Switching specialties 2 years out of school

[crieman]

I'm not sure that anyone can truly help me make this decision but I contemplating a move into thoracic surgery from pulmonary/critical care after 2 years (first job out of school). I hesitate because I'm not dissatisfied with my current job at all but I don't feel completely fulfilled either. I did a rotation with this surgery group as a student and do the pulmonary consults on their patients now so they know me well and have offered me a job. Truthfully my ultimate "dream job" would be trauma/critical care where there is a component of surgery and ICU. There is currently no such position in my city and I'm not ready to move just yet due to owning a home, pregnant wife, etc...

My current job is about 75% pulmonary floor patients and 25% ICU (neuro, thoracic, medical) but we are pretty limited. I am the only mid-level so far with privileges for central and arterial lines and that was a battle. We are WAY behind other critical care PA's out there. Everything moves so slowly with this group that I'm not sure it will ever get to where I would want it to be. So would switching into thoracic surgery help my chances with getting a trauma/critical care job somewhere down the road? I would likely do it for 2-3 years before I would be ready to move on to a trauma/cc job. I guess I'm just looking for some advice from some of the more experienced PA's out there who have switched specialties. Especially when the current job I have is actually a great position. They treat us well, we're paid at the upper end of a hospital based PA range and the docs are all pretty cool.

Thanks

[andersenpa]

Sounds like you would like a cardiac job if you like Surgery + Critical Care. My experience is trauma has always been in teaching institutions, so I'm not sure how many PA postions in trauma allow OR and ICU equally.

 

If you have any hopes of landing an operative position then you should take the thoracic job just to get the OR experience. I would make sure that you will be involved in the postop care of the thoracic pts so you can later make the transition to a job that offers both.