any male PAs out there?

[rwk66]

I'm currently trying to figure out whether I want to go the PA or MD/DO route. I was recently talking to a friend who is currently in med school, and when I mentioned that I was thinking about doing PA instead of MD/DO, he said basically that all PAs are female, and that he thought it would be weird for a guy to become a PA. The guy is a bit of an egomaniac and rather immature, so I figure I should just ignore his ignorance. But I figured I should check and see what people think of this. There's nothing weird about a male PA from my vantage point. Any thoughts?

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[deleted6669]

for the 1st 25 yrs of the pa profession it was mostly male dominated with a lot of medics becoming pa's. in the last 10 yrs or so more women have entered the profession so it is about 50/50 now. in my em group of 13 pa's we have 3 women.
fyi-
general pa info www.aapa.org
optional residency info www.appap.org
pa specific forum www.physicianassociate.com

 

[CTS-PA]

To the original poster, you should "ignore his ignorance" ....his statment is just not true...but, there is growing number of women in PA school and overall there is a a small majority (55%) of women in the profession. I agree with emedPA, in different specialties the stats change; for instance, on our Cardiothoracic Surgery Service 17 out of the 20 PAs are men.

 

[jwk]

We have plenty of male PA's where I work.

 

[hospPA]

I'm currently trying to figure out whether I want to go the PA or MD/DO route. I was recently talking to a friend who is currently in med school, and when I mentioned that I was thinking about doing PA instead of MD/DO, he said basically that all PAs are female, and that he thought it would be weird for a guy to become a PA. The guy is a bit of an egomaniac and rather immature, so I figure I should just ignore his ignorance. But I figured I should check and see what people think of this. There's nothing weird about a male PA from my vantage point. Any thoughts?

Why is having more females on a profession a problem?

On a serious note, we continually have more female PA students as well as applicants. I have a guess as to why.
A lot of it has to do with the testosterone thing, I believe. Maybe men in general have this need to be "in charge", maybe some women do not. The other reason I believe is the family thing. Women are often the one's who take time off or work part-time to raise children. It is a lot easier to do that as a PA than as a doc.
So yes, in my experience, there are more female PA's. I think this actually is helpful to men in the position, as it was when I was a male nurse. I got job offers because I was a man and a nurse. You are different than the majority, and this may be looked upon positively by some people.

Pat

 

[rwk66]

Thanks a lot for the info, everyone. I figured this guy was full of crapola, but also wanted to double-check. Thanks again. very helpful.

 

[Noreaster]

There's 3 PAs where I work, 2 males and 1 female. I agree that you should, "just ignore his ignorance." There certainly are pleanty of male PAs currently.

 

[rwk66]

Thanks, Noreaster - I actually approached my friend about this after reading what everyone had to say here on SDN. He admitted that he was "just saying that to push me into choosing med school". What a tool. Back to "ignoring his ignorance" and making *my* decision based on *my* life!!! Thanks again everyone!!!