Is becoming a Dermatology PA right for me?

[bangtan]

Hello, I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but I've been very curious about becoming a PA when I graduate from high school. I'm currently a sophomore so I have more time to choose what I want to do but becoming a PA interested me because I've always wanted to become a dermatologist but didn't want to go school for 12+ years, so when I found out that if you became a PA you could choose to become a dermatologist assistant I was thrilled. I was wondering how many years of school you need, how competitive it is, the work hours, the amount of people happy with their job, etc. I've tried to do research myself but they've all had different answers. Any help would be appreciated.  

[ecb220]

I can't tell you all the exact details as I'm only a prospective PA student, however, I can answer a few of your questions. As you are relatively young (good for you for thinking ahead!), I think you have a few misconceptions about the PA field:

1) As a PA, you don't become an assistant of that specialty (dematologist assistant, cardiologist assistant, surgical assistant) - a physician assistant is a medical professional who performs a LOT of the same duties as a doctor would: diagnosing, developing and managing treatment plans, prescribing medications, etc. Obviously, the big difference as the name reveals, is you work in collaboration with a physician, but that doesn't mean you're constantly under direct supervision of the physician.

2) To become a PA, most applicants possess a bachelor's degree in some kind of science, e.g. Biology, Chemistry, Nutrition, etc. as PA school has prerequisite courses that must be completed prior to admission into a program. It is important to maintain a competitive GPA (~3.5 or higher) to stand the best chance of being accepted into a program, as admission into a PA school is no easy feat! Furthermore, the majority of programs require at least 1000 hours of hands-on patient care prior to admission as well, so you at least have some experience before school starts. However, the more patient care experience you have, the better for both you (just from an experience and opportunity standpoint) and your chances of being accepted into a program. Once in the program, it takes about 2 years to complete (~24-27 months typically), about 1 year in the classroom and about 1 year completing clinical rotations. As a PA, hours will just vary based on your specialty, location, etc.

3) I'm curious if what you were looking up is more closely aligned with a medical assistant working in a dermatology office? The medical assisting program involved obtaining a certification that allows you to also work alongside the medical providers (possibly even PAs, NPs), but by no means are you allowed to prescribe, diagnose, or treat as you have no medical license to do so. However, medical assisting is a great way to obtain patient care hours for PA school or to decide if the PA career is what truly appeals to you!

 

At this point, I think the most helpful thing for you to do, since you're still so young, is trying to establish some shadowing in a hospital or local clinic. This will allow you to witness, firsthand, all the roles different medical providers serve in a healthcare setting. If you're particularly drawn to dermatology, perhaps try to shadow some different providers in a dermatology clinic (MD, PA, or NP). You'd probably get to see, also, how a medical assistant functions in that environment

[Bf555]

As for someone that just completed the dermatology portion in the didactic phase of pa school, I would recommend not going into dermatology lol.
All jokes aside, you’re relatively young and there are so many specialties that you learn about in school. One might end up interesting you more than another. You can go to PA school or MD/DO school and figure it out then as you learn. 12+ years of schooling seems like a long time but each semester seems to fly by for me. Residency is a totally different ballpark as well. You’re essentially learning on the job and getting paid for it. Granted you work a lot and get paid very little for the amount of hours you work. I would shadow a dermatologist and his pa for the day or week during your summer months as well as other specialties


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[Earlthe]

You're still in high school, chill oouuutt.

Something that I've noticed that tends to trip people up is thinking/planning way too far in advance. Take it one step at a time, I was a thug in high school and didn't evolve into a charazard until I started college.

You'll be gucci

[MT2PA]

Start by researching what a PA is and how to become one.  You have to do that before you can consider being a derm PA.  

There's plenty of info out there on that aspect of it.