Pathologist Assistant Day in the Life
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- Опубликовано: 22 июл 2024
- What does a pathologist assistant do during a regular day in the lab?
In this video I'm covering what an average day looks like in a lab that has one other PA in addition to myself.
Mornings always start the same way - I will check our phone for messages, unpack courier buckets which contain slides for our pathologists, and check for specimens that were delivered overnight (usually specimens that come after hours are in formalin or get put in a fridge if fresh). This last part is only something I worry about if we don't have a lab assistant that day.
Then I can prep my bench for the day (which is mostly logging in to the different computer programs I need) and start collecting the cases I will be responsible for grossing. For this day I'm responsible for all the small gross - cases like gallbladders, biopsies, polyps, appendixes, cysts and other "small" odds and ends that get removed. These aren't typically cancer resections but are often done for diagnostic purposes (eg biopsies, polyps) which may end up guiding further treatment or are done to prevent/treat potential inflammatory conditions (eg appendicitis, diverticulitis).
The cases I'm going to work on have been split up by our lab tech into bins and each bin is assigned to a different pathologist - this helps ensure there is a roughly equal division of work. I could have 12-15 bins of small gross to work through on a given day.
But it's not all about me either. I'll check with my coworker who is covering large gross for the day and see how their workload is. Because a courier delivers our tissue blocks to a central processing site we need to ship our breast blocks before noon and this means it can be a rush to get them done. So when I check with my coworker I'm asking if they need any help or if they can handle the workload they have and if they need help I'll grab a couple cases from them. The rest of the large gross can be sent on a courier as late as 1600 so once the breasts are done they're usually ok for the rest of the day.
Just to recap, grossing = a dictated report of a specimen which includes tissue size/appearance, tumor size/appearance and distance to margins (if tumor is present). In cases without a tumor I'm still looking over the tissue for any pathology eg) hemorrhage, necrosis, obstruction, evidence of inflammation etc. Once I've completed this report I will sample pieces of the specimen (or sometimes whole specimen if very small) and submit tissue for processing → this gets turned into a slide for a pathologist and they make a diagnosis based on what they see on slides.
By early to mid afternoon (1330-1400) we're close to done grossing our cases for the day and at this point I'll look through our decals. Anything with bone in it can't be cut without going through decal and we keep an eye on these cases, changing the decal solution daily, until they're ready to gross and submit.
Once our grossing is done there are a couple other things like packing up blocks for the day to send for processing and opening fresh specimens. We try to open/cut fresh tissue as it comes in so it starts fixing right away (important for breast cancer cases) but anything we haven't gotten to yet we deal with now. After opening specimens we put them into trays which splits the work between pathologists.
Once everything is opened we will file leftover tissue from the cases we've grossed. We keep everything (even garbage and empty containers) for a couple days to weeks after a case is signed out. This helps in case we have to go back to put more tissue through or double check something.
Last few orders of business are to print off the OR slate for the next day (upcoming surgeries) and go through the major surgeries, check patient histories and any imaging reports for tumors. I'm also looking for cases that look like they will come for frozen/intra-operative consult and definitely make sure to review radiology and histories for them - they have to be done quickly when they arrive so I won't have time to check these things the next day.
Lastly I'll call the OR front desk to see if there are any ongoing surgeries they might need us for/make sure all fresh tissue has been sent to us. If anything is going late I'll give them the on call pathologist phone number. One last check for fresh specimens and then I'm done for the day.
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WHO AM I:
I'm a full time Pathologists' Assistant working in western Canada. I'm making videos about becoming a PA, giving you tips about school and letting you know what this career is like.
GET IN TOUCH:
If you'd like to talk, I'd love to hear from you! Leaving a comment will be the quickest way to get a response but if you have a longer question or want to keep your question private, feel free to email me at canadianpathassistant@gmail.com.
As a certified Pathologists' Assistant (ASCP) for 38 years and recently retired, I can say that I never worked a day of my career! Each day and because most specimens and autopsies were also ongoing learning opportunities in the role as a physician (pathologist) extender and as a patient advocate. I was always blessed that I was assisted and assisted knowledgable and motivated healthcare workers. In the forensic arena and as a death scene investigator my experiences were further enhanced working closely with law enforcement professionals and scientists of many backgrounds. Such a worthwhile and little known profession that I highly recommend if you're energetic, self motivated and can work as a valued team member.
Thanks for watching and I'm glad to hear you had such a positive working career! My experience so far has been equally enjoyable and I hope more people can find that level of joy in this career.
hi as an young thermally ill cancer patient as only 23 years of age like to ask would an autopsy show up how far cancer had spread in my body and the effects its had on my body ?? or even for body donation ??
Yes it's very likely an autopsy will show how far a cancer has progressed through your body and what other organs/tissues it has involved apart from it's primary site of origin.
@@canadianpathassistant9066 hi thanks for kind reply sorry late replying my health been up and down as my cancer is an stage 4 glioma brain stem tumour having an autopsy done on my body would be best way to know for sure how far cancer had spread i guess and give more details of my other health issues i guess inc y fluid builds in lungs and soft tissues ??
All good no rush ever to respond and sorry to hear about the state of your health. Yes an autopsy would be able to demonstrate how extensively the cancer had spread in your body but imaging techniques like PET or CT scans can also show this and they may do a better job of picking up all the places your cancer may have spread. The scans can look at your entire body in a very short period of time and will be able to see cancer that may have spread to areas that aren't usually analyzed very closely during an autopsy (like your bones or muscles) and can also pick up fairly small areas of spread that might be hard to see during autopsy. The reason why fluid is building up in your lungs and soft tissues can have a variety of causes that likely won't require an autopsy to be explained. Your current physician can probably do a good job of explaining that
Thank you so much for this video! I haven't been able to find anywhere to shadow, and I'm going to be applying to PA school soon. This was very helpful!
I’m glad to hear it helped and good luck with applying!
Thank you for this info. I'm starting my Journey as aBiology major. But a PA is my endgame
Good luck on your journey!
You guys are very brave! I always admire how pathologists deal with dead bodies, one of the hardest job! We need more like you! Greetings from Turkmenistan🇹🇲
Thank you!
Thank you so much for this video! It’s almost impossible to shadow a Pathologists Assistant during COVID and internet descriptions only go so far. This came in perfect timing for my PA school interview!
You’re welcome and that’s exactly what I was thinking about when I was making this video. Good luck on your interview!
Here to echo the same! Thank you, too, from this future PA school applicant!
im in a histotechnologist program and might do PA later on down the road. so far I'm loving being a part of the pathology team
That’s great to hear and I really like being part of a team in pathology too!
i’m graduating from med science undergrad this year and am looking to apply for pa at ucalgary. this is a great video, reinforces my desire to work in the field of pathology!
Thanks and glad to hear it! It’s a great field to work in. Let me know if there’s anything I can help you with
@@canadianpathassistant9066 your video resources have definitely been a great help for my initial research into the program, once i begin the application process i’ll be sure to reach out for any additional help!
cheers from niagara
Thank you for your videos! I was wondering how your hours are like weekly?
Happy they’ve been helpful!
My days are 8.25 hours long or 41.25 hours for the week. A half hour a day is an unpaid break so it comes out to 7.75 hours a day or 37.75 hours a week I get paid for. OT is often available but isn’t required to be taken.
Hi Luke, why is fresh breast tissue more critical than other specimens (e.g. hysterectomies and colons)? Is it because the breast tissue degrades fast?
Good question! And the answer is kind of... The overall breast tissue doesn't degrade especially quickly but certain protein receptors on the cells can and these are really important! All breast cancers are tested to see if their cells have specific hormone receptors on them. Their presence (or absence) can impact what treatment a patient receives - for example some types of breast cancers respond really well to hormonal therapy, some only respond a little and some won't all but they do respond to chemotherapy. And depending on what receptors are identified, it can also tell the doctor (and the patient) what the most likely long term outcome for them will be. Studies have found that if you can get breast tissue into formalin as quickly as possible, ideally within an hour of it being removed, you have the least amount of loss or false positives of these receptors in testing
Hello, what did you do as an undergraduate degree? I would like to avoid a general biology/chemistry if possible. Also could you outline all the schooling you personally did? All sources I've seen say there are many different paths and I'm hoping to choose one where if at any point if I have to stop schooling I can still find a job. Thank you for the video.
I took a kinesiology degree for my undergrad. From there I went through EMS training (during my 3rd year summer and after graduating) to become an EMT. I worked in that for ~2 years before applying to a PA program and getting in.
The other job fields coming out of kines didn't appeal all that much to me (research career, chiro, physio, coaching, teaching, gym training) but I would think there are other jobs to look at if you had to stop schooling part way through. Plus a lot of the classes in kines transition well to additional post secondary like med/PA etc.
Hello sir!is mbbs degree is compalsory to become a clinical pathologist?am doing bsc microbiology after bsc can I do pathology?if pathologist get dr suffix?
Thanks for watching and the question.
From what I understand a MBBS is equivalent to an MD from a North American medical school and after completing this you would receive a Dr suffix. One thing to be aware of is not all international medical graduate degrees are recognized in North America, depending on which school you attend, if you are planning on working in Canada or the US. Then after completing the MBBS/MD you would need to specialize in pathology though a residency program in order to become a clinical pathologist.
Hi i have Medical Laboratory Technologist Degree from Indonesia, in indonesia MLT can be a PA too, it is the same in canada?
It is similar in Canada.
To be certified as a PA in Canada, you need to pass an exam administered by the CCCPA. One of the requirements for writing the exam is if you've been on the job trained as a PA with 2 years of experience (before the end of 2024) and you have a Bachelors of Science or Health Sciences degree, you can apply to write it (details of this application route can be found here www.cap-acp.org/application_Guide.php).
However right now, labs are not legally required to that hire PAs that have this certification. So that means with your MLT degree you might be able to work as a PA without certification, depending on the hospital or lab you apply to (currently Alberta is the only province in Canada where you need certification as a PA to work as one).
Would having a bs in biology as well as working as an autopsy tech be good prerequisites to apply to pa school?
Yep! The bio degree fulfills the science degree requirement and while working as an autopsy tech you're exposed to some of the work elements a PA will experience. Just make sure that when applying you also have completed any prerequisite classes the program requires (which can vary from school to school).
@@canadianpathassistant9066 thank you for replying! I appreciate the feedback
I know this video is older, but how did you pull the trigger on grad school? Healthcare is my second career and I wanted to become a physician assistant, but took a couple of years to sleep on it. Now I’m glad, because this seems more my speed. BUT, at 38, I am TERRIFIED of being in $150K in student loan debt after. 😢
From first learning about this job I took about 2 years before I applied for school. I spent that time working in remote areas and was able to save up a bunch of money because most of the time I was stationed in work camps or employee housing, had no vehicle payment and paid off any leftover debts from undergrad. I had always considered going back to school but I wasn't sure what exactly to do before finding career. I just knew I couldn't stay in the job I had been working and would need to change something either way, even if this wasn't ultimately it.
I ended up having to get student loans but not as much as I would have had to if I didn't save beforehand. It was still lean times and I was able to stay with my parents while in school so that significantly reduced my expenses. I would not select a program based only on the prestige of the school. Once you're done employers don't really care where you trained (provided it's from an accredited school) so if you can find a program that is significantly cheaper than another, I would focus on applying to that one. And depending on where you get a job afterwards, the income can definitely be quite good so that can help offset some of the concern about loans but I would still be hesitant to take on that much so I get it. I had a classmate that worked throughout both years of school to pay for it along with using some of her savings. Most schools don't recommend doing that but it's doable so that could potentially help.
@@canadianpathassistant9066 I appreciate your response! Luckily, I live 15 mins from Eastern Virginia Medical School which offers this program and is affordable. It’s the cost of living loans that are the kicker! Thanks again 👍🏼
My histotech buddy became a PA and he is doing the exact same thing but more pay lol
If he found a position that gives him the lifestyle and compensation that works for him that’s great!
Is it a requirement to be certified as a Pathologist Assistant in Canada? It seems the answer is no - I was looking into relevant certifications as an alternative to being certified. I have two master's degrees, really was not interested in going back to school if it could be avoided. Any input is appreciated.
Currently no, certification is not required nationally. However some employers require certification of their staff. Alberta, for example, has one healthcare employer and it requires certification for all its PA so essentially certification is required in that province.
I had a similar question. I've done a Master's and a partial PhD, but would rather avoid more schooling, if possible. (Although if I did go back it would be to complete the PhD). What are the chances of landing a PA job with just a molecular biology MSc in Canada? I have lots of experience with histological tissue sectioning, but for developmental purposes, not for pathology.
Ontario I think you need to be certified.
Do you typically work alone as a pathologist assistant, or do you have coworkers to work with?
I'm typically in a lab with at least one other PA and sometimes several (up to 5-7 others). I've only worked at one lab where I was the only PA and that was a temporary situation while someone was off sick. Plus in that situation there was still a lab assistant there as well so I wasn't truly alone. Sometimes if there isn't another PA around, residents may want to come in and gross as well (although they are only be present at academic centers and not all labs). And pathologists are often quite close too so I can call them to come in to the lab if needed.
@@canadianpathassistant9066 Thank you!
If you don't mind, can you please tell me more about your experiences when you were a new hire? I've always had very rocky experiences as the new guy in my last few jobs (paramedic, pharmacy assistant) so I'm really hoping to find a field where the onboarding process is more streamlined and conducive to learning. It really sucks when no one is present to train you or when they are simply too overwhelmed with tasks to actually train a new hire.
How did your first few months as a Pathologist Assistant go? Was there a lot to learn on-the-job? Was it difficult to find your footing in the job as a new person? Did PA school prepare you adequately for the field?
Once again, thank you for taking the time to respond! I really appreciate it.
When I was hired my first 90 days was a probationary period. My first day on site I received a tour of accessioning, our gross room, frozen room, processing, embedding, cutting and staining area + slide assembly (we have on site processing for slides), pathologist offices, transcription and our morgue. Part of this included a safety tour as well. After that I had to read through multiple documents related to lab safety (where to go if we evacuate, eyewash station locations, fire extinguisher locations etc) along with site specific SOPs related to fresh specimen handling and grossing. This took ~1-2 days and I was really sick of reading by the end of it. Once I started grossing I had to complete cases from each subspecialty and submit feedback forms to the pathologist signing the case out (min 3-5 for each available subspecialty). I had a review with my manager at the end of my first 3 months who went over all the feedback forms I had received and they also reviewed any other feedback they had received about my work.
We are lucky that we aren't overwhelmed in our lab with work. We are definitely busy but there is usually at least one person to help with training new staff (usually our lab supervisor). Coming out of a PA program I didn't need OJT on how to gross specimens but there were some variations on how certain pathologists liked their cases grossed I had to learn which wasn't overwhelming. Coworkers were happy to help on cases where I needed a second opinion as were pathologists on complicated cases. Thanks to the second year of school being almost entirely hands on training, I felt quite prepared to start working when I got hired. My biggest challenge when I started was finding a balance of asking for help when appropriate vs deciding when I should be able to figure something out for myself.
Starting out you're likely going to either ask for help too much or ask too little - I was more on the side of asking too little as I didn't want people to think I wasn't competent, didn't know my stuff or it wasn't a good choice to hire me. This took me a little while to figure out but after a couple of pathologists came back to me asking why I didn't consult them on a case it gave me a better sense of when I needed to ask for help.
I have also worked at a smaller and much busier site which had various time cutoffs to send blocks on courier runs for processing. But even at this location, I was brought in to do on site training while they were still fully staffed so I wasn't overwhelmed with how busy they were relative to what I was used to and it gave me a chance to learn how they did things without worrying about falling behind.
Working as a PA is one of the lowest stress work environments I've found myself in (I had previously worked in EMS as well). Granted, everyone has different levels of what is stressful to them but I felt like the transition from school to full time work was quite smooth and I was fully prepared to start working - I still learned a lot in my first few months but I didn't feel like I had huge gaps in my knowledge or abilities. If and when you end up interviewing for jobs and are concerned about their onboarding process I would ask what the typical lab workload is like and what the process has been like for other new hires at that site.
Цікаві відео, тільки рівень мого англійського не дозволяє зрозуміти всю суть роботи. Good video!
Thanks for watching. I covered some complex topics so I'm sorry you weren't able to understand it all.
@@canadianpathassistant9066 Thanks for the answer. I work in Ukraine as a forensic pathologist. And I don't know English. He looked at other positions he could work in Canada, one of which was an assistant pathologist. For this position in Canada without training for 2 years (60 thousand Canadian dollars) and the certificate of ASCP will probably not take))) And accordingly in a short time to learn the language ...