glikesw Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 I understand that this is subjective, but I'd like to hear some other opinions on what are the best specialties for PAs today in our current medical practice environment. I am PA who has been in practice for 2 years in primary care and I am definitely ready to make a change into specialty practice. There is no way I could see doing this for my entire career. I will say it does seem that Primary care is where PAs have the most autonomy. I've read around on some other threads and the consensus seems to be that those that work in primary care experience more burnout, to which I can relate. What are the best specialties for us in terms of 1) Level of autonomy 2) Salary/benefits 3) Amount of stress 4) Work/life balance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceBanner Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 Also primary care here, and I concur. Others can chime in but I hear great things about derm. The "forbidden city". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmiller3 Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 Psychiatry gets pretty good reviews from those who do it. Higher pay, great hours, and one of the lowest burnout rates in the business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyBoy Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 I'll advocate for critical care, my experience in the MICU :) 1.Autonomy: Day time, a collaborative experience. At times, like the attending-fellow experience, otherwise, general autonomy depending on the level of comfort per attendings. Night time, full autonomy. 2. Salary: Should be higher given the amount of procedures, in-patient billing, and high stakes of critical care. 3. Stress: At work? High. Out of work. None. I'll say this balances to a moderate level. 4. Work/life: Easy balance, but depends on the hospital system (on-call, 24h shifts, etc), but, generally as #3 was alluding to, once I leave work and sign out, I'm done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beattie228 Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 I work at a hospital based Urgent Care. 1.) Very autonomous. Shift is always a Doc and a PA but we're both doing our own thing. I'm able to bounce ideas off of them in terms of a particular treatment plan but otherwise I'm left to my own devices 2.) Salary and benefit package is very handsome 3.) The work itself isn't too stressful. Biggest source of stress for me is making sure I stay on my toes to not miss a potentially dangerous diagnosis. 4.) Work life balance is great. I work 3 12 hour shifts a week which lends itself to a lot of time away from the office. I also like the ability to leave the state or the country and not have to worry about my patient schedule. When I'm on, I'm on and when I'm off, I'm off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted February 23, 2017 Administrator Share Posted February 23, 2017 I've been doing a part-time gig in sleep medicine for about a month now. It's a pretty nice job. No call, no taking work home, decent pay, low stress, and you're actually making a needed difference to the patients you treat. 100% autonomy, but collaborate with the RPSGTs who actually do the home sleep study or CPAP setup and answer all the insurance questions. Given the American obesity epidemic, it's a growth (sorry, not sorry) industry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.