Forensic Path and competitiveness

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PunkRockDoc

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Hey, just a quick question:

I'm currently an MS3 and looking to figure out what I want to do in life. The whole reason I had come to medical school was to go into Forensic Pathology. I've wanted to do it since I was in high school. Anyway, I've heard that there are not a lot of jobs available in the field. Is this true.

Also, how competitive is path to get into? I'm not the most competitive student at this point.

Thanks in advance!
 
PunkRockDoc said:
Hey, just a quick question:

I'm currently an MS3 and looking to figure out what I want to do in life. The whole reason I had come to medical school was to go into Forensic Pathology. I've wanted to do it since I was in high school. Anyway, I've heard that there are not a lot of jobs available in the field. Is this true.

Also, how competitive is path to get into? I'm not the most competitive student at this point.

Thanks in advance!
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I have heard the same thing about forensic path; i don't know why that is though nor have i really paid much attention to it since i will likely not concentrate in forensic path. perhaps yaah would know. he's really smart.

path is still not as competitive as other fields but in the last 2-3 years, path has become more competitive overall. i don't know if this will be a continued trend or just a transient blip in path popularity.
 
As far as I can tell there are forensic jobs out there - it's just that a lot of them don't pay exceedingly well. The attrition rate is probably higher in FP than other branches of path, don't know whether it's because of the politics involved, the pay scale, or what. The problem is you are usually working for the government, although some FPs supplement their income by doing private autopsies.

If you are seriously interested in FP, choosing your residency is somewhat important. You don't necessarily need to go to a bigname program, because a lot of the time their forensics exposure isn't great. Some of the lesser known university programs like New Mexico have good exposure - probably states with a centralized medical examiner system where all ME cases are done in one facility (like New Mexico).
 
You'd have to do a path residency, which, as previous poster said historically hasn't been that difficult, but perhaps is getting more so. A lot of programs have a one month Forensic Path rotation, which of course is only a sampling.
After that, you'd need to do a one-year Forensic Path fellowship. There's also some pretty good courses out there. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology Basic Forensic Pathology Course is pretty good.

Problem in Forensic Path. is that there's no money. Neither for salaries, nor for facilities etc. It's probably the lowest-paid job you can get as a board certified pathologist. And there's a lot of routine (you DO get tired of tracing gunshot wounds after a while). However, there is occationally also some very interesting cases, and visiting crime scenes can be very interesting.

Also, for some reason there's often a lot of turmoil in Medical Examiner's offices, for some reason. Right now Wash DC is more or less in shambles, but LA County Coroner, NYC Office of Chief Med Examiner and AFIP has also had their problems. Perhaps it's because the system is strained, perhaps it's the lack of money, perhaps it's political pressures - don't really know.

If you want to get an idea of the job, try attending the American Academy of Forensic Sciences annual meeting. It's usually a blast - especially the "bring your own slides" session. (I remember one where they showed pics from John Wayne Gacy's basement, and thought that it was hilarious that some crime scene tech vomited all over the place -- dark humor was invented by forensic path.)

But talk to some people in the business, and find out what's involved.
 
I've heard that some of the forensics fellowships pay really well--over 100k. I can't remember where I heard this, somewhere on the East Coast while interviewing, but I thought I'd pass this along since the stereotype is always that forensics post-fellowships doesn't pay that well.

It always seemed to me that forensics is more of calling for people, so that if money is factoring into the decision, it may not be the right choice--just my 2c.
 
vetiver said:
I've heard that some of the forensics fellowships pay really well--over 100k. I can't remember where I heard this, somewhere on the East Coast while interviewing, but I thought I'd pass this along since the stereotype is always that forensics post-fellowships doesn't pay that well.
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That's true, some forensics fellowships do pay close to 100K. But that's usually at a program not known for its teaching - instead they want you to really churn through the cases, so it's more like you're a junior attending taking a lot of call than a fellow getting trained.

Guess it depends on your priorities.
 
I have heard that occasional forensics fellows took a pay cut between fellowship and their post fellowship position. Strange but true!

I know the Boston ME is hiring, they cleaned house I believe after a cavalcade of mistakes including misplacing a patient's eyes, declaring someone dead who wasn't really dead, and doing an autopsy on a patient who was mistakenly identified. (All in the news over the last 2 years)
 
PunkRockDoc said:
Hey, just a quick question:

I'm currently an MS3 and looking to figure out what I want to do in life. The whole reason I had come to medical school was to go into Forensic Pathology. I've wanted to do it since I was in high school. Anyway, I've heard that there are not a lot of jobs available in the field. Is this true.

Also, how competitive is path to get into? I'm not the most competitive student at this point.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Hello from Europe.

If you like to get idea how the job looks like your could also ask people
from those coroner/ME offices if you could join them in jour summer vacation.
I don't know how this looks like in US, but I am positive that Fpaths. would be happy to see that some are still in interested in their trade.
I suppose that you have passed pathology course at med. school so that you have general understanding of the matter.

I did the same thing 2 years ago in order to learn some practical things and to add some spice into our mostly theoretical curriculum.
During this time (summer vacations, winter vacations + other free time I'had beside study) I have been learning to perform autopsies, brain cutting, practical histopathology and the pitfalls of identification. All this was one-to- one teaching by my supervisor-mentor. (who also had opportunity to train his teaching skills)

What was indended to be a merrely a spice, however tourned to be very useful to my medical education. Now, being the final year medical student doing rotations in IM and surgery I am looking back to those 2 years as one
of the best I had in my med. student carrer.I has provided me with more thorough knowledge on only in pathology but also tourned out to be advantageous in effots to uderstand and learn oher branches of medicine.

Your's faithfully
a
 
It's certainly true that you'll learn to become an expert in doing autopsies. Only problem is, that often there's too little time to really be through. Especially with the non-murders. Also, working with the police (in any country) can be very testing at times.
But due to the sheer volume, it's certainly true that sub-I's, rotations etc. in FP can be very intersting.
 
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