What else can a I do with my physician Assistant degree/training

[LKPAC]

19 hours ago, Tori08797 said:

Not as harsh as you think. And quite honestly, I'm unfazed. FYI: sometimes ppl change their minds when reality sets in.

BTW in the future, if you have nothing useful to add or share, dont waste space with your snarky comments. Take your bruised ego & Keep it moving to the next topic. 
 

Here's another reason: toxic colleagues

I see now why you are unfit as a PA.  Too thin skinned.

I did add something useful, BTW.  People reading this forum who are considering becoming a PA need to make sure they know what the job is.  Otherwise, don't waste a slot for someone else.

[UGoLong]

2 hours ago, LKPAC said:

I see now why you are unfit as a PA.  Too thin skinned.

I did add something useful, BTW.  People reading this forum who are considering becoming a PA need to make sure they know what the job is.  Otherwise, don't waste a slot for someone else.

The OP called it as he or she saw it. Not thin-skinned at all; just assertive.

[rev ronin]

On 3/1/2023 at 6:55 AM, Tori08797 said:

At the end of the day, it’s still the PA-C’s name on the charts.

So, I work mostly in Occ Med.  I literally am not supposed to deal with things like BP too high, need colon cancer screening, etc. If they bring up something? I can choose to work it up, as long as it doesn't need any labs or imaging. Otherwise, it's the PCP's responsibility and all of my folks are supposed to have one. Doesn't mean I'm not on the hook for other things--if I screw up something, people get shafted out of money, or a faker collects... But it's a different type of stress.

Sleep medicine was another pretty low-risk setting... What am I going to do, order the wrong pressure settings on someone's AutoCPAP?

Neither is super high-speed, low-drag medicine--I'm probably letting ACLS and PALS lapse because I don't need/use them--but it's beneficial to the patients and essential part of the spectrum of care. Mind you, I like my subspecialty within occ med--long term worker's comp claims--for the patient interactions.

[Patho]

-A surgical PA at my last hospital transitioned to a FT medical/PA student coordinator for the hospital. Of course pay is less but no patient management.

-Teach PA students at PA programs

-See if theres any need for a medical advisor for local county or state level. May need to have some public health background as well

-Health/life coach 

-Everything else people have already listed.

 

 

 

 

[Tori08797]

Have you or anyone here done PHAs for the RHRP? If so, could you break down what a day is like? The overall experience?

[Tori08797]

On 3/6/2023 at 3:34 AM, rev ronin said:

So, I work mostly in Occ Med.  I literally am not supposed to deal with things like BP too high, need colon cancer screening, etc. If they bring up something? I can choose to work it up, as long as it doesn't need any labs or imaging. Otherwise, it's the PCP's responsibility and all of my folks are supposed to have one. Doesn't mean I'm not on the hook for other things--if I screw up something, people get shafted out of money, or a faker collects... But it's a different type of stress.

Sleep medicine was another pretty low-risk setting... What am I going to do, order the wrong pressure settings on someone's AutoCPAP?

Neither is super high-speed, low-drag medicine--I'm probably letting ACLS and PALS lapse because I don't need/use them--but it's beneficial to the patients and essential part of the spectrum of care. Mind you, I like my subspecialty within occ med--long term worker's comp claims--for the patient interactions.

Have you or anyone here done PHAs for the RHRP? If so, could you break down what a day is like? The overall experience?

[rev ronin]

41 minutes ago, Tori08797 said:

Have you or anyone here done PHAs for the RHRP? If so, could you break down what a day is like? The overall experience?

I haven't, no.  Haven't done any service-connected health since my ED rotation at the Portland VA.

Typical day for me in Occ Med? See 3-4 patients in person between 9 and noon, and either do the same thing 1-4, or go home and see 6-8 telemedicine visits in the afternoon, ~1/2 hour each. Then, spend about 1/2 hour in charting and paperwork for every hour seeing patients. Squirreled away somewhere in there are perhaps 6-10 phone calls and emails which are separately billable because they directly impact the patient's care, like talking to a psychologist about a medication regimen for a mutual patient.  New patients are always in person initially, so I can do a physical exam, then as I get a handle on the claim and what needs to happen, we often switch to telemedicine because they drive 60+ miles each way in some cases. Over 90% of these are old claims, where patients are generally stable, often recovering from surgery or in retraining where medical oversight is pretty minimal.

Overall, there's some emotional investment in each patient, but many of them have been seeing me for so long it's a pleasant conversation.

[iconic]

I find filling out disability forms to be the bane of my existence and my practice has a policy of not doing these forms; yet somehow I am still slammed with them.. kudos for liking the work 

[rev ronin]

8 hours ago, iconic said:

I find filling out disability forms to be the bane of my existence and my practice has a policy of not doing these forms; yet somehow I am still slammed with them.. kudos for liking the work 

Getting paid upwards of $50 per form softens the blow quite a bit when you keep 100% of collections less expenses.

[Billdog29]

Look into medical technology start-ups. They are always needing program managers with medical experience/knowledge to help them design their products. And they'll usually pay well. "Wellfound" (angel.co) is a good job posting site with some info like this. 

[SedRate]

On 3/11/2023 at 12:40 AM, rev ronin said:

Getting paid upwards of $50 per form softens the blow quite a bit when you keep 100% of collections less expenses.

Exactly. I've gotten pretty fast at these forms so I don't mind them as much. Now, when someone complains about said forms and what I've written, THAT is more difficult to deal with. 

[ShakaHoo]

On 3/9/2023 at 8:32 PM, Tori08797 said:

Have you or anyone here done PHAs for the RHRP? If so, could you break down what a day is like? The overall experience?

I did it ONCE.  

They pay you a "set contracted rate" whether you are there for 2 hours or all day long (from what I have heard you are mostly there all day long.)  

The training was "do it yourself" and the company is very poorly prepared when you arrive on site.  

Basically thrown into the fire.

The pay was in the ballpark of $50 an hour (after my shift) on a Saturday -  Not worth it!

[Tori08797]

42 minutes ago, ShakaHoo said:

I did it ONCE.  

They pay you a "set contracted rate" whether you are there for 2 hours or all day long (from what I have heard you are mostly there all day long.)  

The training was "do it yourself" and the company is very poorly prepared when you arrive on site.  

Basically thrown into the fire.

The pay was in the ballpark of $50 an hour (after my shift) on a Saturday -  Not worth it!

Thank you. I’ve been to a few orientations and they seem a bit disorganized. As for the process of screening the service members in general-was it pretty straightforward and simple? The cases complex, any need for physicals or thorough medical review. Or is it basically just reviewing their PHA answers and overview of recent medical history?

[ShakaHoo]

12 minutes ago, Tori08797 said:

Thank you. I’ve been to a few orientations and they seem a bit disorganized. As for the process of screening the service members in general-was it pretty straightforward and simple? The cases complex, any need for physicals or thorough medical review. Or is it basically just reviewing their PHA answers and overview of recent medical history?

You basically put their flash drive into your computer, and read them the questions (which they have already answered) and confirm their answer.

If any of their answers raise a concern, you do a "focused exam" and document the details.  That is it.

 

I dealt with numerous service members who would intentionally lie "I have had no surgeries since my last PHA" then tell you "Well I did have ankle surgery, but if I check that they won't let me deploy, and it's fine."  No instructions what to do in these instances.

 

We had completed all of the PHA's at our site - when another military facility said 3 guys had missed their PHAs and needed them done.  We had to wait 2 hours for the 3 service members to drive from another state - it was brutal.  

[sas5814]

That raises a couple of possibilities I hadn't considered before. C&P exams. The VA has a robust C&P system for obvious reasons. There are 2 tiers of the process. One is the actual H&P based on a claim of disability. You simply gather information from a set of pre-determined questions and do a targeted physical exam (I'm told there is a lot of back end paperwork). You don't make any real clinical decisions just document what you see and hear. The second tier is the reviewer who looks at all the evidence presented (medical records plus the C&P H&P) and determines whether there is a service connection and gives a rating (percentage of disability). 

In my area all the C&P exams are done by companies contracted with the VA but there are internal C&P positions as well.

[Tori08797]

1 hour ago, sas5814 said:

That raises a couple of possibilities I hadn't considered before. C&P exams. The VA has a robust C&P system for obvious reasons. There are 2 tiers of the process. One is the actual H&P based on a claim of disability. You simply gather information from a set of pre-determined questions and do a targeted physical exam (I'm told there is a lot of back end paperwork). You don't make any real clinical decisions just document what you see and hear. The second tier is the reviewer who looks at all the evidence presented (medical records plus the C&P H&P) and determines whether there is a service connection and gives a rating (percentage of disability). 

In my area all the C&P exams are done by companies contracted with the VA but there are internal C&P positions as well.

Yes, I’ve looked into this as well. Unfortunately, many of them require 1-2yrs of recent Internal or Family medicine experience. 

[taotaox1]

If stress is your primary complaint I strongly suggest trying out sleep medicine. Its very, very low stress for a clinical job and it is actually quite rewarding in that a good portion of patients feel SO much better when they are treated. I do some pulmonary too which keep things interesting but overall I love sleep. 

FM/UC was soul sucking for me personally.

Edited March 18, 2023 by taotaox1

[Farafish260]

On 3/2/2023 at 8:10 AM, Mayamom said:

I got out 4 years ago.   If I didn't have a medical technology degree I'm not sure what I would have done. I searched all over the place for some other line of work with my physician assistant degree but they were all dead ends.   Maybe go back to school for laboratory work.  The pay is terrible but lots of job opportunity.   

That's why I'm holding on to my ASCP cert in laboratory science although I'm a PA, in the event that this doesn't work out I'll go back to the lab maybe...also considering doing my PhD in immunology/micro to fall back on....laboratory science doesn't pay awful...I made 70-85K, there are options like senior technologist, lab lead, supervisor so it's not too bad 

[Farafish260]

PA will OPEN doors for you for other opportunities. You can leverage it, but standing alone it can't be used for much outside of direct patient care or medical sales roles...unlike DNP or MD which carry more academic/leadership "weight" however...you can do an MPH to compliment of you want to get into public health, or PhD, MBA etc 

[Colorado]

I'm 30hrs/week in primary care and still moonlight in the ER (less now because of corporate greed and I no longer enjoy the work like I used to) and loving it. That being said, I'm looking into a couple years of remote telemedicine or a less involved role with up and coming psychedelic therapies which I strongly believe in (legalized in my state this year). The world is your oyster--get creative  

[mitskistan69]

Clinical research? Clinical research associates aka monitors make up to 200k in their senior level and often start around 80-90k. There are some companies that have training programs and a lot that are desperate for monitors. It is a job that requires a lot of paperwork and travel though. You do need to manage clinical trial sites. I know some primary care docs also become PIs and the company I work under hires PA Sub-I's. 

[Tori08797]

3 hours ago, mitskistan69 said:

Clinical research? Clinical research associates aka monitors make up to 200k in their senior level and often start around 80-90k. There are some companies that have training programs and a lot that are desperate for monitors. It is a job that requires a lot of paperwork and travel though. You do need to manage clinical trial sites. I know some primary care docs also become PIs and the company I work under hires PA Sub-I's. 

This is good. I’m looking deeper into this. Will definitely need one with a training program because I have ZERO experience with clinical research 

[rev ronin]

1 hour ago, Tori08797 said:

This is good. I’m looking deeper into this. Will definitely need one with a training program because I have ZERO experience with clinical research 

My DMSc program got a lot more into research than my PA program ever did. While that might be debt-creating, DMSc programs are designed for working professionals.