hockey833 Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 18 year old male, will be starting college this fall to get a bachelors of science-nursing. However I've recently researched becoming a physician assistant and it seems like a dream job. I have a couple questions though 1) Does it matter what graduate school you attend? Does it make a difference in salary or knowledge? I am wondering because there's like 150 PA schools and I don't know which one I should go to or look at pre-reqs for. I'm looking for pre-reqs I need to take that will let me be able to apply to the most schools. What would they be? 2) So I have two options. Get the nursing degree and get medical experience as a nurse while getting money for graduate school. OR Get a degree in something else while taking the pre-reqs to be a PA, and be an EMT-B or EMT-I for 2-3 years in college I've read EMT experience counts for PA school, correct? If so, then why not get a degree in something else completely and have that as a "fall back" degree? While also being able to apply to PA school RIGHT after college. 3) I am EXTREMELY interested in the specializations (Surgery, OB/GYN, ER, Family, psychiatry). How long are 'fellowships" and residencies? Does specializing in something increase your salary? 4) What is the scope of practice for PA's? I am interested in surgery, ER, critical care type stuff. But exactly what procedures are a surgical PA allowed to perform? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAruby Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 Looks like you've put some serious thought into this, way to go! I don't have all the answers, but I'll tell you what I do know :o) 1) different schools teach differently, and some may be better suited for your learning style. For example, some focus on case-study type learning, some on lecture, some on hands on... etc. Many programs are heavy in primary care emphasis - which doesn't mean you can't specialize but may mean you wont get to do as many different types of rotations and may need to do multiple primary care ones... As long as the school is accredited, they meet national standards for curriculum. There may be differences, but the basics of the content should be the same... 2) I chose the EMT route, my undergrad degree is actually in Emergency Medicine (not a common B.S. to find!)... My patient care hours not only counted toward patient contact on my application, but were incredibly useful in learning this stuff now since I have patients I can relate the information to in my memory and say "OH!! THATS why that happened with that patient!!" There are some nurses who choose to go to PA school, just make sure you know why your choosing PA school over NP school - the medical model is different than the nursing model! Both are great careers, but they are somewhat different in their approaches, so make sure you know which one you want... also, many of my classmates have undergrad degrees in Bio, or some completely unrelated field, and then got patient care hours via shadowing or volunteering... just a thought to throw out there... Either way, if you're interested in medicine I'd encourage a medical undergrad degree simply because that exposure is going to help tremendously in PA school! 3) PAs were designed for general practice. As such, they are trained in "a little bit of a lot of things" compared to a specialty MD who knows "a lot about a few things"... As such, you can CHOOSE to go to a fellowship or residency (durations vary), but most of the time you just apply for a job or find a doc willing to take you on and specialize you to their standard. A residency or fellowship is not required to get a specialty job! That said, while the majority of specialties ARE paid better (area dependent), you may have to work a while to get that salary up there, and sometimes a post-grad program can expedite your pay raise (or so I've been told) 4) The scope is extremely variable depending on state, clinic/hosptial, and overseeing MD... there is no simple answer. PAs do whatever they need to do depending on the resources around them. A rural ED PA may expect to do any/everything a rural MD may have to do if the MD isn't immediately on site, whereas urban ED PAs may stick to triage and minor injury/illness patients... just depends!!! (i'm pretty sure there's no standard for "surgical PAs" but I'm not positive.... ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjohnson3604 Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 Would just add to the above that the scope of practice for the PA depends on the scope of their supervising physician. You can do what they've trained you to do or what that practice doc does. Best wishes in you research, many of the threads here were helpful to me when organizing all this info ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted July 8, 2012 Administrator Share Posted July 8, 2012 If you're interested in specialization already at age 18, why have you rejected med school as a career? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azwerin Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 The basics you will need to apply the most schools possible are general bio 1&2 with labs, chem 1&2 with labs, organic chem 1 with lab (not organic chem 2 usually) ,anatomy and physio 1&2 with labs, microbio with lab, statistics, calculus, and some other upper level sciences such as genetics, pharmacology, pathology, cell biology. You will even benefit from using your summers to take these classes as they get overwhelming to take all at once. Also most schools dot require the gre (which is similar to what you might view as the SAT) its a standardized test that some schools ask for if you want to apply to many schools. I suggest making a chart of the schools that are near by if you want to stay local or on the state of interest, or multiple states if travel isn't an issue and compare them side by side, set up information sessions or have questions set up and call and speak to a representative, read through the schools websites, also shadow a pa so you can see what you're getting yourself into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azwerin Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 Specializing may or may not increase your salary but in most cases it will increase your salary. I think most pas start between 70-80k/year and can go up to 120k/year when doin highly specialized surgery such as cardiothoracic and neuro. There are no residencies required but emergency room is a great place to start for experience and exposure. Also, in terms of the difference between pa and np, the np can own their own practice where as a pa can not. However they do the same duties and are qualified to treat and prescribe patients the same. They can both specialize however I dot see nurse practitioners specializing in the areas you mentioned as often as pa becaus ether aren't necessarily trained that way unless they pursue higher education Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azwerin Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 I think emt is a great quick option for money and patient experience as this is something that is more effective if you are exposed over time , versus the nursi degree you will have to wait to work until you graduate but you will make more money and learn how to do more procedures such as injections that maybe Emts dot usually have to do. You also have to consider study time and working will be hard but worth while if you manage your time and plan correctly and get informed which you are making a great choice in reaching out to this forum, keep asking questions and verifying information because it changes all the time! I did a medical assistant certificate in high school and worked in peds, internal medicine and cardiology through out college so I have 5 years of patient care and experience already! And I start pa school on Monday, studying is easier so far (in medical terminology ) because of the classes i took which I mentioned in my first post and the experience , it's amaing how much less I need to study ofthe basics and I can focus on the harder things . Don't underestimate what you can learn fr doing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azwerin Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 Oh yes and pas can specialize in more then one area at one time where as an md would have to do 4 years training in each of those specializes and residencies. If you're interested in that many specialities, pa is perfect for you because you can do surgery 3 days a week and cardiology 3 days a week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToppDog Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 If you are just now turning 18 & starting college, then I would get a 4 yr degree before applying to PA school, since that will be mandatory in a few years anyway (2020 I think). Going RN is always a good choice, as you get good healthcare experience & many opportunities to get your past & future schooling paid for. Plus you'll be able to check out those specialties you want to work in firsthand, as nurses can work in all those areas. EMT's can not. EMT is great experience, but it is specialized, so make sure to take that into consideration as well. Basic pre-req's are A&P (usually 2 separate classes), maybe one or two English classes, some basic science classes (BIO 101, Chem 101, etc.). The schools that have more may include microbiology, physics, organic chemistry, psychology, etc. If you do go the RN route, try to get the RN first, then finish up getting the BSN, so that you can work while doing it to gain HCE for PA school, plus possibly get tuition reimbursement from your employer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hockey833 Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 Thank you so much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azwerin Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 There are some schools that you can do an accelerated bs-md program like my school in NYC , Sophie davis . Also, It's a at state school so tuition is super cheap!! Pa school is 2500/semester! Awesome! Also, there are undergraduate pa programs where you can apply right out of high school such as st johns and long Island university in ny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.