Front page of USA Today this morning...wow.

[Joelseff]

Glad to see people increasingly being aware of and going to PA schools. There's definitely a shortage.  
 
  PAs are expanding very fast and while that's great in some ways for people hiring them - I worry that it might lead to salary depression and people coming out of schools not being able to find good employment. 
 
Med school applications are also breaking records so I don't think it's coming at the expense of medical schools.  Thankfully for medicine (at least from the graduating residents perspective), the residency spots are increasing very slowly meaning for most specialties there's a demand that far outstrips the supply and will continue to do so.  

Not only suppressing jobs and salary, the boom is also creating problems with PA programs finding good quality rotation sites as we are being overwhelmed. My site takes students but the preceptors at my site are full and a bunch of us are thinking of not taking anymore students. Especially if we are to see 15-20 pts per day while precepting. My MD friend that I shared a practice with a few years ago has NINE PA and NP students this year!

I attended a university with a teaching hospital but still had some issues finding supplemental sites and that was when there were only maybe 80 programs nationwide. Now with almost 200 programs and new ones popping up every month it seems, students are and will have a hard time finding sites. It's like the residency issues for med students I suppose.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

[lkth487]

Yeah that's unfortunate.  Thankfully, there's way more residency spots than US MD graduates and it will continue to be that way for the foreseeable future. 

[Cideous]

1 hour ago, lkth487 said:

Glad to see people increasingly being aware of and going to PA schools. There's definitely a shortage.  

 

Depends on the market whether there is a shortage or not.  I encourage all new PA's to check IN DEPTH the market they plan to practice in.  Some markets are absolutely flooded with APP's.

[karebear12892]

Wow, this lovely comment on the article is from an OB/GYN in Florida. Guess I won't be working with him anytime soon - wouldn't want him to have to "pull my patient's ass out of the fire...." 

[Guest HanSolo]

Not really a fan of this article. I think it was trying to paint PAs in a positive light but they choose a poor example. She seems kind of naive and I don't blame the commenters for ripping into millennials. 

[EMEDPA]

not a bad article aside from some silly comments from students and new PAs. If you work at a place called "med express" you practice urgent care, not emergency medicine....and the surgical comments were just wrong.

[BirdDogPA]

The artical definetly tried to give a positive light on PAs. Would of been more credible if practicing PAs had been quoted more in the article.  As far as people making nasty statements in the comments section all I have to say is " haters are gonna hate."  Furthermore as one of "those millennials" I couldn't be more proud of my education and the prospects of our great profession. 

[PA2O18]

1 hour ago, karebear12892 said:

Wow, this lovely comment on the article is from an OB/GYN in Florida. Guess I won't be working with him anytime soon - wouldn't want him to have to "pull my patient's ass out of the fire...." 

Haha well that was a pretty naive comment so I don’t blame him

[2234leej]

42 minutes ago, EMEDPA said:

not a bad article aside from some silly comments from students and new PAs. If you work at a place called "med express" you practice urgent care, not emergency medicine....and the surgical comments were just wrong.

yeah that was pretty stupid. lol she'll look back and realize how naïve of a comment that is.

[BruceBanner]

Ha, Arcadia was my alma mater. The current director was an instructor when I was there.

[TrekkieByDay]

This is *great*. 
I spoke w/ my doctor about becoming a PA, & we had a great conversation about it.

He said, "That's the best choice for a lot of people in your generation and younger. The benefits of being a full MD are less and less, and I think the benefits of being a PA will just continue to rise." 
 

[lkth487]

Was that someone who types with one finger at a time and complains about documentation time, had to do q2 call and complains about residents having it too easy these days, and hangs a stethescope around their neck when not using it, and complains about a lack of appreciation from patients?

I would say a large percentage, if not a majority, of med students has at least one doctor as a parent.  Maybe it's a variation of Stolkholm Syndrome.

I think they are both wonderful careers.  Why does one have to be at the expense of the other?

 

 

 

[Guest HanSolo]

53 minutes ago, lkth487 said:

 

I think they are both wonderful careers.  Why does one have to be at the expense of the other?

 

 

 

I 100% agree with you. However, this is America, and unfortunately a lot of people assume that if you aren't at the top that you were either: A) Not smart enough or B) Lazy or C) Both. Fortunately, I think that mindset is more generational, and that's what the article was trying to get it. 

[ApolloPA]

2 hours ago, lkth487 said:

Was that someone who types with one finger at a time and complains about documentation time, had to do q2 call and complains about residents having it too easy these days, and hangs a stethescope around their neck when not using it, and complains about a lack of appreciation from patients?

I would say a large percentage, if not a majority, of med students has at least one doctor as a parent.  Maybe it's a variation of Stolkholm Syndrome.

I think they are both wonderful careers.  Why does one have to be at the expense of the other?

 

 

 

Agreed.  It’s not a zero sum game.

[PACali]

On 2/14/2018 at 7:01 PM, karebear12892 said:

Wow, this lovely comment on the article is from an OB/GYN in Florida. Guess I won't be working with him anytime soon - wouldn't want him to have to "pull my patient's ass out of the fire...." 

I had pull patient's ass out of the fire too when the "real docs" screw up, but I guess that doesn't count...LOL

[r.sandoval.pac]

Why follow, just got to medical school or PA school. PA is not a stepping stone to MD/DO. It is a profession to be proud of and not the "easier route to medical school." You don't see AT-C (Athletic trainers), PT (Physical Therapist), OT (Occupational Therapist) wanting a bridge program to MD/DO school to be an orthopod. Give me a break, if your goal is to become a physician then go to medical school. Don't waste your time doing PA to MD/DO.

I think this is awesome and a one up on DNP, because the requirements are more than a DNP program. Masters in PA plus 3 years experience. We should welcome and encourage our profession to grow. [emoji122][emoji122]




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[camoman1234]

19 hours ago, r.sandoval.pac said:

I think this is awesome and a one up on DNP, because the requirements are more than a DNP program. Masters in PA plus 3 years experience. We should welcome and encourage our profession to grow.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Going to medical school is not promoting or helping OUR profession (PA), you are helping the physician (MD/DO) profession. To me going to MD/DO school is telling the layman person that you are not happy with the PA profession and want something more. If you want to help our profession then get a good doctorate program that could help us advance to an OTP style of medicine. The doctorate is for the bean counters and to stay up with the NPs.

[r.sandoval.pac]

Going to medical school is not promoting or helping OUR profession (PA), you are helping the physician (MD/DO) profession. To me going to MD/DO school is telling the layman person that you are not happy with the PA profession and want something more. If you want to help our profession then get a good doctorate program that could help us advance to an OTP style of medicine. The doctorate is for the bean counters and to stay up with the NPs.

We should welcome both advancements. It’s your choice to go to do the extra schooling or not. I think it’s awesome that there are others that want to further our profession. Bean counters?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[camoman1234]

54 minutes ago, r.sandoval.pac said:

 

We should welcome both advancements. It’s your choice to go to do the extra schooling or not. I think it’s awesome that there are others that want to further our profession. Bean counters?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Getting a doctorate degree is to make the bean counters and admins at the hospital happy. This makes us just as marketable as an NP so we can have a shot at being hired equally. At the time NPs win over jobs as bean counters think their DNP makes them better suited for the job. Your comment about you think it is awesome that there are others that want to further our profession but you keep referencing helping the MD/DO profession out? How will it help PAs out there to further the PA profession if they leave the profession? You are literally telling me that becoming an MD/DO will our profession? How? I want to know your thoughts on this. We should be worried about the NPs running over us than trying to become doctors in a quicker or different way.

[EMEDPA]

PAs who become docs(like prima here on the forum) become advocates for the PA profession with their colleagues because they know the difference in education between a PA and an NP.

[camoman1234]

21 minutes ago, EMEDPA said:

PAs who become docs(like prima here on the forum) become advocates for the PA profession with their colleagues because they know the difference in education between a PA and an NP.

I understand that, but that is <1% of physicians (no hard data), our energy should be spent on advancing our profession and not switching to a new profession. Prima. accounts for 10, 15 or so PAs that are doctors out of the 100,000. All PAs should join their state chapters and get involved instead of crying and whining cause they want to be a doctor (if that is the case then go to medical school and stop trying to make a shortcut for yourself). Could you imagine what changes we could make if we ALL joined our state chapters and worked with our legislators on these issues. Switching to a MD/DO is not gonna help us that much.   

[EMEDPA]

ok, point well taken. There are a lot more PA to docs out there than you appreciate though. In my little corner of the world I know a bunch, so it can't be that uncommon. We have something like 4-5 just on this forum and I have worked with several others, including 2 hospitalists and a handful of ER docs.

[camoman1234]

5 minutes ago, EMEDPA said:

ok, point well taken. There are a lot more PA to docs out there than you appreciate though. In my little corner of the world I know a bunch, so it can't be that uncommon. We have something like 4-5 just on this forum and I have worked with several others, including 2 hospitalists and a handful of ER docs.

Again, I might be low on the numbers, but what percentage do you really think it is? Are all the doctors that were PAs active in the PA legislation? Are they going to monthly PA state chapter meetings like I am, are they emailing their congressmen/women about PAs laws, are they speaking to admin and doing presentations at the local hospitals to get more PAs hired, if they are not doing at least 1 thing then those doctors are NOT helping our profession. I would like to assume most are doing nothing cause they are working 50-60 hrs a week as a doctor and could care less and/or too tired to burn energy/time on their old profession. I am just getting very tired of everyone crying about our laws and blah blah blah...get off your butts, go to meetings, support your state chapters, email congressman/women, get involved and do something. I can tell you that NPs will continue to run over us in this area as they are in my state with another new law about increasing the number of NPs a doctor to supervise, waving the mileage restriction and several other issues but PAs are NOT on the bill.

P.S. I have a FNP that lives with me (my wife) and I know they are very involved from nursing school to NP school. 

 

Get involved.

[r.sandoval.pac]

I understand that, but that is

Some people just want to further their knowledge and make a pathway for those ahead of us. I don't think you should consider them crying because they want to become doctors, I think we should all be proud of the direction of our profession whether masters or doctorate or the residency programs. To have such negativity towards a PA who wants to get a doctorate that they are hurting the profession is a total misunderstanding. I'm sure we all remember what it took to get here the long clinical hours the studying for hours a day and in class for 10 hours 5 days a week! I think we all continue to advocate for our profession and like EMPA said we know the difference between PA and NP education


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ApolloPA]

 

48 minutes ago, camoman1234 said:

Again, I might be low on the numbers, but what percentage do you really think it is? Are all the doctors that were PAs active in the PA legislation? Are they going to monthly PA state chapter meetings like I am, are they emailing their congressmen/women about PAs laws, are they speaking to admin and doing presentations at the local hospitals to get more PAs hired, if they are not doing at least 1 thing then those doctors are NOT helping our profession. I would like to assume most are doing nothing cause they are working 50-60 hrs a week as a doctor and could care less and/or too tired to burn energy/time on their old profession. I am just getting very tired of everyone crying about our laws and blah blah blah...get off your butts, go to meetings, support your state chapters, email congressman/women, get involved and do something. I can tell you that NPs will continue to run over us in this area as they are in my state with another new law about increasing the number of NPs a doctor to supervise, waving the mileage restriction and several other issues but PAs are NOT on the bill.

P.S. I have a FNP that lives with me (my wife) and I know they are very involved from nursing school to NP school. 

 

Get involved.

These comments seem a little light on the facts and heavy on the emotions man.  It’s ridiculous to deter your colleagues from furthering their education.