BCgirl32 Posted December 17, 2020 Share Posted December 17, 2020 Hello everyone, I am looking for some insight (please move if this is the wrong place to post). I am currently a pre-PA, beginning physician assistant school in June at my dream school. My husband is an attorney, he's a very intelligent man but extremely unhappy in his career. He originally wanted to become a doctor but did not do well in chemistry in undergrad so he convinced himself that he was not smart enough for medicine, which is absolutely untrue. I know that he loves medicine and reads about it often, but he feels very stuck as a lawyer. I myself am in love with the PA profession and am so excited to start school. I truly believe he would be much happier in medicine based on what he has said, but I know he has no desire to go to school again at this point again for such an extensive education as MD/DO after law schools and years in practice. I was wondering if anyone had any insight to offer on whether transitioning from law to PA is a sensible consideration, either from personal experience or just your own thoughts on the matter. Thanks for weighing in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohiovolffemtp Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 There are many of us on this forum who became PA's after careers in other fields. I don't know of any who were attorneys. UGoLong was an engineer. I did corporate IT, then worked as a firefighter/paramedic and part-time university professor as a transition career. But, you are asking in the right place. Some things to think about (you may well know all of them from your experience): The undergrad preparation for PA school and med school are the same. When I was doing it, pre-PA required more A&P, because the 1st year of med school includes all that. Neither PA or med schools care what your undergrad degree is in, just whether you have the pre-reqs and have good grades. The pre-reqs can be done on a part-time basis. Depending upon your husband's work, that might be an option if he's interested. 2.5 - 3 years of PA school and job hunting vs. 7+ for med school and residency and both the associated costs and lost income from your current work need to be counter-balanced with the increased responsibility and significantly increased income from being a doc. The differential is less in primary care; in my field, EM, docs make 2.5-3x per hour what a PA makes; in specialties that multiplier is even more. I won't presume to say what's best for your family, only that it can be done if you want it bad enough to make the necessary trade-offs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted December 18, 2020 Moderator Share Posted December 18, 2020 I had a classmate who was a lawyer. he wanted to both work part time as a PA and understand medicine better so that he could do malpractice defense. He kept his practice open during PA school for easy stuff like no contest divorces, etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFatMan Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 I worked with a resident who was a former attorney. He seemed to have been happy with that choice. I've also worked with a surgeon who failed o-chem twice and only went to med school after he could not get into PA school. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PA2O18 Posted December 19, 2020 Share Posted December 19, 2020 One of my classmates was in his mid 30’s and was a lawyer for 10+ years prior. You can always make a career change, just have to put in the work like said above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCgirl32 Posted December 21, 2020 Author Share Posted December 21, 2020 Thank you all for weighing in! We're figuring out what our next steps are, but all that you mentioned will be taken into consideration. Much appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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