in research the necropsies tend to be kind of fascinating because of the test article and its effects on the body. Hope this helps!
 
another place to get good experience with board certified pathologists is at a biomedical research facility. from experience, there are several at these sorts of places and i'm sure you could do a summer internship or something of the like. the above posters are correct though, the majority of the time is spent doing necropsies and looking under a microscope. although in research the necropsies tend to be kind of fascinating because of the test article and its effects on the body. Hope this helps!

Thank you very much rexosaurus:). Do you happen to know if there is a ceratain age limit for doing an internship?
 
I'm not sure if there is an age requirement, but I assume at least a high school graduate. Where I work much of the work/experience you can get somewhat depends on your level of college or higher education. My best advice is that it depends on the facility, sorry :(
 
I'm not sure if there is an age requirement, but I assume at least a high school graduate. Where I work much of the work/experience you can get somewhat depends on your level of college or higher education. My best advice is that it depends on the facility, sorry :(

No problem. Thank you very much:).
 
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