kenab Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 While I know the general responses to this question, I'd be curious to hear your stories. Why did you become a PA? Why not become a different kind of health care professional (MD, RN, NP etc)? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiggySRNA Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Process of elimination: I want to practice medicine so that eliminates all nursing fields and ancillary professions (exception of NP). If I wanted to be a NP I would have pursue RN during undergrad but opted for Health Sciences because I have no intention of becoming a nurse. Medical School is the obvious option but not worth attending only to end up in Primary Care/Community Health (my passion). I want to be a Generalist/General Practitioner. FWIW, the MDs I work with encourage me to become a PA and not a MD :) I have other life plans such as obtaining a private pilot license, running a non-profit organization, and traveling, so becoming a PA will maximize my earning potential with the ability to do all the above. I won't be in school for an exhausting amount of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BARONEUS Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Mainly for the money. Plus docs never spend time with their patients, unlike PAs. PAS have way better schedules than docs too, so basically a no-brainier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted January 16, 2016 Moderator Share Posted January 16, 2016 I was a 27 yr old medic with a bs degree and all pa school prereqs done and a fear of o-chem and the mcat....should have gone to medschool. would have fit my personality better. I don't do deferential very well....:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acebecker Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 I wanted to practice medicine and see my children grow up. I didn't want to miss their formative years because of my dedication to attaining a chief resident slot or something worthless like that (I mean worthless in the cosmic sense of worth - if you are 100% focused on a career as an MD, being chief resident makes tons of sense). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted January 17, 2016 Moderator Share Posted January 17, 2016 I wanted to practice medicine and see my children grow up. I didn't want to miss their formative years because of my dedication to attaining a chief resident slot or something worthless like that (I mean worthless in the cosmic sense of worth - if you are 100% focused on a career as an MD, being chief resident makes tons of sense). a few years out you will see many docs work a lot less than the pas they work with. I'm having a hard time working down from 220-240 hrs month to 180. most of the docs I work with are at 120-150 hrs/mo...and make 3x my salary..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAMEDIC Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 I wanted a job that didn't involve me sitting behind a desk all day, allowed me to do some problem-solving, would pay well, and would probably not be outsourced to India anytime soon. And because I didn't want to go into massive debt for it and thought it would be cool to occasionally fly around in helicopters, I decided to join the military. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ERCat Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Medicine always fascinated me and I wanted to connect with people in my job. Thought about med school - completed all the pre-reqs and did well, started studying for MCAT but for some reason I couldn't get jazzed about med school and never applied. Something about it didn't jive with me - the fierce competition, being surrounded by arrogant people (haha), feeling stressed out and pushed to the limit for 8 years, wasting away my 20s, accumulating all the debt, knowing there was a chance of not going into the speciality I wanted after all that hard work - yikes! Plus I shadowed a PA in CT surgery and loved him - patients loved him, doctors respected him, he was very happy with his job. Basically I became a PA because PAs rock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiggySRNA Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Basically I became a PA because PAs rock. ^^^^^^^^^^ A fire was lit under me when I decided PA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reality Check 2 Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 All through high school I did AP everything and was science oriented. Parents and family were medical - military, nurses, etc For some unknown reason I got a business degree. Honestly, no clue why I did that. Hate sales, sucked at economics and finance and less than zero interest in being a CPA. Serious brain fart 30 yrs ago. Right before graduation I re-upped college registration to retake those pesky science AP classes I took in high school. Live and learn. My aunt, the RN, psych nurse and general weirdo told me I was too stubborn to be a nurse and suggested PA. I had been treated by PAs on base smost of my childhood and never knew what they were. I called the local program in Dallas where I was born and raised and got to shadow a student. Understood an amazing amount of the classes I sat in on. Signed up the next day. No national process then. Applied to one program only and got in. Found my niche. Stuff made sense, I was good with a scalpel and am pretty intuitive - some docs don't get empathic abilities - but my traits fit with PA well. I was single, had good family support and no debt from undergrad. My inner geek had a blast in school and I skipped my vacation month to do extra rotations and found the ER to be a fascinating place. Graduated with honors. Only $25K in debt. Had a job 2 months before graduation. Took the PANCE the old (and considerably cooler way) with 3 days of bubble sheets and a mock patient. Got my results 3 MONTHS later in a plain brown envelope and embarked on an amazing career that has been wild and sometimes frustrating. Considered medical school a few times but could not fathom going ass backwards to do 4 yrs of stuff I did side by side with the med students and then up to 5 yrs of residency while contemplating marriage and kids and amazing debt. Can't look back now. Have been told by multiple docs (many female) that they wish they had gone PA instead. Now, I hope for the day I have autonomy since the docs are retiring and fewer are choosing primary care. Evolution..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceBanner Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 I had an interest in medicine and physiology, and wanted something that was guaranteed to pay well with very good job security. I was gunning for medical school for a time but ultimately decided that would be a poor choice for me, and I was so right. To be honest I chose a curious profession for not being a "people" person. I could easily work a job with little to no face-to-face interaction and be very satisfied. I relish the days when I have a only a handful of patients and there is no one in the office; and I hate the days with a packed schedule and all providers in clinic. I've kinda gotten used to it, but what I'm saying is you should try to choose a job based on your personality type. If you are a true introvert you will find constantly being "needed" very draining. It's easy to romanticize medicine when you are a college student. The money, the respect, the responsibility and decision-making---all of these are here to varying degrees---but now that I'm IN it, I realize it's a job. I want to be good at my job, and I take a certain degree of pride in my work, but at the end of the day I want to go home and see my wife and do the things I really love to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acebecker Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 a few years out you will see many docs work a lot less than the pas they work with. I'm having a hard time working down from 220-240 hrs month to 180. most of the docs I work with are at 120-150 hrs/mo...and make 3x my salary..... Roger that. But I'd have a 10 year old I didn't know, a 6 year old who barely knew what I look like, and I have 2 sons that I might not have made the time for because of that pesky MD. :) You could use the argument that I could start having kids now, in my 30s, since I'd be wrapping up my residency in another couple of years and while that is true, I also did not want to be in my mid-50s with kids at home. So.... Basically, I chose family over an expanded scope of practice and independence. I work 200 hrs/month and it's tolerable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newton9686 Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 I believe the MD is over kill for primary care. Plus I cherish the idea of being able to work in a speciality early in my career before transitioning to primary care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myironlung Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 While I know the general responses to this question, I'd be curious to hear your stories. Why did you become a PA? Why not become a different kind of health care professional (MD, RN, NP etc)? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Strictly money and job security Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted January 18, 2016 Moderator Share Posted January 18, 2016 Roger that. But I'd have a 10 year old I didn't know, a 6 year old who barely knew what I look like, and I have 2 sons that I might not have made the time for because of that pesky MD. :) You could use the argument that I could start having kids now, in my 30s, since I'd be wrapping up my residency in another couple of years and while that is true, I also did not want to be in my mid-50s with kids at home. So.... Basically, I chose family over an expanded scope of practice and independence. I work 200 hrs/month and it's tolerable. fair enough. I waited until my 30s to have kids, worked too much the first decade of their lives, planned my doctoral completion to coincide with the end of middle school for them so I could be around more during their teen years. trying to cut back to 160-180 hrs/mo now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dream2pa Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 I wanted a job that didn't involve me sitting behind a desk all day, allowed me to do some problem-solving, would pay well, and would probably not be outsourced to India anytime soon. And because I didn't want to go into massive debt for it and thought it would be cool to occasionally fly around in helicopters, I decided to join the military. outsource to India?? that's hilarious :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMann Posted January 19, 2016 Share Posted January 19, 2016 Was a 35 yo FF/medic who wanted to do "more." I knew that doing 20 more yrs in the fire service was going to be frustrating and would be hard on me physically. I needed 5 prereq classes, so I took them and started applying. Got accepted to the local program and haven't looked back. I think the PA route was a good next step for me from being a paramedic. I'm sure at some point I'll wish I had gone MD route, but, like others have mentioned, there are tradeoffs. I have three elementary age kids at home, so being gone for 7-8 yrs won't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.