Is PA School Worth the Future of the Profession??

[Andreasmo]

Thanks for the response!

[PACali]

Do not go to med school and think all your problems are solved and you will live happily ever after. I've seen many unhappy MDs. High burn out and suicide rate among US physicians tells me becoming a physician is not for everybody.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22911330

 

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2013/05/learned-saving-physicians-suicide.html

 

I think physician also have higher divorce rate, but I am not so sure.

[LT_Oneal_PAC]

As see no problem with admitting younger people with little and poor quality HCE if residencies were to become mandatory.

 

And unless people want there to eventually be mandatory doctorates in PA studies, better be embracing bridge programs.

[Paula.gomez2002]

Not naive here. Wish people were honest when they apply and write CASPA ps or interview at schools. Instead they BS themselves into PA school for all the wrong reasons. Then later we have so many people who are upset when they find out money isnt going to make you happy plus you wont get rich as a PA. If money is the main motivation you will never be happy in any healthcare field IMO.

 

I agree with you!!! I am going to apply for the PA program soon and right now I am 3 years into a medical assistant position and where I work we have PA students come and stay for a month or more doing their hours and a lot of them are going be great health care providers but there are some who are just there for the money and that isn't right at all!!! If you can't stand the look of urine or don't care about people in general you aren't going to be happy with your job! There are some students who don't even want to clean a wound or get sick to their stomach by seeing a boil... I'm sorry but you are not going to make it in the healthcare field!!! The reason I am applying for PA school is so I can help the community more than what I can do as a MA... I hope the people who are going into the healthcare field actually CARE!!!!!!

[EMEDPA]

I agree with you!!! I am going to apply for the PA program soon and right now I am 3 years into a medical assistant position and where I work we have PA students come and stay for a month or more doing their hours and a lot of them are going be great health care providers but there are some who are just there for the money and that isn't right at all!!! If you can't stand the look of urine or don't care about people in general you aren't going to be happy with your job! There are some students who don't even want to clean a wound or get sick to their stomach by seeing a boil... I'm sorry but you are not going to make it in the healthcare field!!! The reason I am applying for PA school is so I can help the community more than what I can do as a MA... I hope the people who are going into the healthcare field actually CARE!!!!!!

Sounds like good motivations. good luck.

[Patho]

@EMEDPA, can you tell us how your experiences from working in a metro area to a rural area differs? Such as the different responsibilities or the duties you were assigned and the environment at each place.

[EMEDPA]

@EMEDPA, can you tell us how your experiences from working in a metro area to a rural area differs? Such as the different responsibilities or the duties you were assigned and the environment at each place.

n metro level 1 and 2 trauma centers I saw fast track and "intermediate"(abd pain, etc) level patients.

working rural I either am scheduled alongside a doc alternating charts from the same rack regardless of acuity or as a solo provider doing everything including managing ems. at my rural job that also staffs a doc I can be running a code while the doc is seeing a runny nose. that would never happen in the big city trauma ctrs where PAs pretty much get pushed out of the way when anyone actually sick arrives. at the rural jobs you give an order for procedural sedation or rapid sequence intubation drugs and no one questions it. give the same order at a metro job and many nurses will say they don't feel comfortable with a pa giving the order.

[Simplify]

n metro level 1 and 2 trauma centers I saw fast track and "intermediate"(abd pain, etc) level patients.

working rural I either am scheduled alongside a doc alternating charts from the same rack regardless of acuity or as a solo provider doing everything including managing ems. at my rural job that also staffs a doc I can be running a code while the doc is seeing a runny nose. that would never happen in the big city trauma ctrs where PAs pretty much get pushed out of the way when anyone actually sick arrives. at the rural jobs you give an order for procedural sedation or rapid sequence intubation drugs and no one questions it. give the same order at a metro job and many nurses will say they don't feel comfortable with a pa giving the order.

 

Not to deviate the thread too much, but do you feel that an EM residency would give you more standing/autonomy at metro job? I understand that a residency is great for the PA's working knowledge of medicine, but do the rest of the staff, nurses, etc recognize a residency trained PA as having additional training vs a non-residency trained PA? Only curious because I am considering this route and I am trying to get a sense of how other positions in the emergency room view a residency-trained PA. Thanks!

[EMEDPA]

Not to deviate the thread too much, but do you feel that an EM residency would give you more standing/autonomy at metro job? I understand that a residency is great for the PA's working knowledge of medicine, but do the rest of the staff, nurses, etc recognize a residency trained PA as having additional training vs a non-residency trained PA? Only curious because I am considering this route and I am trying to get a sense of how other positions in the emergency room view a residency-trained PA. Thanks!

as a residency trained pa you have your pick of jobs. I would only pick a place that recognized the added benefits of a residency and gave extra pay and scope of practice because of it.

[khartma1]

It is has been my experience when trying to decide between PA and MD, that you are always going to find people who feel they made the wrong choice. While I do know a handful of PAs who wish that had just gone to medical school (most of them saying if they had started sooner/younger, they would have done MD), I also have met quite a few MDs and med school students who wish they had gone for PA. Of course, I take the current med school students a little less seriously because I think the stress and current loan situations are giving them a bit of a negative view. But, I think the fact that there are practicing doctors who encourage people to do PA over MD just shows that, it's sort of a personal thing. I think either way you'll find people who wish they had done something differently. You just need to decide whats best for you! I think shadowing can be helpful for this. If you shadow both a PA and a MD it might give you a better idea of things.

 

Good luck with your choice!