Pathologists' Assistant Day 2024 is on Sunday, April 14, 2024: Will you please answer my brief religious poll?

Sunday, April 14, 2024 is Pathologists' Assistant Day 2024. LogoHorizontalSm2.jpg AAPA Pathologists' Assistant

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I am a 18-year-old female (high-school graduate/honours student). I was raised in an atheist home, in an atheist family in Western Canada. I had a difficult childhood. My ancestry is predominantly Cree (which I have never celebrated, although I speak it). I have lived as a middle-class and hard-working individual since I was able to understand the basis of these ideologies. I work full-time but still take much joy in my life, reap the days of all its benefits, and have many hobbies which include kickboxing, equine, reptiles, and sciences (biology-- human anatomy, pathology). I plan on attending University within the next 2-years and obtaining a Bachelors in Science, then continuing towards my Major in Pathology in order to work as a Pathologists' Assistant.

Take care.

what are some interesting/uncomon feilds of medicine that i could go into im looking at carrer/college choices

Pathologist's assistant. You get to perform autopsies and the hours are great. The money gets into six figures after a few years. Similar story for physician's assistants. Big money for a relatively little amount of schooling. Again, six figures after a few years. PAs are in high demand because they're less of a liability to the hospital, are cheaper to employ, and basically run the show as much as the nurses. But unlike what you'll watch on House (the TV show) there are no real careers to be found as a profoundly brilliant diagnostician. Consider doing gastric bypass surgery, cytology (boring unless you absolutely love looking at cells and making life-altering diagnoses from a swivel chair), pediatrics (pays poorly though), pediatric oncology (get the Prozac ready), or immunology (not really an MD's thing but plenty medical and relevant).

I don't know you personally so that's just a few ideas off the top of my head. They're obviously all quite different. A "career in medicine" means so many things these days so give yourself some time. You don't need to make any decisions until around your third year in medical school.

Calling everyone who holds or has held a career in the medical field?

Well, it's a short story and it's silly but I once got hooked up on a date because of an autopsy. I'm a Pathologists' Assistant and post mortem examination is part of my job. I was assisting with a case that was of major interest to the cardiac surgery team. As such, several team members were present in the morgue including the Physician Assistant. I was helping the Pathologist with the evisceration and noticed that the PA kept staring at me. Our morgue was very small and cluttered, so at one point he was asked to move out of the way of the surgeon and because he was staring at me he tripped over the suction pump and almost knocked it down, bringing attention from the other members of the team who looked back and forth at us, smiled and shook their heads. I actually thought he was pretty cute as well, but was trying to be professional.

Several days later an EKG tech poked her head into the gross room and caught my attention. She told me he had been asking about me and sent her down to "find out my situation". After she left, the same Pathologist who had been part of the autopsy asked what was going on and I told him. Dr. Vanderbilt is himself quite a fun character, and realizing that I was somewhat interested in the PA decided to take matters into his own hands. He stormed into his office, paged the poor PA at the CVU and demanded that he "ask this girl out- for this weekend! Not next weekend" as "this business is interrupting our lab!"

There is a lot of humor and irony surrounding the business of autopsy pathology. If I think of any relevant/appropriate stories I'll pass them along!