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The current STATE of PA jobs availability 2017...


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5 hours ago, NJPL1213 said:

First off, this a majority selection bias. Yes these are real PAs but there are also hundreds of thousands of PAs that do not go on this site, or do not post about their experiences because they are content with their job. Then you have the few that feel the need to vent about a bad day or bad experience, so they make a post on this site. I am not saying that they shouldn't, but these few posts are not indicative of the profession as a whole. So yes, the points being made should be considered negativity, as I could name hundreds of good things about the profession as well.

All I am saying is that this profession is no different then any other profession in the points that are being made. Yes, some of the things you are saying were not a problem 10-20 years ago when some of you started practicing and when there were not as many PA or NP programs up and running yet. But times are changing, and in my opinion, healthcare is changing in a way that is more beneficial for us to be practicing. Like I said in my first post, doctors, lawyers, accountants, teachers, nurses, police officers, etc. all have things that make their profession good and bad. If you scrutinize something enough, you can find something wrong with it. All these points being made are thoughts of negativity. 

Additionally, I don't see how you can consider these articles "fake news." These are off multiple platforms (non-health related) and were for several years. Yes, dentist, OB/GYN, and pediatrician are on this list. They are good jobs, with good pay, good outlook, good quality of life, etc. I found articles back 10 years ago, where business-oriented jobs dominated the list. However, with the way our government chooses to run, coupled with the fact that people are getting older, healthcare related jobs are taking over. I don't see how it is that hard to believe. 

I'm not trying to be bias and talk our profession up so much. I'm also not trying to defend the profession and say there is nothing wrong with it. I do believe that times are changing and some things need to be done for the future for us to be able to succeed. However, the negativity that some of you are spitting out, merely thinking that this is the only profession that this is occurring to, just sounds plain foolish. A lot of what is being said is deterring young individuals away from the profession, instead of finding a way to correct the problems that lay ahead. 

Also, the title of this post "The current state of PA job availability" is totally misleading. This may be the state of the job market in your speciality and in your area, but this is NOT the current state of the PA job market as a whole.

Speaking from the standpoint of someone going back over thirty years here in Texas only, I’m not so sure that those coming out now in the state aren’t on the downslope of the bell curve.  Jobs may become more plentiful but I still prefer quality over quantity.  I can’t even tell you how many programs we have here now but I do know that there were only three civilian programs back in my training time period, and classes were a heck of a lot smaller (25 or so on average) through the two UT programs and Baylor.

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1 hour ago, GetMeOuttaThisMess said:

Speaking from the standpoint of someone going back over thirty years here in Texas only, I’m not so sure that those coming out now in the state aren’t on the downslope of the bell curve.  Jobs may become more plentiful but I still prefer quality over quantity.  I can’t even tell you how many programs we have here now but I do know that there were only three civilian programs back in my training time period, and classes were a heck of a lot smaller (25 or so on average) through the two UT programs and Baylor.

There are 5 in DFW now that I know of and 6 if you count Lubbock.  A lot of PA grads there move to DFW after PA school.  Like I mentioned in another post, then you have everyone moving from flooded out Houston (which I totally get).  = Saturation.

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11 hours ago, Cideous said:

There are 5 in DFW now that I know of and 6 if you count Lubbock.  A lot of PA grads there move to DFW after PA school.  Like I mentioned in another post, then you have everyone moving from flooded out Houston (which I totally get).  = Saturation.

There are 2 in DFW.  UTSW and UNT.  Texas Tech is in Midland, not on the main campus in Lubbock.  Baylor is in Houston and UTMB is in Galveston, and then there's San Antonio and UT-RGV and the Interservice program. As far as I know the PA programs in Texas haven't changed since I was applying 10 years ago.  Some new ones have attempted and failed and dropped out of the process before getting provisional accreditation.

Agreed, however, that DFW is nearing saturation with working PAs.  Sadly, just a couple of hours east of DFW is a rural area in which PAs are desperately needed (4+ week waits just to see a PCP) and would flourish in, if the dinosaur administrators in the area would ever pull their heads out of their butts and start giving us a little respect there.  

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17 hours ago, Cideous said:

^^^

When I read post after post here and on other sites starting with..."Why didn't anyone tell me it was going to be like this....?", over and over again, I just don't feel like sitting on my hands.  I've been a practicing PA for a long time, agree with me or not I have seen a few things in this field.  I simply mention my specific experience in the DFW area and also relayed what I had been told by a recruiter who called me concerning the Florida market.  That's why we have these boards, open discussion.  If the jobs in Florida are falling out of the palm trees and she was 100% wrong, then great.  I can only relate my experiences from the region I am in.  Your milage might vary.

Having said that, blowing sunshine and roses up the rear ends of potential PA's is not something I feel comfortable doing.  You might, but that's up to you and again why we have open discussions here.

As a profession in general we are not at critical mass yet, but regionally there are places that absolutely are.  Denying or sugar coating this does a disservice to other providers considering a move to those areas and coming here seeking advice. 

As for the thread title, I'm sorry you disapprove.  I will PM you next time for a title pre-auth ;)

Ok well don't make it seem like your experiences in the DFW area and Florida market are indicative of the profession of a whole. I know you did not outright say that it was so, but your points in your original post made it seem so. Like i made clear, I know there are things wrong with our profession, I know that people may have higher expectations, and these open forums are a good way to let them be made aware. However the points you make are not unique to the PA profession. When I see a title like that, with a list of 10 things wrong with the PA profession, it makes it seem like you just want to vent about your bad day at work or poor experience, which pure negativity. 

Florida and DFW are probably THE worst markets for this profession, and should not be considered the "norm" elsewhere.

 

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10 minutes ago, NJPL1213 said:

Ok well don't make it seem like your experiences in the DFW area and Florida market are indicative of the profession of a whole. I know you did not outright say that it was so, but your points in your original post made it seem so. Like i made clear, I know there are things wrong with our profession, I know that people may have higher expectations, and these open forums are a good way to let them be made aware. However the points you make are not unique to the PA profession. When I see a title like that, with a list of 10 things wrong with the PA profession, it makes it seem like you just want to vent about your bad day at work or poor experience, which pure negativity. 

Florida and DFW are probably THE worst markets for this profession, and should not be considered the "norm" elsewhere.

 

Do you know anything about the PA and NC job markets? I think PA has like 15-17 schools while NC has 10-12.

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This kind of thing scares the crap out of me as a pre-PA looking to apply this upcoming cycle. If all these garbage programs would stop opening at the rate of a McDonald's then maybe we wouldn't be in this issue.

I still think I made the right decision to pursue PA over an out-of-state/private dental school (400-500K of debt), but hearing about saturation on par with pharmacy is the kind of thing that doesn't make me feel better.

I'm just going to try and seek out low cost-of-living areas that aren't necessarily over-saturated while targeting the specialty I want to pursue. But I'm not the type that needs to live in Atlanta, Nashville, Miami, Austin, Houston, California, New York, etc. Maybe college towns won't be as saturated, because that's what I'll probably target.

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^^ You can still find work, just take our anecdotes seriously and dont have a fantasy-idealistic concept of what it will be like after graduation. To keep it simple:

-Major metro areas will, in general, be saturated and make finding good work difficult for a new grad.

-Rural areas will have much better job offerings for new grads, but there are social sacrifices that may be tough to swallow.

-Highly desired specialties (EM, derm, some surgical subs) are of course highly competitive, so you either need an "in" like a good personal connection or rotation connection, or a residency.

-The low-hanging fruit like minute clinics, commercial urgent cares, pain, etc are low-hanging for a reason. They suck. You will get used. But----these may be your only initial choices if you cant relocate.

 

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On December 6, 2017 at 9:58 PM, NJPL1213 said:

Honestly there is so much unnecessary negativity in one post. This profession is no different than any other profession in terms of finding and keeping jobs. There are going to be multiple people competing for one job, no matter what profession you are in. You are going to have to search, apply, make yourself stand out during the interview, and make sacrifices, just like lawyers, accountants, teachers, etc. If you do not perform up to the standards, or if another company buys out the hospital, being laid off is a possibility, just like other major corporations. That's how the world works

Sorry for the ramble, but I needed to speak up and quiet this negativity. There may be certain locations or instances where what some of you say is true, but you can't blame this on the profession as a whole. Certain locations or specialities may be hard to find jobs, but this isn't true of the PA profession as a whole. 

 

I see your point.  At this point in time, as a whole, the PA profession is still going strong and we are just starting to experience things that other professions have always had to experience.  But as many have mentioned, its not about just looking at this snapshot in time; there is a trend that is occurring, and we have to look at what our future might hold if the trend continues on par.  We should learn from the mistakes of others (law, pharmacy, etc) instead of having to learn from our own mistakes by just ignoring the trend and waking up one day in the same shoes as the unemployed lawyer.  We should take use this negativity (better word = reality) to open people's eyes to the problem and intervene on it now.  

I'm still new in the field so some of the PAs more experienced in activism would be great to ask how best we could do this.  Reach out to AAPA, PAFT, Arc-PA, NP accreditation etc?  Let me know what to do and I'll do it!  We should also spread the word to our NP colleagues at work on the front lines; we are all in it together and in this case we have mutual interests. 

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On 12/11/2017 at 0:56 PM, SERENITY NOW said:

 

 

I see your point.  At this point in time, as a whole, the PA profession is still going strong and we are just starting to experience things that other professions have always had to experience.  But as many have mentioned, its not about just looking at this snapshot in time; there is a trend that is occurring, and we have to look at what our future might hold if the trend continues on par.  We should learn from the mistakes of others (law, pharmacy, etc) instead of having to learn from our own mistakes by just ignoring the trend and waking up one day in the same shoes as the unemployed lawyer.  We should take use this negativity (better word = reality) to open people's eyes to the problem and intervene on it now.  

I'm still new in the field so some of the PAs more experienced in activism would be great to ask how best we could do this.  Reach out to AAPA, PAFT, Arc-PA, NP accreditation etc?  Let me know what to do and I'll do it!  We should also spread the word to our NP colleagues at work on the front lines; we are all in it together and in this case we have mutual interests. 

When you word it like this it comes off as a more positive, constructive thought rather than the garbage i was reading in the initial post. I definitely agree, there are trends occurring and we as a current generation need to stop these trends. Law and pharmacy were 2 recent trends that had a major spike for a few years, but the rapid influx of new grads triggered the difficulty in finding jobs and the slow downfall. We, as a profession, are no where near that yet, but yes I do agree we need to make changes now. 

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On 12/11/2017 at 8:19 AM, BruceBanner said:

^^ You can still find work, just take our anecdotes seriously and dont have a fantasy-idealistic concept of what it will be like after graduation. To keep it simple:

-Major metro areas will, in general, be saturated and make finding good work difficult for a new grad.

-Rural areas will have much better job offerings for new grads, but there are social sacrifices that may be tough to swallow.

-Highly desired specialties (EM, derm, some surgical subs) are of course highly competitive, so you either need an "in" like a good personal connection or rotation connection, or a residency.

-The low-hanging fruit like minute clinics, commercial urgent cares, pain, etc are low-hanging for a reason. They suck. You will get used. But----these may be your only initial choices if you cant relocate.

What sources would you recommend for job hunting outside of Indeed when the time comes?

 

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