needhalp Posted August 27, 2020 Share Posted August 27, 2020 The gist: I've been struggling getting a job as a PA after graduating in 2019 and getting certified and licensed earlier in 2020. Market sucks, etc etc. I have finally been offered a job at a private pain management practice. The doc seems like he will be good about mentoring me and is willing to let me try out the practice part time for awhile to get comfortable before moving to full time. That's all great. However, they asked me "are you sure you want a job in this specialty as a new grad"? Kind of took me aback. I'm going to do some resrarch on my own but I was wondering what you all thought. Any feedback is helpful Details: The job is in the area I want to be in right now, &pay seems good. But we will probably move in a few years once my wife finished grad school. I don't think pain managent is probably what I want to be in forever...but I need the experience (and the income). How hard is it to move into other specialties from pain management (family/internal med, emergency, or ortho specifically)? I know I'd see a lot of opiod seeking patients which I'm slightly nervous about but feel like I could handle once I got used to it? Am I being naive? Other prospects: The only other place that has seemed remotely interested in hiring me recently is a local jail. I had a screening interview and was told I'd be receiving a follow up call from the med director but that hasn't happened...so it's not a for sure thing. Given the choice between the two I have no idea what I'd prefer. My sense is I'd probably see more variety at the jail but get less mentoring? Does that seem right? Any feedback is helpful. Thanks in advance for reading! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted August 27, 2020 Moderator Share Posted August 27, 2020 It's a tough market and neither is an ideal first job, but of the two the jail will help you keep your primary care skills up. Those skills are the ones you need to pass PANRE down the line. Pain management is a good last job, not a good first job. 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joelseff Posted August 27, 2020 Share Posted August 27, 2020 The gist: I've been struggling getting a job as a PA after graduating in 2019 and getting certified and licensed earlier in 2020. Market sucks, etc etc. I have finally been offered a job at a private pain management practice. The doc seems like he will be good about mentoring me and is willing to let me try out the practice part time for awhile to get comfortable before moving to full time. That's all great. However, they asked me "are you sure you want a job in this specialty as a new grad"? Kind of took me aback. I'm going to do some resrarch on my own but I was wondering what you all thought. Any feedback is helpful Details: The job is in the area I want to be in right now, &pay seems good. But we will probably move in a few years once my wife finished grad school. I don't think pain managent is probably what I want to be in forever...but I need the experience (and the income). How hard is it to move into other specialties from pain management (family/internal med, emergency, or ortho specifically)? I know I'd see a lot of opiod seeking patients which I'm slightly nervous about but feel like I could handle once I got used to it? Am I being naive? Other prospects: The only other place that has seemed remotely interested in hiring me recently is a local jail. I had a screening interview and was told I'd be receiving a follow up call from the med director but that hasn't happened...so it's not a for sure thing. Given the choice between the two I have no idea what I'd prefer. My sense is I'd probably see more variety at the jail but get less mentoring? Does that seem right? Any feedback is helpful. Thanks in advance for reading!Strict Pain Mgmt or Physiatry? I would avoid a straight Pain Mgmt job but that's just me. My first job out of PA school was Physiatry and while I really enjoyed the non opiate based care and procedures I quit after about 6 months and then went IM (which I'm still doing going on 10 years). It was mostly because the opiate based care was so overwhelming for me. The place was no pill mill but I think that's just the nature of the beast when you are in that field. Nowadays I think there are better regulations and standards of practice in Physiatry and pain medicine. If it is a well regulated practice with strong support from the docs and strong use of EBM based pain management I think it would be ok. You might want to ask yourself though, if that is the field you want to start your career in-they prob had high turnover due to a lot of new grads taking the first available job and I'm assuming that's why they asked you point blank. Also, from my experience and observation at least in my area, PM is a high turnover job for APPs. On a positive note, I chose it to improve my ortho skills which I kinda sucked at in PA school [emoji23], which honestly it did! Ortho/MSK is one of my stronger suits in IM/Primary Care now and my Physiatry experience definitely contributed.The prison Job might be a good one. I considered this a few years ago. In California it offered great pay, great bennies with a pension and you have a "captive" audience (pun intended! [emoji23]) and my friends who have worked IM in prisons have had favorable opinions on it.If you want to do IM/FM/Primary Care but can't find a job in it right now, I would recommend a specialty that manages chronic issues (maybe not chronic pain specifically) like endo, Cards, pulmo etc, so you can get your feet wet before you jump into the flood of managing multiple comorbidities you will see day in and day out in primary care. My typical patient in my current job has at least 3-4 chronic issues along with their acute complaints (what I call "Columbo" problems-if you are old enough to remember Columbo the TV show you will probably get the reference [emoji23])Anyhoo... Best wishes! Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cideous Posted August 27, 2020 Share Posted August 27, 2020 1 hour ago, EMEDPA said: It's a tough market and neither is an ideal first job, but of the two the jail will help you keep your primary care skills up. Those skills are the ones you need to pass PANRE down the line. Pain management is a good last job, not a good first job. After we finish the last quarter coming up, we should get the results of the alternate pathway recertification. Honestly, it wasn't bad at all. I VASTLY prefer it to taking that damn PANRE again for the 7th time. Even though it took 2 years to do, I think it was a good model to use going forward as an option for recertification. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjl1717 Posted August 28, 2020 Share Posted August 28, 2020 Jail is jail but at least you should be able to get "hands on experience," broader medical experience and learn a lot socially. As EM said. I would not recommend pain management as a first job. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SedRate Posted August 28, 2020 Share Posted August 28, 2020 In a better job market, I would say to take the jail job but it isn't a for sure thing and mentoring is questionable. So I'd say take the pain job, and then work on getting something else prn to help build your skills and maintain your general knowledge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cideous Posted August 28, 2020 Share Posted August 28, 2020 (edited) sigh....I agree with SedRate. Take what you can get and start living life. Once you have some experience AND a job, you can branch out and find something else. Don't let perfect be the enemy of acceptable right now. Edited August 28, 2020 by Cideous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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