Non-clinical roles for PA years after clinical work?

[Grad22]

Hi!

Sorry if this is annoying to ask, but I am generally curious to what possibilities there are to a PA roles outside of clinical work. Is there researching abilities? Liaison abilities? What is there? I ask this as someone who is very interested and is forming a love to understanding the roles of becoming a PA, but also has other passions outside of wanting to do clinical work. I was looking into MPH/PA degrees because I have an interest in the preventive medicine field and trying to bridge the gap between both the medical field and public health, but many have told me the degree is worthless. 

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Thank you for any advice or help. 

[VentiMacchiato]

If PM is your goal and you want a dual degree, go MD/MPH or DDS/MPH.

A PA degree by itself is not useless but remember that you’ll  always need a collaborative physician to practice as a PA. You can use your knowledge as a PA in your role as public health but those mayors and governors might only listen to the docs 
 

An MPH degree could potentially be useless so you need very good internship. 
 

if the tuition for the MPH/PA degree is lumped and is the same as each of the degree alone, then you got a good deal so might as well go for it. 

Edited July 31, 2022 by VentiMacchiato

[jmj11]

I spent a lot of years in research (and clinical care) but a PA cannot stand as a PI (Principle Investigator) in a clinical trial unless they have a PhD.

[AnchorandCaduceus]

On 7/31/2022 at 11:35 PM, jmj11 said:

I spent a lot of years in research (and clinical care) but a PA cannot stand as a PI (Principle Investigator) in a clinical trial unless they have a PhD.

This is true. Although there the US regulation does not require a specific degree, most sponsors prefer a doctorate degree. However, I have seen PIs manage multiple studies and have PAs as the main Investigator/s. As a PA you can SubI for multiple different studies. While a PI will need to stay in their specific field. You can take advantage of this.

You can also think of managing research sites. As a PA, you can take advantage of your ability of being a generalists. If you can't be the PI, why not manage the PI.

[AnchorandCaduceus]

On 7/30/2022 at 8:17 PM, Grad22 said:

Hi!

Sorry if this is annoying to ask, but I am generally curious to what possibilities there are to a PA roles outside of clinical work. Is there researching abilities? Liaison abilities? What is there? I ask this as someone who is very interested and is forming a love to understanding the roles of becoming a PA, but also has other passions outside of wanting to do clinical work. I was looking into MPH/PA degrees because I have an interest in the preventive medicine field and trying to bridge the gap between both the medical field and public health, but many have told me the degree is worthless. 

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Thank you for any advice or help. 

Take advantage of the hours you can work as a clinician (off-hours) and work in a non-clinical role which are mainly 9-5 M-F. Take advantage of your clinical exp and knowledge. Look into the life science pharmaceutical field. You are pretty much qualified for those positions. The key is finding the key job titles to look for. Try drug safety associates or clinical project manager as a start.