Medical Examiner Job Description

Would working with corpses bother you? This is the question all potential medical examiners must ask themselves before making a career decision. Medical examiners work with the deceased quite often, performing autopsies and other important procedures. The most common goal for these procedures is to determine cause of death. Medical Scalpels are important tools for a medical examinerexaminers use a variety of clues strewn through the subject’s body to aid them toward this end, including signs of internal bleeding, exterior and interior injuries, hemorrhaging in the eyes and brain, and body temperature. Medical examiners are often asked to work strange hours to keep an even head with the steady inflow of subjects to be examined. Besides autopsies, medical examiners must also examine live patients on occasion, as well as write reports and testify in criminal and civil court functions as an expert witness. To become a medical examiner, one must go through a full medical school education as well as post-graduate school. Medical examiners often work together with autopsy technicians.

For more information on this job, read our articles about autopsy technician salaries and medical examiner salaries.