Question about reentering practice after 7 years

[ladyroes]

Hi everyone-

Im looking to go back to work after a 7 year break for family medical reasons. (Prior to this break I did 1 year in family practice) Now looking at doing urgent care.

There's plenty of open positions near me- and im still fully licensed, nccpa certified, and doing tons of cme/studying.

My biggest obstacle is a lack of recent clinical experience. Thanks to COVID, no one in my area is allowing shadowing, and preceptorships are reserved for students.

Im considering a few different options:

*Apply for a position and see if someone is willing to start me out shadowing, or at a temporarily lower salary in exchange for extensive mentoring

*Get EMT certification and work as an ER tech for awhile, to get more comfortable in the setting and refresh my ekg, splinting,  wound care skills, etc.  This might also give me an "in" for shadowing/mentoring as i would be an employee. 

* Apply for the ER/ critical care residency at a med school near me. Its 2 years, full time plus extra, and they only accept 2 PAs per year. With my lack of recent experience and the difficulty in tracking down good references from 7+ years ago who probably don't even remember me, i dont know how competitive ill be. Plus im really more interested in Urgent care rather than ICU, and i have 4 young kids- so the time commitment might be too much.

 

Thoughts??? Other suggestions for getting clinical experience under my belt?

Thanks!

 

[rev ronin]

1. Sure.

2. NO. Not unless you pull a David Lee Roth and don't let anyone know who you are. PAs need to be seen as medical professionals.

3. Sounds like the best idea so far.  Can you afford to move for one of these?

Honestly, I'd continue to social network and find someone who will let you.  I'm doing youth physicals a couple of days a month with a homeschool mom who did 7 years as a PA, then has been out of clinical practice for 11, IIRC. She's solid so far, and I hope to hire her part time when her kids are a bit more grown, because she loves peds and women's health and those have never been my area.

[ladyroes]

Thank you for your thoughts! Moving isn't an option, but the residency im familiar with is only a half hour away...its more about the time commitment. I probably cant pull that off until my kids are older. Id love to find something similar to the mom you work with!

[rev ronin]

2 hours ago, ladyroes said:

Id love to find something similar to the mom you work with!

Like you, she's been doing CME and keeping license up the entire time.  Unlike you, she crossed the 10,000 hour mark before taking her hiatus. I sure hope you can find someone who appreciates the value of taking time off for family obligations indirectly making you a better medical professional.

[sas5814]

I'm with Rev. 2 good ideas...one not so much.

Also..just because it has to be said...don't think UC is some easy peasy job for retirees and incompetents. The magic is to not miss the real problem among all the silly stuff.  Its easy to get into a trap that everything that comes in is a minor issue. I can't even count the number of MIs that walked in because "I don't want to wait in the ER or the pneumothorax after a car accident or the dog mauling or the gunshot wound etc etc.

 

 

Good luck!

[GetMeOuttaThisMess]

There is no way I’d walk into an ER/UC setting after seven years away.  It’s amazing the drop-off that I’ve seen in myself over just 2.5 years (lack of interest plays a role certainly).  I vote residency if you can get in.  Not trying to be critical but seven years is a long time to be away.