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I get your frustration. But c’mon man. I know plenty of NPs who are solid clinicians and have skills identical to PAs. Do PAs have better schooling? Yes. Are most who come out of school better prepared? Yes. However, I know plenty of PAs with little real life medical experience and nurses who go to NP school with lots of RN experience. When I finish NP school I will be fighting for PAs. If you become a DO, you should be fighting for PAs, not tearing down/fighting NPs. If you choose to do the latter you won’t get far. The wheel is already in motion and there won’t be much that can be done to reverse these independent policies.

It sounds like we’ll be hearing back starting tomorrow. Good luck to everyone and fingers crossed!

Then I’m sorry but they should not be accredited until they can find enough sites. I don’t have a horse in this fight as I am not a PA. But I do respect all the PA students I’ve precepted - they are smart capable students. I hold them to the same standard as I do MS-3s, and they come through. And I’ve learned a lot from experienced PAs as a med student and a resident. If the cost of increasing the numbers is lowering of standards then I feel like it will come back to bite the profession in the butt. Because those people will graduate and find jobs and the impressions may not be all that great...

Optimal Team Practice has been approved and some efforts to water it down were defeated at the HOD this year. It is a change that has to be made state by state and the wheels have started turning. This is not a process that can be accomplished quickly. Somewhere around a million dollars were allocated by the AAPA to hire a consulting firm to make recommendation on the best title to change to and the best way to make that happen. Once a title and method has been settled on the actual change, again, has to be done state by state but is fairly simple in that it just requires amendment to existing enabling legislation that essentially says "everywhere the term physician assistant appears is now amended/changed to *title." If you have some ideas on how to do more faster I am sure the folks leading this charge would love to hear your thoughts and have your shoulder to the wheel helping make it happen. Yes we are behind the legislative and PR curve compared to the NPs. As has been stated they are reaping the rewards of years and years of hard work on the legislative front and it isn't going to go backwards. Our best bet is to learn from their success and emulate it before we become irrelevant in the marketplace.

It's worth mentioning: stopping these folk from getting disability is not your job. Be objective, fair and honest in your assessments; do the right tests to find the right answer. Don't end up on disability yourself, wheelchair bound from a massive stroke, because you let the malingerers drive your blood pressure through the roof.

"There's nothing that we do as PA's that doctors don't or can't do." I work in a large academic hospital in NYC in CT surgery with 11 PAs. We all do vein harvesting for CABGs, know how to do them with different harvesting systems, know how to do them open/endoscopically, have the knowledge of the most updated methods of doing it. None of the surgeons know how to do it with some of the newer systems. Some have the knowledge to do it, but have no experience doing it. We teach them how to do it. We teach the residents how to do it. There was one time where there wasn't enough PAs scheduled and an emergent CABG came in. The surgeons were freaking out because they needed someone to harvest but the other surgeons didn't know how to do it. The service would fall apart if we weren't there. This is one of many examples of what PAs in my service can do that doctors don't. In all specialities there are things that docs don't do, some major, some minor.

Pretty stupid post. 1) Any supervising physician and medical practice (whether a hospital or a private practice) who lets a second day graduate see "complex patients" on their second day without a physician to consult with is incompetent. It sounds like you were thrown into a horrible situation, which is unfortunate. 2) "Worse than doctors and do nothing better than them" - I have worked with numerous doctors who I believe have less medical knowledge than myself. I have had physicians ask for help with certain procedures which they are uncomfortable with, and that I perform better than they do. I look at us as a TEAM who both help each-other. 3) No one in medicine knows everything. You have to be comfortable knowing what you do/don't know and be comfortable admitting that. I tell patient's whenever appropriate, "I do not know, let me refer you to a specialist who may be able to answer this question." "I don't know, let me reschedule you with the medical director so you can get a second opinion." And of course, I always continue to educate myself. 4) Medicine costs in this country are OUT OF CONTROL. PA-C's and APRNs are a way to reduce cost to an extent, and we are highly valued by both private practices and hospitals. It sounds like this poster went into the wrong profession. Go to Medical school.

I don't necessarily like to "tear down" another profession but NPs have legitimately pushed their authority, clout, and power too far. The very fact that PAs have far superior, standardized and verifiably higher quality training, yet are restricted legislatively compared to NPs proves this point. I feel like many PAs are being sort of 'forced' into the idea of independence from Physicians, not because we believe it is best for patient care, but because of competition from NPs. Really it's the only way for us to survive, because the current trends and signs show that PAs are being outpaced by NPs due to their full practice authority and other legislative wins. In a perfect world, NPs and PAs would both operate in an OTP type environment.

So I went to the open house last night and got a lot of info on the program, some of it surprising. I thought I would summarize things here in case it was helpful to other applicants this cycle. The number one priority at Pacific is GPA. Although their cut off is a 3.0, it was suggested not to apply without at least a 3.4. Of 2200 applications, only about 700 meet their soft GPA requirements and the rest they screen out. Both BCP GPA and last 45 semester credits are weighted equally, and more or less these two number should average to a 3.6 or above to be considered a competitive applicant. They will only read two LORs. It was stressed that they want to see letters from clinicians or supervisors in the medical field. If you have five letters, the two strongest medical letters will be selected and read as part of the application. Even if you have a strong academic letter and two weaker medical letters, they will toss the academic letter. Because they prefer high GPA applicants who are already obviously academically strong, at this point they just want to hear how those in the medical field view your abilities. Once your application is verified and sent over to Pacific, they will not look at updates. After verification your app is printed and it is not revisited. Any updates over the application cycle will not be viewed. Pacific doesn't use rolling admissions. They start offering interviews in September, about two weeks after the deadline. There is supposedly no benefit to early submission and all applicants verified by September 1st are considered for interviews. Interviews are offered on Saturdays in October, November and December. There will be four interview days this year. On each date about a quarter of the class is admitted. You will receive an acceptance email in about 3 - 5 days, usually the Tuesday or Wednesday following your interview day, if you were accepted and likely a phone call as well. Deposit is $1,000 and you have two weeks to accept or decline the offer. Those are the main things that stood out to me! If anyone has specific questions I would be happy to try to answer them. Good luck to everyone this cycle!

I don't know how you can expect to get paid the same is an MD. That is laughable. Our schooling generally is 2.5 years for a Master's degree. Their schooling is 4 years for MD. After that we are able to start practicing. If they want to be hired anywhere other than a sketchy urgent care center they have to complete a residency, which on average is 3-4 years. During those 3-4 years they get paid $50,000 a year to work their asses off. 80-100 hour weeks (yes they have enacted laws about how many hours residents can work, however there are 1,000 ways around this), every week for 3-4 years. Then a lot of them do a fellowship after this for an additional 2-3 years. That is 4+3/4+2/3 years of training = 9-11 years of training versus 2.5 years of training (potentially more if you do a PA residency). If you want to make $300,000 - $500,000 like most MD's, go to medical school! I actually had a discussion with one of the physician's and with the cost of his Medical School, residency/fellowship wages... versus my 2.5 years of PA school and immediately earning $100,000 a year... it would be about year 7 into his career that he breaks even with a PA after paying off all loans, and making up wages. I would rather be a PA... just my opinion.

And then there are those with Migraines that spend their days puking, in a dark room with total silence. Any light or sound makes you want to kill yourself. So bad they are willing to have electrodes installed sub-Q that with a remote can fire the occipital and trigeminal nerves in an attempt to offset some of the pain.... There is fraud everywhere. You can not judge everyone based on someone you know who is not legit. Each case needs to be reviewed with an open clear NON-BIASED MIND. Something in very short supply by providers today.

I’d probably try endocrinology and apply to fellowships next year. It’s a more bound set of problems to work and learn and shouldn’t pidgeonhole you too much in your future. Plus the mechanics of seeing people, ordering tests, adjusting meds, etc should help you build confidence. And you might end up enjoying it. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Got my acceptance call around noon today! still shaking!!

If you're willing to invest 1-1.5 years to become a LPN. You ought to think about doing a 12 month - 15 months accelerated BSN.

Interviewed 7/27, was admitted/accepted an hour after interviews ended. Looking forward to going to this school!

I am at $65 per hour as a federal employee but have benefits that kick butt and make my worth about $35000 more per year, seriously. Don't forget benefits - PTO, sick bank, insurance, matching retirement, etc. Sometimes the money doesn't come home in a check but it makes your life way nicer. I make "enough" - my family is safe, solid and well taken care of. Not in it for millions and I work fair hours per week, NO CALL EVER, no weekends, no nights and a great support staff. Wouldn't trade this at this point in my career.

That guy forgot he was an MD. ;-) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Im in too!! Woooo! I'm so happy guys. After all of our hard work we're finally gonna be PAs! I cant wait to meet all of my classmates!

In addition to the above, the AAPA helped introduce into Congress this April a bill to finally allow PAs to be able to directly bill and be reimbursed for their services in the Medicare system. If that passes, you can bet that third-party private payers will follow suit. And once we control our financial destiny, everything else will follow.

I received an email offering admission this morning! I am so thankful and can't believe that I have the opportunity to become a PA!

Interviewed July 10th and was accepted July 13th! Good luck everyone!

2 Experiences from my clinical rotations... 1) Internal Medicine residents "saw patients for 40 hours a week" but they did not consider any charting, presentations, ground rounds, etc as time working. Therefore when it was all said and done they were working 80+ hour weeks. I know I would come in to the hospital around 6:00am as a student and stay till 5:00-6:00pm, and every single time the residents were there before me, and went home after me. 2) Surgical rotation: Residents literally would spend the night in the hospital. They would show up around 4:30am to start pre-rerounding, and literally stay until 6am the next day. The residents expected us to be there as long as them. There were numerous times I was up for 32 consecutive hours in surgeries, evaluating patients for surgery, and doing post-operative visits. As a PA student on my surgical rotation, I would estimate I was in the hospital 72-80 hours a week for 6 consecutive weeks. The residents also got treated like crap by the attending physicians... "You are not meant to be a surgeon" "You do not have the hands of a surgeon" "How do you expect to do surgery" "Maybe you should consider a different specialty" and watch them literally tear up in front of others... Again for 50-70K a year, no thank you.

Oh man! Such a great question! I’d like to get into internal med, dermatology, or emergency med. Good thing about this field we get to experience it all! Haha

The grass is always greener, over the septic tank.

Hey everyone! My name is Mary and I am a first year PA student at Cornell so I totally used this forum last year. If you guys have any questions feel free to reply to this and I can see if I can be of any help! I was talking with Director Marciano two days ago and he said they were going to start interviews in the next couple weeks! We just moved to a new facility and so that kind of delayed things from last year. So the time line might be a bit pushed back. In my experience I submitted my Caspa first week of June and submitted my secondary application July 3rd and got emailed a week later for an interview for end of July (I was in the first interview group).