Coroner Direct activities such as autopsies, pathological and toxicological analyses, and inquests relating to the investigation of deaths occurring within a legal jurisdiction to determine cause of death or to fix responsibility for accidental, violent, or unexplained deaths.
Coroner is Also Know as
In different settings, Coroner is titled as
- Coroner
- Coroner Investigator
- County Coroner
- County Medical Examiner
- Deputy Coroner
- District Medical Examiner
- Medical Examiner
- Medical Legal Investigator (MLI)
- Medicolegal Death Investigator
Education and Training of Coroner
Coroner is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Coroner
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Education Required for Coroner
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Degrees Related to Coroner
- Bachelor in Environmental Science
- Associate Degree Courses in Environmental Science
- Masters Degree Courses in Environmental Science
- Bachelor in Environmental Geosciences
- Associate Degree Courses in Environmental Geosciences
- Masters Degree Courses in Environmental Geosciences
- Bachelor in Medical Staff Services Technology/Technician
- Associate Degree Courses in Medical Staff Services Technology/Technician
- Masters Degree Courses in Medical Staff Services Technology/Technician
- Bachelor in Regulatory Science/Affairs
- Associate Degree Courses in Regulatory Science/Affairs
- Masters Degree Courses in Regulatory Science/Affairs
- Bachelor in Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality
- Associate Degree Courses in Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality
- Masters Degree Courses in Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality
- Bachelor in Human Resources Management/Personnel Administratio
- Associate Degree Courses in Human Resources Management/Personnel Administratio
- Masters Degree Courses in Human Resources Management/Personnel Administratio
Training Required for Coroner
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Coroner in different industries are
- Police Identification and Records Officers
- Detectives and Criminal Investigators
- Medical Records Specialists
- Forensic Science Technicians
- Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers
- Private Detectives and Investigators
- Compliance Officers
- Environmental Compliance Inspectors
- Government Property Inspectors and Investigators
- Regulatory Affairs Specialists
- Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers
- Patient Representatives
- Lawyers
- Emergency Medicine Physicians
- Physicians, Pathologists
- Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
- Medical Assistants
- Physician Assistants
- Preventive Medicine Physicians
- Clinical Research Coordinators
What Do Coroner do?
- Perform medicolegal examinations and autopsies, conducting preliminary examinations of the body to identify victims, locate signs of trauma, and identify factors that would indicate time of death.
- Inquire into the cause, manner, and circumstances of human deaths and establish the identities of deceased persons.
- Complete death certificates, including the assignment of cause and manner of death.
- Observe and record the positions and conditions of bodies and related evidence.
- Collect and document any pertinent medical history information.
- Observe, record, and preserve any objects or personal property related to deaths, including objects such as medication containers and suicide notes.
- Complete reports and forms required to finalize cases.
- Remove or supervise removal of bodies from death scenes, using the proper equipment and supplies, and arrange for transportation to morgues.
- Interview persons present at death scenes to obtain information useful in determining the manner of death.
- Testify at inquests, hearings, and court trials.
- Provide information concerning the circumstances of death to relatives of the deceased.
- Locate and document information regarding the next of kin, including their relationship to the deceased and the status of notification attempts.
- Confer with officials of public health and law enforcement agencies to coordinate interdepartmental activities.
- Inventory personal effects recovered from bodies, such as jewelry or wallets.
- Coordinate the release of personal effects to authorized persons and facilitate the disposition of unclaimed corpses and personal effects.
- Arrange for the next of kin to be notified of deaths.
- Record the disposition of minor children, as well as details of arrangements made for their care.
- Collect wills, burial instructions, and other documentation needed for investigations and for handling of the remains.
- Witness and certify deaths that are the result of a judicial order.
- Direct activities of workers conducting autopsies, performing pathological and toxicological analyses, and preparing documents for permanent records.
Qualities of Good Coroner
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Tools Used by Coroner
- 35 millimeter cameras
- Autopsy bone saws
- Autopsy evidence collection kits
- Autopsy fluid collection vacuum aspirators
- Autopsy knives
- Autopsy saws
- Autopsy scissors
- Binocular light compound microscopes
- Bone cutters
- Bone dust collectors
- Cadaver lifts
- Desktop computers
- Dictation equipment
- Digital autopsy scales
- Digital cameras
- Digital video cameras
- Dissecting knives
- Dissection forceps
- Dissection scissors
- Enterotomes
- Floor scales
- Laptop computers
- Microscope slides
- Personal computers
- Portable x ray machines
- Postmortem blood drawing syringes
- Postmortem fingerprint equipment
- Postmortem suturing needles
- Protective coveralls
- Protective eye shields
- Rib cutters
- Skull chisels
- Specimen collection containers
- Specimen scales
- Staining dishes
- Stryker saws
- Surgical gloves
- Surgical masks
- Surgical scalpels
- Tabletop centrifuges
- Toothed forceps
- Triple beam balances
Technology Skills required for Coroner
- 3D graphics software
- Alcestis
- Autopsy information databases
- Bite analysis software
- Corel WordPerfect Office Suite
- Customer relationship management CRM software
- Douglas Associates Forensic Filer
- Email software
- EMC Documentum
- Fingerprint databases
- Genetic database software
- Git
- Google Android
- Graphics software
- Ingenuware CoronerBase
- Linux
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services SSRS
- Microsoft Word
- Mideo Systems EZDoc Plus
- Rapid Medical Examiners System
- Spreadsheet software
- Structured query language SQL
- Toxicology databases
- Transact-SQL
- UNIX
- Web browser software
- Word processing software
- Zoom