What hours do forensic pathologists work in mortuaries -- and what days? I've looked all over the internet (at least, I think I have) and I just can't work it out. I'm planning a novel featuring a forensic pathologist as one of the protagonists, and I'd got it in my head that they worked 9-5, Monday-Friday, with the exception of post-mortems that needed doing urgently at weekends. I know they tend to do post-mortems in the morning and paperwork/family stuff in the afternoon (unless they're spending a day in court), which certainly suggests a fixed Monday-Friday schedule to me, but I don't know how I managed to convince myself that I know they work Monday-Friday. Does anyone know if that is how it works? (As opposed to shift work.) The story is set in England, but something about how it works in any country would be extremely helpful.
Depending on the work load, they can work 12+ hour days and they're not limited to working Monday through Friday.
That's a different kind of pathologist and they also work standard dayshift hours. In the hospital an exception would be the on-call pathologist that reads a tissue sample biopsy while the patient is in surgery to guide the surgeon. They look to see the edges of a tumor so the doctor knows if any pieces of tumor are being left behind. Back to the forensic pathologist, it's definitely a day job with a variable amount of overtime.
