Not sure what to study

[Matt1420]

Hello, 

Thank you for clicking on my post. I’m currently working as a paramedic with one year of experience in the field. I have 4 years of experience however working as an EMT prior to becoming a paramedic. I’m 26 years old and currently do not hold a bachelors degree or associates. While I enjoy riding on the ambulance I do not want to be doing this into my 40’s. I have been researching possible career changes for me. At first I thought I wanted to transisition to Nursing and then attain my Nurse Practitioner but decided this was not for me after seeing nurses work in the field. This is too not knock my nurses because I respect them whole heartily but I can’t see myself becoming a nurse and dealing with what nurses have to deal with on a daily. Then I came across the career of Physician Assistant and i couldn’t see myself doing anything else. I want to become a physician assistant even though I am older in age. I still want to pursue this career. I may not achieve this until the age of 36-40 but I want it. My only concern is what to achieve my bachelors degree in because currently I need to work full-time to pay my bills and will need to take online classes. Some careers I came across are 

1. Cyber security 
2. Information Security Analysts 
3. Health Administration 
4. Software Developer 
5. Environmental Scientists 

While these careers are not the “ideal” choices for many students pursing a career in medicine, it may work for me because I can attain them online while still working prior to PA school. My only concern is a fall back career Incase I never end up being accepted into a PA program. I’ve always heard bad things about health administration degrees and how they are pointless. The tech degrees are good but I’m not really into coding. This is my biggest struggle right now is trying to find something to study and it too be a wise choice. I know I need to attain my science courses which I have taken Anatomy and Physiology one and two along with Microbiology. I have a few more i need to take but right now I need to focus on a bachelors degree and I’m not sure what to study that is a wise choice. 

PA specialities I’m looking into are 
1. Cardiology non-surgery
2. Orthopedic non-surgery 
3. Internal Medicine 
4. Family Medicine 
5. Urgent Care 
6. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 
7. Sports Medicine

[Boatswain2PA]

Online public health. health care admin, etc.  No guarantee you will get into PA school (which you would NOT be able to work during anyway).

Otherwise a bridge program to RN, should only take a year or so.  Then you can work part time while getting your online NP.  Guaranteed to get in if you have a pulse and ability to take out student loans.

Edited August 17, 2019 by Boatswain2PA

[dfw6er]

All but one PA program (last I checked) are full time in-class programs and will not easily allow you to work while enrolled.  The exception is an online PA program at Yale...which is full-time, just blended with on-site activities and distance learning.  I don't think even that program would easily allow you to work on the side and still have time for studying all the material the extent needed to pass the program, let alone the PANCE.  

If you're serious about PA school, get your backup career, pay off all your debt (or as much as possible), get your prereqs, plenty of shadowing hours with PAs in a few different specialties, and get lots of patient contact hours as a medic.  Make sure your undergrad GPA is as high as possible as well as your GRE if required by the programs you're applying to.  

[Matt1420]

20 hours ago, Boatswain2PA said:

Online public health. health care admin, etc.  No guarantee you will get into PA school (which you would NOT be able to work during anyway).

Otherwise a bridge program to RN, should only take a year or so.  Then you can work part time while getting your online NP.  Guaranteed to get in if you have a pulse and ability to take out student loans.

Hello sir. Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. 

I agree with you that there is no guarantee I will get into PA school. I can always do a bridge program to my RN yes but too be honest with you when I transport to some hospitals and see nurses it really makes me not want to pursue it even more. 3 years ago i really wanted to be a nurse until I started seeing it more and more. I just do not think my personality works well in the ER atmosphere. I do not like the pace of the ER or the atmosphere. 

Yes that is a plus of working part time while going to NP school. The issue is I do not personally like that. I do not trust an online program to teach me what I need to know in order to be a good midlevel provider. I just personally do not feel confident in that learning. Do not feel like I will come out being a good midlevel provider. I do not want to end up like an idiot. I also heard the NP program is being changed to DNP in 2024 and I do not want to go to school for that long just to be a midlevel provider. 

And this sounds stupid but I also just do not like title of NP. Sounds too girly to me and I know that’s pathetic but that’s just how I think. 

Also NP is not very mobile and I do not like that. I want the ability to be very mobile in case I want to change specialities and NP does not allow that. 

[rev ronin]

7 hours ago, Matt1420 said:

Also NP is not very mobile and I do not like that. I want the ability to be very mobile in case I want to change specialities and NP does not allow that. 

Yeah, that's theoretically accurate, but a family nurse practitioner pretty much can do anything a PA can do.  I haven't heard a gripe about an NP being pigeonholed into one thing ever.  I do know a DNP/FNP who's working on getting cross-certified into behavioral health, though.