Quick Survey for PAs/NPs

[MexicanDr]

Specialty/field working:

How Many Years as a PA/NP:

Current Annual Salary:

State of Residence:

Schedule: [M-F, 12hr, etc]

Likes:

Dislikes:

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[PharmBound2011]

CAUTION: Such a poll could possibly give very skewed results which may not necessarily be accurate to real numbers...

 

[deleted6669]

there are real results for pa's by specialty, state , and yrs of experience at the home page for advance for pa's magazine.
any poll here will be based on maybe 10 actual pa's or np's who hang out at sdn, most of whom make in the upper 10% of pa/np salaries so quite the skewed sample.

 

[MexicanDr]

Thanks guys.

Hey EMEDPA I have a question.

Lets say I finish PA school and go to work in Family Practice for 2 years [get loans payed], can I then attend an EM or Surgery residency for PAs or does it have to be right after completing a program?

 

[core0]

Thanks guys.

Hey EMEDPA I have a question.

Lets say I finish PA school and go to work in Family Practice for 2 years [get loans payed], can I then attend an EM or Surgery residency for PAs or does it have to be right after completing a program?

You can potentially go to a post grad program at any point in your career. It just gets more expensive to do so the longer you work. Remember that less than 1% of PAs go through a post grad program.

You could just as easily get a part time job doing urgent care or weekend first assisting then move into EM or surgery once you have finished two years of FP. Two years of FP will give you a solid base to do almost any area of medicine.

David Carpenter, PA-C

 

[Boatswain2PA]

Two years of FP will give you a solid base to do almost any area of medicine.

David (& others) - I'd like to pick your brain on this subject. My plans were to try to work EM for a few years (5-10 yrs) before moving on to (preferably extremely rural) FP. My reasoning behind this was EM would give me a steeper learning curve, but yet with a greater level of supervision, so that when I move on to a (minimally unsupervised) rural FP I would be less likely to miss things.

Do you think working FP right out of school would give me a similar learning curve/supervision level? Doesn't EM give a wider range of pathologies than FP (which probably offers the second widest range)?

Bottom line is I want to work in rural FP, but I want to have the experience to not screw it up before I go out there. I was a medic for a long time, often operating in extremely remote regions with no supervision - - not fun when you come across the "what the hell do I do now" patient.

Your thoughts?

 

[deleted6669]

If you want to do rural fp you might want to get an fp job and do em per diem or part time.
em and fp overlap a lot but primary care is best done by folks who practice mostly primary care. em folks aren't good at long term management of chronic health problems because we never do it.

 

[Boatswain2PA]

Hadn't thought of the long-term management deficit with EM vice FP, but of course that makes sense. Now that I think about it, that further cements FP as my long-term goal as I am an innate planner. However I can't help but get worried about doing rural FP without a LOT of experience already under my belt. Seems like the fastest way to get this experience is doing urban EM (time is an issue for me as I'm what you could call a "mature student" )....am I wrong?

Would you say it's easier to go from FP to EM, or EM to FP?

BTW - huge thanks to you, David, & others for your time here & at PA forums. I've learned a lot from you guys by just lurking, and I'm sure others have as well.

 

[deleted6669]

Probably easier to go em to fp than the other way around but in your situation I would still focus on fp and do some urgent care or em on the side. the ideal would be to get a rural fp job with a supportive sp and pull a few shifts/mo at the local emergency dept.

 

[bradt9881]

The strongest way to build towards a rural FP practice would be doing a high volume FP practice in the city for a few years, then move rural. That way, you would have expereinced providers on hand to teach, and the high volume to develop skills on.

 

[Boatswain2PA]

Thank you!

 

[PICUPNP]

Specialty/field workingeds crit care

How Many Years as a PA/NP:6

Current Annual Salary:$100K

State of Residence:Texas

Schedule: [M-F, 12hr, etc] 7a-7p

Likes:everything

Dislikes:

nothing

 

[primadonna22274]

my replies are below, should be in green

Specialty/field working:

How Many Years as a PA/NP: 10yr

Current Annual Salary: ~90-100k between 3 jobs in 2 states
State of Residence: SC

Schedule: [M-F, 12hr, etc] erratic...2 days/wk in academics; 3 nights/wk in rural ED, weekends/holidays, ~3-4 days/mo in urgent care

Likes: flexibility, room for growth, lateral mobility, decent income for investment; teaching, learning more every day

Dislikes: always being the dependent provider, having to adjust my treatment plans to the attending of the day, glass ceiling for PAs, driving so much, having to work more than the docs I work with to make half as much