Is being a coroner technician considered good experience?

[Stambo18]

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I am currently a Forensic Technician for Forensic Pathologists. Basically, I assist with autopsies. Will this be considered good experience? How about in comparison to a technician at a hospital or an EMT?

Thanks

 

[CoolWhipp]

Sounds great to me.

 

[LizzyM]

Good experience?

Absolutely! However, it is no substitute for some experience in a setting with live patients. That can be paid or volunteer, in a hospital or in an outpatient, office, or clinic setting.

 

[Omni]

whoa!
Now that's something I would like to do! Good job!

 

[hewmanoid]

What you're doing is great! But, just know that the reason med schools want you to volunteer in a clinical setting is not so much because they want to make sure if you can handle blood or cadavers, but because they want to see if you have had patient contact and really understand what it's like to become a physician. So, in addition to your forensic work, I suggest you to find a clinical volunteer/work oppporutnity where you get to work a lot with "living" patients.🙂

 

[Law2Doc]

What you're doing is great! But, just know that the reason med schools want you to volunteer in a clinical setting is not so much because they want to make sure if you can handle blood or cadavers, but because they want to see if you have had patient contact and really understand what it's like to become a physician. So, in addition to your forensic work, I suggest you to find a clinical volunteer/work oppporutnity where you get to work a lot with "living" patients.🙂

Agreed. It's a good "experience", but it's not adequate clinical exposure, if that's what OP is asking. A big part of requiring folks to get clinical experience is to make sure the applicant has adequately researched whether or not they want to be a clinician (which is what, first and foremost, med schools train you to be). So it's really about working with patients, and seeing the doctors interaction with patients. Cadavers are well and nice, but they miss the point here. So sure, it's a nice resume experience. But don't think that that's adequate clinical experience to apply to med school, because it isn't.

 

[itsallthesame]

While I can't comment from the perspective of an adcom... medical schools train people to become radiologists (non-interventional) and pathologists (including forensic). Personally, I see no reason why someone looking to embark on either of these career paths that are extremely valued in medicine would benefit on the pre-med side from following around an FM doc any more than getting experience with a forensic pathologist would be important for someone hoping to pursue peds (remember that all med students will have to work with deceased patients as well as those still alive).

My vote is, if you want to do mostly research with your MD, have most of your experiences be research, if forensic pathology is what you want to do, work with one, family medicine? volunteer in a fam med clinic.

 

[LizzyM]

While I can't comment from the perspective of an adcom... medical schools train people to become radiologists (non-interventional) and pathologists (including forensic). Personally, I see no reason why someone looking to embark on either of these career paths that are extremely valued in medicine would benefit on the pre-med side from following around an FM doc any more than getting experience with a forensic pathologist would be important for someone hoping to pursue peds (remember that all med students will have to work with deceased patients as well as those still alive).

My vote is, if you want to do mostly research with your MD, have most of your experiences be research, if forensic pathology is what you want to do, work with one, family medicine? volunteer in a fam med clinic.

Every medical student will be expected to interact with patients and their families. Every medical school applicant should have some experience (work or volunteer) being close enough to smell patients and in the presence of someone who can write prescriptions.

 

[itsallthesame]

Right. And I'm not saying that our friend shouldn't do any patient contact shadowing at all. Just that forensic work is as legit a part of medicine as any other. I'm advocating the notion that framing your experiences around a theme isn't a bad idea.

Also, I forensic pathologists can apply for a medical licence and therefore can write prescriptions, at least in some states.

I mean, let's be honest... every medical student will have to interact with cadavers, but I've never even seen a dead body and I got in. Further, while the limited medical observation that I did was interesting, I can tell you for certain that it won't help me any more than observing my yearly physical. My take has been the med schools want you to know what the profession is like. For me, it's research, and bench research was pretty much 99% of my medical experience. If someone really wants to do path, I can't imagine that working for a coroner and maybe spending a few hours a week for a month or two shadowing a patient care doc wouldn't suffice.

Definitely material for a kickin' personal statement...