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I think you should look at each of your reasons to consider PA vs physician separately: Better work/life balance: completely false. PA's schedules match those of the physicians or are often slightly worse. I do EM and have for 7 years. My shifts have always been similar to the docs until now. Now, I do solo overnight coverage while the doc does solo day coverage at my hospital. Ability to switch areas of medicine: currently true, but becoming less so as more employers are looking for in field experience. Less time in school: very true - 2.5 years of a master's program vs 4 years of medical school plus 3-many years of residency for a physician. Starting work sooner: yes, due to the above Other things that are relevant: Earning power: as a PA you're lucky if you're making 45% of what a physician in your field makes and the gap is much wider in specialties, especially surgical ones. This is the reward for a much higher front end investment in education. Getting the 1st job as a PA is getting harder, for all the reasons you've seen here: rapid growth in the number of new grad PA's every year, and the massive increase in new NP's every year coupled with less restrictive supervisory rules. The job market for experienced PA's is still good - mostly for changing jobs within their area of experience. PA is my 3rd career, so there weren't enough years left in my work life to make physician pay out. I have a job I really enjoy. However, had I started down the same path 10 years earlier, I would have pursued medical school - probably as a DO. The key you should focus on, and this is the same that I advise all PA hopefuls who shadow me, is to carefully consider the upfront investment in becoming a physician and the much higher payout in terms of responsibility and compensation vs the more rapid transition to work as a PA. Decide which is best for you.

I doubt unemployment will pay if you still have earned income, ie it won't compensate for a reduction in pay due to cuts in hours, hourly rate, or both. I also doubt if it will pay for the loss of 1 job if you are still working at another.

I've had mixed success with this. I try it with frontal headaches and it seems to help about 60% of the time. If the HA is severe and is accompanied by photophobia & N/V I usually go to my migraine cocktail. For tension type headaches, e.g. neck pain progressing to occipital HA, I've had good success with occipital nerve blocks + trigger point injections in the cervical paraspinal muscles.

Another thing to think about, especially for the older ones of us: the recently or about to retire folks like GMOTM. The fall of the stock market is having a big effect on retirement savings. My retirements are back to being only down approximately 25%. While I expect that there will be a slow recovery over the next few years, it's also quite possible that I will be working longer than planned.

My concern is like Ltjg's: what will happen to my critical access hospital. We were already seeing volumes drop due to our orthopod retiring. Now with elimination of all elective procedures the surgery is almost completely idle and we're seeing very little of the routine testing, imaging, outpatient PT, etc. So, I'm sure the financial impact is there. We staff 1 doc during the day and 1 PA at night, so I feel safe: you can't go below 1 provider and I cover the IP unit at night. So, unless the hospital closes the ED - unlikely - I'm more safe than most.

This poor gentleman was National Guard. Does anyone know if he was working as part of the guard or at his civilian job? What area of medicine did he do?

NCCPA just sent out a press release saying that "some" Pearson-View centers will be open for PANCE and PANRE: Greetings to PANCE and PANRE Candidates: The NCCPA staff and I know that this is a challenging time for everyone, and we appreciate your patience. We are pleased to announce that test delivery is now available for essential medical service providers, such as the PAs, at a subset of Pearson VUE test centers across the United States. Not all test centers will be immediately open due to factors such as local government guidance, business operations, staff availability, and the supply of cleaning and disinfectant materials. Your health and safety are paramount for both NCCPA and Pearson VUE alike and more test centers will be available as soon as feasible based on the factors above. Pearson VUE’s test centers are following government guidelines for social distancing and limiting the number of individuals, including staff, in the test center at any time. As a result of these measures, appointment availability will be extremely limited. Also, because the situation rapidly changes as this pandemic impacts different areas of our country, the list of open test centers may be revised as additional centers are added or as others close. Please continue to check for appointment availability often as Pearson VUE works to increase availability as quickly as possible. In addition to social distancing, Pearson VUE has advised that they are cleaning and disinfecting the open test centers, including all objects candidates interact with, such as scanners, keyboards, and locker fobs, with increased frequency and between each test taker. You will be allowed to bring a face mask and/or protective gloves to wear during your exam appointment if you wish to do so. Please note: you will be asked to briefly remove the mask during the check-in process to verify your identity and take your photo. If you have applied for PANCE or PANRE and have received your exam acknowledgement notice, please visit Pearson VUE’s web site at PearsonVUE.com to schedule (or reschedule, if your exam date was previously canceled) your exam online. If you need to contact Pearson VUE by phone, please be patient, as they are experiencing longer wait times than usual due to the level of support needed during this time. As always, the NCCPA is standing by to answer any questions you may have, as well. Please feel free to reach out to us at nccpa@nccpa.net. Thank you for your patience as NCCPA and Pearson VUE work through these unprecedented times. We want you to know that we are doing all we can to support you in your important role as health care providers — especially during this time of critical need. Best regards, Dawn Morton-Rias, EdD, PA-C NCCPA President/CEO

The reason TeamHealth did not cut pay is that they had just cut all physician pay by 4% about a month prior and eliminated all CME allowances for all physicians, PA's, and NP's. They have also been cutting staffing hours at many sites.

Actually, depending upon the manufacturing line, it can be very hard to re-configure it to manufacture something different. For example, changing a bottle filling line to fill a different size bottle with a different type liquid, add a different label, and add a different top - not too bad. To change a soft goods line to make masks where you have multiple different materials: paper, elastic, metal, plastic - would be far more difficult. (spent 25 years at a Fortune 50 consumer goods company pre-PA).

@MacLocal: Ohio has legislation explicitly prohibiting PA's from administering or maintaining general or regional anesthesia. The definition of regional anesthesia is a little blurry. While nerve blocks are considered local anesthesia, are ultrasound guided blocks? Under Ohio law, a block done to relieve a painful condition is considered local, but it's unclear about something like a scalene block to reduce a dislocated shoulder. Another inconsistency: as a paramedic I can and have used paralytics in the field to RSI but as a PA I can't order the same medications to RSI in the ED.

CAH in western Indiana: 1st week volume was about 50% of normal. Now it's about 75--80% of normal. We have seen many of the trivial complaints decline, but we have enough older and chronically ill patients that our census seems to have a minimum of the 75-80% based on their needs. Our inpatient unit has 8 rooms. They had been double occupancy, now they're single occupancy. When I left on Thursday, all rooms were full, only 1 with a COVID-19 case. The hospital has stopped all elective procedures, outpatient PT, etc. Those folks are losing hours - though some are picking up hours at the screening desk where all comers: patients, family, deliveries, fire/EMS/police are screened before they're allowed in the building.

For those of you treating COVID-19 patients in an in-patient setting, is hydroxychloroquine useful? I do EM, so it's not part of what I do. I have non-medical friends asking about it, some citing the lastest thing they've seen on the internet, especially from Chine or the Arabian peninsula, saying that it was key to controlling COVID-19 infections? Thanks!

Well, my critical access hospital has 1 "ventilator" - a BiPap that can do most of what a ventilator does. The county EMS based at the hospital does have a transport vent. I do have 1 other BiPap. RT's, well, that's the RN's and me. We make no claims of being a "major hospital" - just the only 1 for 30 miles in any direction.

I wonder if the cartridge respirators that were distributed to fire departments during the WMD scare would be of value.

I did PRN work for about 1.5 years at an UC in KY that seemed to focus on the medicaid population. 13 hour days, ~ 3 pt's/hour, low acuity. A few folks used it for their primary care as the UC was owned by a doc who had an IM practice across the street. Mostly URI, UTI, mild asthma, some belly pain. A few procedures: simple lacs and simple I&D's.