starlitez7 Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 Hello Fellow PAS, I have been a physician assistant in psychiatry for the past 2 years. Before that, I did emergency medicine for 3 months but didn't feel that it was the right fit for me. I like psychiatry and I think it has been pretty smooth for me doing psychiatry. In addition, the hours are great. However, I would like to switch to another specialty. My problem is that I have pretty much forgotten anything in medicine. I only graduated about 2.5 years ago. I feel like I lack confidence because of this and I am scared to make the switch as I haven't done anything medicine related for the past 2 years as i was doing psychiatry. I would like to know what I should do to do another specialty because I don't want to forget medicine. I might even want to pick up something part time in medicine to make sure that I am more versatile as a PA. Please advice on how I can go back to studying all the things from PA school so that I can become a better PA. Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted October 9, 2016 Administrator Share Posted October 9, 2016 Do you have an opportunity to moonlight in an UC or similar situation? There's a lot of things coming into those clinics that should give you an impetus to remember how to handle everything. What sort of specialty would you want to go into, if not psych? Family med has the most crossover with psych. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electric130 Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 You would probably be surprised what will come back to you if you change specialties. Depending on where you change to you will have a learning curve in learning that particular specialty anyway. You are not that far out of school that you cannot make a change. What becomes difficult down the road is leaving a higher paying position that you are very productive at to go to an area that you will need training. At this point in your career that should not be an issue. If you want to make a change I would go for it, just be completely honest with your new employer that you will need support and mentorship Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MT2PA Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 I agree with Rev - pick up a moonlighting or very part time gig on the side. EMed might not be your thing for a FT/long term position but it is likely the fastest way to get back into non specialty training. It might also help you decide which specialty you'd like to move into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quietmedic Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 Without knowing what you want to switch to, it's a little hard to comment...I had the same fear after doing four years in one very specific specialty, the like the other posters mentioned it does come back to you... resources like up-to-date are absolutely invaluable, as well, without knowing the specifics of what you want to switch into, there are a lot of resources for pre-education...lecture series (I'm thinking of em boot camp in the case of emergency medicine, I'm sure there aresimilar things for other specialties) , podcasts, and Specialty CME weekends, you can even do a PA exam review weekend what's will give you a crash course review in just about everything, so they are a little bit more tailored towards test-taking then Street medicine. would you mind sharing what you are switching into? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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