arnosr190 Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 I am a recent grad currently in a limited role at a physical/occupational medical office. I've been offered a job in orthopedic surgery but am questioning limiting myself too early in my career. I'm under the impression that if I gain FP and UC experience I'll be able to go into ortho later in life once I learn more medicine. I'm at a cross roads and thinking of taking some locum tenens shifts to really hone in on what I want. Is going into ortho this early in the game a wise idea, especially when I know I'll be moving in a few years from California back east? How hard is it to get back into primary care after several years of orthopedics? Anyone done it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceBanner Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 DONT DO ORTHO. (unless you actually want to be an ortho PA) Take my advice and most everyone else's here: get into FP or IM if at all possible. I use this term a lot but think of it in terms of career capital. PAs that are able to get gigs with rare and valuable traits like lots of autonomy, control over day-to-day matters, time off, schedule flexibility and great pay all have some rare and valuable skills to offer in return. You get these by getting really good at what you do, which unless you have a STRONG interest in ortho is going to be general medicine. When you are really good at what you do, you essentially cant be ignored. No one is going to denigrate a PA with a lot of IM/FP experience. Who is more valuable on the job market: a PA who did occ med and ortho for 5 years, or a PA who had a short stint in occ med but then got into FP or IM and became really well-rounded in general practice?? It's not so much that FP or IM skills are rare, but they are valuable and translate well to many other areas of medicine. Ortho translates to ......ortho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbrsmurf Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 I work in a surgical subspecialty now, but my primary care exp/start made me more marketable and helped me get this job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted November 13, 2014 Moderator Share Posted November 13, 2014 Agree with above. if your dream is ortho and that is all you want to do then by all means to do ortho. If you can ever imagine doing anything else, don't do ortho. I knew from the start I was only interested in em and have done that since day 1. perhaps someday I will do rural primary care in a full scope situation (including er and hospital coverage). EM allows me to do primary care as I do a lot of it every day. ortho doesn't allow anything except ortho. maybe an ortho pa would have a leg up applying to other surgical jobs, but outside of the O.R. or ortho clinic an ortho pa doesn't have a lot of value in other fields. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KMD16 Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 Agree w last 3 post. Keep yourself marketable and well rounded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
convulsed Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 DONT DO ORTHO. (unless you actually want to be an ortho PA) Take my advice and most everyone else's here: get into FP or IM if at all possible. I use this term a lot but think of it in terms of career capital. PAs that are able to get gigs with rare and valuable traits like lots of autonomy, control over day-to-day matters, time off, schedule flexibility and great pay all have some rare and valuable skills to offer in return. You get these by getting really good at what you do, which unless you have a STRONG interest in ortho is going to be general medicine. When you are really good at what you do, you essentially cant be ignored. No one is going to denigrate a PA with a lot of IM/FP experience. Who is more valuable on the job market: a PA who did occ med and ortho for 5 years, or a PA who had a short stint in occ med but then got into FP or IM and became really well-rounded in general practice?? It's not so much that FP or IM skills are rare, but they are valuable and translate well to many other areas of medicine. Ortho translates to ......ortho. Agree^.I went into ortho then em/im , definitely easier to start broad first then find your niche, don't sell yourself short ,you might regret it down then line when you're trying to leave a specialty and go back into internal medicine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seekingtruths Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 DONT DO ORTHO. (unless you actually want to be an ortho PA) Take my advice and most everyone else's here: get into FP or IM if at all possible. I use this term a lot but think of it in terms of career capital. PAs that are able to get gigs with rare and valuable traits like lots of autonomy, control over day-to-day matters, time off, schedule flexibility and great pay all have some rare and valuable skills to offer in return. You get these by getting really good at what you do, which unless you have a STRONG interest in ortho is going to be general medicine. When you are really good at what you do, you essentially cant be ignored. No one is going to denigrate a PA with a lot of IM/FP experience. Who is more valuable on the job market: a PA who did occ med and ortho for 5 years, or a PA who had a short stint in occ med but then got into FP or IM and became really well-rounded in general practice?? It's not so much that FP or IM skills are rare, but they are valuable and translate well to many other areas of medicine. Ortho translates to ......ortho. Someone has been reading some Cal Newport :) Love it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goose37 Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 Devils advocate ...I went ortho as a new grad. Long hours ...still get my butt handed to me...make a little more than a FP would in my area. In the future I'm not gonna want these hours and hope for a more stable schedule ...like FP. I feel like I will bring ortho experience to a small town practice (setting, casting, suturing, knowing when a referral is appropriate). Plus I was a little youngrr coming out of school...harder for an older patient to trust a young+new+PA to manage their chronic conditions or believe them when "this is a virus". Feel like age does play a role in giving/receiving medical advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAAdmission Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 If you like to pick up heavy things and put them down, ortho is for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walkoffshot Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 If you like to pick up heavy things and put them down, ortho is for you. Nice try. So basically your saying you could walk into any gold's gym and take any douche in a cutoff shirt and could make them an Ortho provider. Ridiculous. Not buying it. Seen a lot of FP diagnosis of the generic "groin pull/strain" misdiagnosed for years until they see the gold's gym guy in a cut off find a real diagnosis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andohert Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 Nice try. So basically your saying you could walk into any gold's gym and take any douche in a cutoff shirt and could make them an Ortho provider. Ridiculous. Not buying it. Seen a lot of FP diagnosis of the generic "groin pull/strain" misdiagnosed for years until they see the gold's gym guy in a cut off find a real diagnosis. Hey, I resemble that remark! Just because I brought pictures of the deck I built to the job interview doesn't mean anything... In all seriousness- I started in ortho (3 years), then 2 years occ Med, now UC for the last year. Ortho experience (and my boss in occ health was a big military supporter) was a key factor in landing that job. I took a deployment early on that shored up my primary care skills. Being strong in occ Med got me into a UC company that sees a lot of work comp. It's a constant learning experience, but I feel pretty comfortable overall. Everyone bags on ortho for being monosyllabic brutes, but the shoulder is simply a black box to a lot of providers- it's nice to be a SME on knees and shoulders. If you can find a way to keep your generalist skills up then ortho can give you a really valuable skill set. Pay close attention to the medical management of your post-ops by the hospitalists. Pick up the phone and talk to the PCP when you're doing steroid injections or PO dose-pak in diabetics, learn to adjust the diabetes meds. Cover a high school sports team, do a boatload of sports physicals to build your mental database of heart and lung sounds- and do squat-to-stand on every single one of them, plus be able to explain what you're listening for and why to the parents. It will all make you better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMSGuy1982 Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 A chance to cut is a chance to cure! ;-). How many spinal fusions have had "good" long term outcomes? Nothing wrong with working in ortho but like others have said, make sure you really like it. I was very much into sports medicine in my younger years and worked as an EMT for a long time and thought I would love ortho and it's where I figured I would end up when I graduate in August. Recently I found that I really, really enjoy rural medicine in FM. Keep your options open and if ortho is where you land, so be it. Besides I will have to send an ACL tear to someone, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAAdmission Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Nice try. So basically your saying you could walk into any gold's gym and take any douche in a cutoff shirt and could make them an Ortho provider. Ridiculous. Not buying it. Seen a lot of FP diagnosis of the generic "groin pull/strain" misdiagnosed for years until they see the gold's gym guy in a cut off find a real diagnosis. Game, set and match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnBvpSU1Fcc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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