place123 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 That's what bls reports here: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physician-assistants.htm#tab-3 57% work in doctors offices. It seems that most on this board work in emergency med though. does this seem right? i thought most would work in a hospital. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sas5814 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Having spent my whole career in primary care/family med and UC I am always surprised by our demographics. I have done both...worked in offices and currently work for a big hospital system. There are pluses and minuses to both. But to answer your question it sounds right to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
place123 Posted April 17, 2017 Author Share Posted April 17, 2017 Having spent my whole career in primary care/family med and UC I am always surprised by our demographics. I have done both...worked in offices and currently work for a big hospital system. There are pluses and minuses to both. But to answer your question it sounds right to me. mind explaining some of the pluses and minuses? Personally I feel I am better suited for quiet offices rather than a loud and hectic ER. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MT2PA Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 57% may be more than half but it's not 'most'. Consider that in theory jobs are fluid and the survey likely is a snapshot and some may do both clinic/hospital positions and if it's self reported (it doesn't say) who knows. That data also doesn't add up to 100% so.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sas5814 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 mind explaining some of the pluses and minuses? Personally I feel I am better suited for quiet offices rather than a loud and hectic ER. The plus of a smaller office is there is less corporate nonsense to deal with. You know everyone you work with and for. The opposite is true of working for a giant system. I know my bosses and they have about 100 other bosses up a giant food chain the defies description. Things roll down from on high that affect my work day from people who wouldn't know me if I rang their doorbell and make their decisions based on "big numbers" and "studies" and "statistics". My favorite so far is when we have meeting because they really really want our opinions on something some veep 8 stages up the ladder has already decided. recently we lost all the water at one of the urgent care centers. It was supposed to be on in an hour but 5 hours later no water. Everyone used the toilets..because the water was supposed to come back on so the place was starting to smell like a Calcutta outhouse. Our immediate supervisor said we couldn't close because some veep 4 or 5 places up the food chain said so. That kind of stuff can make you crazy. there are buzzwords and job titles that make me roll my eyes. I'm not a touchy feely kind of guy. My favorite? Financial integrity VP. Her job? lecture us about billing and maximizing collections. Financial integrity indeed... The upside? I am making great money,have great benefits, there is a specialist or a test available for anything my little black heart desires. In smaller offices I have been in they have trouble providing basic benefits because of cost and the general overhead of running a practice. Also while this is a giant organization they actually walk the walk of all of us being in this together, taking care of each other, having a quality of life beyond work. If the clinic I'm in loses money for a while there is a financial backstop to keep up going while we right the ship. Small offices can struggle or even suddenly collapse. That is the broad strokes written between patients. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
south Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Not an exhaustive list but Hospital pluses (like ED or Hospitalist / crit care) - set hours - plenty of backup - good equipment / facility (cafeteria, etc) - more variety and movement - big corporate structure Office pluses - small group of people to work with - "panel" of known patients - more variety/choice of locations (suburbs/rural etc) - a little office/desk or place to put your stuff etc. of course there are exceptions to all of these...i.e., in UC it's an office but you just take all comers, treat and street. I'm a hospital guy - I dig the office but I just kinda fall asleep without all the bustle and variety. It's sort of odd because I'm an introvert. What's cool about medicine is you can have two of the exact same job and they can look completely different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sk732 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Most PA"s where I work are hospital types, as many are hired for hospital based specialties - various surgical, EM, psych and such. I did FM for 3 years - liked it, but didn't like that I couldn't keep work at work, so went to EM, which I dabbled in for some time out of necessity and a bit of hobby thrown in. More and more hires in Canada are going to primary care though. SK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sas5814 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Exactly.I have been working in UC off and Not an exhaustive list but Hospital pluses (like ED or Hospitalist / crit care) - set hours - plenty of backup - good equipment / facility (cafeteria, etc) - more variety and movement - big corporate structure Office pluses - small group of people to work with - "panel" of known patients - more variety/choice of locations (suburbs/rural etc) - a little office/desk or place to put your stuff etc. of course there are exceptions to all of these...i.e., in UC it's an office but you just take all comers, treat and street. I'm a hospital guy - I dig the office but I just want to fall asleep without all the bustle and variety. It's sort of odd because I'm an introvert. What's cool about medicine is you can have two of the exact same job and they can look completely different. Exactly. I have been working in UC off and on for years. Some give shots of steroids and antibiotics to anyone for anything and some (like the one I'm in now) follows good science and medicine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWR Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 SAS and that is why I would NEVER work for corporate medicine. Enough issues in private practice with hungry OP's. 31 years in primary care. PS I sold my practice in NY to a hospital system and worked for them for 5 years. They Never interfered and sought my opinion regularly. Of course that was 15 years ago. IMHO corporate medicine will take over All specialties including primary care. Handwriting is on the wall. Just look around you. Need more clout from AAPA. We are over 100,000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reality Check 2 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Corporate medicine sucks. Sorry, nothing better to say. Too many suits, not enough workers. We support the suits who don't produce income. EVERYONE has an idea about how to do something and no one actually asks the highly trained skilled worker - the PA or doc. BUT, my private practice right now with a solo doc is killing me in many more ways including compliance, regs, ethics, etc. Right this minute - flipping burgers sounds nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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