mango15 Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 I came into college with the hopes of going to medical school, but it all seems like such a daunting road to complete medical school and residency studying/working 60-80 hours a week. I want to be able to raise a family and spend time with them and to also have free time to enjoy my hobbies and such. I am exercising the idea of becoming a PA, but I can honestly say that I do not know much about this field. Please excuse my ignorance if I sound like the typical pre-med scared of medical school, but I am very concerned of what my future life and struggles will be. Would any of you be able to describe the typical responsibilities of a PA in a field such as cardiology or pediatrics? Would I still be dealing with my favorite parts of medicine- patient interaction, diagnosing illnesses, etc. Or do PA's just deal with the paperwork and insurance issues that the physicians don't want to deal with? Are PA's leaders or do they just follow the physicians orders? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Paula Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 First, go to the AAPA website and look around on there. You will find much information you are looking for. Second, if there are any PAs who would even think of just doing paperwork and insurance issues that the physicians don't want to deal with, they need to hang up their licenses and become administrative assistants. PAs are not assistants to the doctor, do not bring the doctor coffee or fetch him/her their robe and slippers. Here's my typical day: Review labs and address as appropriate, see patients of all sizes, shapes and ages. Diagnose and treat illnesses. Suture, I&D abscesses, evaluate and treat rashes, see complicated medical cases, deal with an MI that walks in the door, diagnose and treat illnesses and injuries (did I mention that), take care of domestic violent issues that come in, deal with child neglect and abuse and report to the local agencies, provide women's health, prescribe medications, manage a public health program and oversee two nurses, refer patients to specialists when needed, treat patients with psychiatric illnesses and addictions. All of this on the reservations in a rural area, with a part-time doctor on staff. Completely responsible for my own work, deeds or misdeeds. I collaborate with the physician. Oh, did I mention diagnose and treat illnesses and injuries all on my own? I will excuse your ignorance. Sorry, don't mean to be a B****, but for some reason, just got rubbed the wrong way. IF you go to PA school you will spend 60-80 hours a week for 2 - 21/2 years in the professional program, after you have completed your Bachelors. Good luck in whatever you decide to pursue....just make sure you know what you want. Just head into life, and stop worrying about future life and struggles....no matter what a future life is always at hand in the broad scope of time, and because you are human you will always have struggles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contrarian Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Practice "Gold Standard" Medicine... in the specialty area and to the same standard that their "Supervising/Sponsoring" physician practices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted December 15, 2012 Moderator Share Posted December 15, 2012 it's a trade off shorter school now( pa) and harder life(longer hrs, lower scope of practice/ more disrespect) later or longer school now(md) and EASIER life later. remember docs hire pa's to do the work they don't want to do at the times(nights/weekends/holidays/early am) and places(rural/inner city/ prison/indian reservation, etc) they don't want to do it so they can be home with their families.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Duper Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Second, if there are any PAs who would even think of just doing paperwork and insurance issues that the physicians don't want to deal with, they need to hang up their licenses and become administrative assistants. PAs are not assistants to the doctor, do not bring the doctor coffee or fetch him/her their robe and slippers. Crap, the class on fetching coffee was the one I was most looking forward to in school... I guess I can bump up cadaver dissection a spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westz33 Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 it's a trade off shorter school now( pa) and harder life(longer hrs, lower scope of practice/ more disrespect) later or longer school now(md) and EASIER life later. remember docs hire pa's to do the work they don't want to do at the times(nights/weekends/holidays/early am) and places(rural/inner city/ prison/indian reservation, etc) they don't want to do it so they can be home with their families.... is this 100% absolutely set in stone? I've shadowed numerous PA's working in ER, UC, Ortho, Family practice ... and it does not seem like they are seeing the patients the doctor does not want to see or working hours the doctor dosen't want to work. .. in fact most PA's I shadowed left the office before the physician, worked on the same patients the physician would work with, and worked similar shift times as fellow physicians? im in southern California btw emedpa has this been your personal experience working in this field? I mean have your been forced to work nights weekends and holidays jobs only? I mean I'm sure you have had jobs where you worked decent hours and were treated with respect right? don't most PA's have normal 9-5 jobs with call/weekends etc optional? your post although may be true in some cases, takes such a pessimistic outlook on a career as a PA , and hope is not true in 100 percent of the cases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted December 16, 2012 Moderator Share Posted December 16, 2012 iemedpa has this been your personal experience working in this field? I mean I'm sure you have had jobs where you worked decent hours and were treated with respect right? don't most PA's have normal 9-5 jobs with call/weekends etc optional? your post although may be true in some cases, takes such a pessimistic outlook on a career as a PA , and hope is not true in 100 percent of the cases. no, I have never had a job with good hrs that both respected me and gave me good scope of practice in an urban area. I have had jobs at which I was well paid and respected with crappy scope of practice(fast track only) and I have had jobs with good scope of practice but crappy pay/respect. my current rural per diem job is ok pay and reasonable scope of practice but 3 hrs from a major metro area. lots of pa's in primary care probably work nice hrs but many specialty pa's work crappy hrs. lots of surgical pa's take 1st call to the er, do early am rounds, work 60-80 hrs/week, etc. lots of em pa's work 180-200 hrs/mo while the docs work 120-130. I know some em pa's who are very happy. they all work in very rural locations full time without docs in house so their scope of practice is whatever they need to do. unfortunately, due to family circumstances I can't work full time in such an environment. many folks are happy as pa's. I should have gone to medschool. the lack of respect and poor scope of practice gets really old....to have a decent scope of practice and reasonable pay my current job is 100% solo nights, most of which are weekends(fri-sun). these shifts have a better scope of practice because I call all the shots but lower pay because we work partially on production and fewer folks come in at night. I recently found I work more hrs than any of my partners for the lowest yearly salary....it's worth it though not to have to deal with the bs that happens during the day with administrators, people second guessing your decisions, etc. I still make a good salary(well over 100k) but many of my partners working 200-300 hrs less/yr make closer to 200k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator ventana Posted December 16, 2012 Moderator Share Posted December 16, 2012 in primary care my scope is the same as my doc's I just opened my own practice and my stress is equal to a doc doing the same thing school was shorter - but have spent 10 years getting up to speed enough to stand solidly on my own two feet and run my ow show. I should have likely had more ambition and gone to med school but I was applying when there was record number of applications and I was a white, 27 year old male with out any connections and al though I did well on MCAT and pre-req's my undergrad GPA was not up to par....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted December 16, 2012 Moderator Share Posted December 16, 2012 I just opened my own practice and my stress is equal to a doc doing the same thing I should have likely had more ambition and gone to med school ... noticing a trend here folks...... pa is a great second career for the older applicant who is a nurse/medic/etc and wants to take a step up but for the under 25 crowd you really should be looking at medschool for the long term returns...better pay, fewer hrs, better scope of practice, more acceptance by medical staff, more international recognition, more control over your own destiny....if you have 1 sp and he retires or dies you are out of work. if you are a doc and your partner dies you keep working.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pliskin Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Wonderful. This thread among many others on this site has taken a downward spiral. The morale around here is really piss poor; among the moderators even. You guys really make me look forward to a career as a physician assistant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator ventana Posted December 16, 2012 Moderator Share Posted December 16, 2012 Wonderful. This thread among many others on this site has taken a downward spiral. The morale around here is really piss poor; among the moderators even. You guys really make me look forward to a career as a physician assistant. you might be misunderstanding me, and I have not stated it clearly I love being a PA, I honestly can not picture myself doing anything else. I have looked at med schools again even up to a few years ago, but just can't see 8 years and over a million dollars lost, to do the same thing I do every day right now. I do believe there needs to be a stepping stone progression that is laid out to retain the "older" PA's and allow them more professional freedom then the forever "dependent" role that we have now. For the highly experienced proficient PA to be forever held down by the "assistant" title an forced dependency seems unwise...... DNP have a clearer understanding with a collaboration agreement. I am always telling prospective PA's it is the best field ever - strongly encourage people to become PA's as it is the best job out there bar none! But as the profession grows we are faced with growing pains and that is what we are going through now. This should not be taken as negative, just that there is room for improvement in job design and legality of practice for the highly experienced "old" PA. BE happy, you are entering one of the best professions!!! sorry if it comes across as anything different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CByersPAC Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 I've been in clinical practice full time since graduating in 1988, with the exception of a six-month sabbatical and a year of half-time locum work. I do the same work as my supervising physician, with functional autonomy. I consult with my supervising physician first, usually, if I need another brain on the case, although if I already know it's a specialty consult I call the relevant specialists instead. Until 2010 I had my own patient panel, with a large percentage of patients who had never seen my supervising physician. I would rarely refer someone who was VERY complicated to my supervising physician instead of following them myself. In all of my practice sites I have had a high level of clinical autonomy. In none of them have I done the scut work that the MD didn't want to do - responsibility for paperwork and what not has been the task of whoever is seeing the patient for that problem. Right now I am at a walk-in clinic in a small community with lots of repeat business, so I have the luxury of doing interesting medicine while referring people back to their primary care provider for chronic issues involving paperwork. That rocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted December 16, 2012 Moderator Share Posted December 16, 2012 I know lots of very happy primary care pa's. I can't say I know that many happy specialty pa's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
physasst Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 noticing a trend here folks......pa is a great second career for the older applicant who is a nurse/medic/etc and wants to take a step up but for the under 25 crowd you really should be looking at medschool for the long term returns...better pay, fewer hrs, better scope of practice, more acceptance by medical staff, more international recognition, more control over your own destiny....if you have 1 sp and he retires or dies you are out of work. if you are a doc and your partner dies you keep working.... This^^^^^. It's why I spend most of my time doing research, an eventually want to just leave clinical practice altogether. I hope to have taken my last PANRE.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KMD16 Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 I know lots of very happy primary care pa's. I can't say I know that many happy specialty pa's. Very true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted December 16, 2012 Moderator Share Posted December 16, 2012 Very true. yup, yet another trade off...(relatively)low salary and happiness vs high salary and greater chance for unhappiness..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jen0508 Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 yup, yet another trade off...(relatively)low salary and happiness vs high salary and greater chance for unhappiness..... or high salary and happiness with a long crappy drive to work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator ventana Posted December 16, 2012 Moderator Share Posted December 16, 2012 yup, yet another trade off...(relatively)low salary and happiness vs high salary and greater chance for unhappiness..... I see this changing As more PA's own their own practice's hopefully we can have it all great pay and great jobs......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westz33 Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Wonderful. This thread among many others on this site has taken a downward spiral. The morale around here is really piss poor; among the moderators even. You guys really make me look forward to a career as a physician assistant. agreed agreed agreed this board is starting to sound like SDN .. too much comparison between MD/PA/NP .. at the end of the day.. a MD career, a PA career and a NP career are all separate tracts in life with both positive and negatives throughout all cycles of each career from graduation to retirement .. but at the end of the day..these 3 careers still outweigh the negatives in 80% of non med careers out there in terms of pay/job openings/stability/positive impact on others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David the Nome Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 I know lots of very happy primary care pa's. I can't say I know that many happy specialty pa's. Why do you think this is? Mainly scope of practice and autonomy? And into which category are you slotting EM? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted December 17, 2012 Moderator Share Posted December 17, 2012 Why do you think this is? Mainly scope of practice and autonomy? And into which category are you slotting EM? 100% scope of practice and autonomy. I know maybe 12 pa's in the country who practice full scope em and I'm not one of them.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
303909 Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 Here's the thing though: when people interject and say "you guys are all a bunch of Debbie Downers", there is a chilling effect to some of the best information you can get. Thanks to anonymity, you get to read real, seasoned PA's speak openly about the reality of the game of medicine. You can't get that any other way without actually becoming a PA and finding out that some of those negative aspects turned out to be dealbreakers for you but now it's too late. The "SDN effect" is real and is the unfortunate flipside to anonymity but better to know things "warts and all" imo. At any rate, if forum chat alone can sour someone on the idea of becoming a PA or any medical professional, the reality of those careers would be a nightmare Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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