...My impression is it is really the stuff in the first year of medical school that PA school tends to gloss over, the nitty gritty of the biochem pathways, what cytokines do what etc. Not to devalue PA but if anything PA programs probably cover the second year material for medical school much better than the first year material.
I'm in my second (and final) year of PA school, and that sounds about right to me. There's nothing devaluing about it; the MD students spend more time and delve deeper into the nooks and crannies of the info. In theory anyway, we get the most relevant info, in an accelerated format, but anybody who says we get the
same thing is misinformed.
I had a really good Medical Biochem course, and I like to imagine that the stuff that was reinforced in my PA pathophys lectures and such is what I'll need to make smart calls in a clinical setting, understand drug mechanisms, etc. But at the same time, MD schooling is meant to be the kind of basis that a resident in Pathology or Toxicology could build on. And whatever I know about clotting cascades or zero-order pharmacokinetics is meant to get me through until an expert can get involved with my patient. Apples and oranges.
Back to the original post: PAs practice medicine, with collaboration/ supervision/ backup from MDs or DOs. That's how it works. What we do is really very similar, and in a lot of cases it's indistinguishable. But it's not the same. I happen to know somebody who practiced as a PA and then decided to go back for the MD, because they really wanted to be at the top of the pyramid. This person is learning stuff in MD school they didn't learn in PA school, mostly as jbar says in the first year.
I'm sure a PA school grad could kick butt in most med school clinicals, but again it's about what is being taught as the foundation. If anything, I'd favor giving PA grads some kind of advanced standing in the clinical phase of med school, not the beginning.
