Future

[allendo]

Will Np's and PA's keep encroaching until doctors are obsolete?

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[deuist]

Nope. Only doctors are licensed to perform surgeries, write opinions, and even write prescriptions (NP's and PA's need a physician's approval). The good news is that while docs are being pushed out of primary care, we now have enough physicians to fill the specialties that have shortages.

 

[Jeff698]

Sniff, sniff....

smells like troll to me

Do I hear a Fatty?

Anyone?

 

[deleted6669]

major troll.....

 

[allendo]

major troll.....

Not a Troll A$$wipe! Just worried about all the freakin midlevel providers that are starting to act like they are doctors.

 

[docB]

My group uses PAs. We use them in fast track. They provide a good gap solution when the census is too much for a given level of physician coverage but not enough to justify adding an additional shift.

 

[Apollyon]

Not a Troll A$$wipe! Just worried about all the freakin midlevel providers that are starting to act like they are doctors.

But you must admit you've peppered multiple forums with the "how much money can I make in the ______ field" question. Then, this one-line, baiting thread gets added - it looks like you're concerned with the more utilitarian aspects of medicine - the generalities of any job, vs. the specifics that make a certain area more interesting or fun. Different points of view bring about different perspectives, but yours seemed clear right from the start, and you didn't put forth much more data for discussion. Online, you get what you pay for (and, from that cartoon from The New Yorker - "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog."), and, if you make a (more) extreme statement, you're likely to offend someone, instead of engendering more collegial discourse.

 

[margaritaboy]

But you must admit you've peppered multiple forums with the "how much money can I make in the ______ field" question. Then, this one-line, baiting thread get sadded - it looks like you're concerned with the more utilitarian aspects of medicine - the generalities of any job, vs. the specifics that make a certain area more interesting or fun. Different points of view bring about different perspectives, but yours seemed clear right from the start, and you didn't put forth much more data for discussion. Online, you get what you pay for (and, from that cartoon from The New Yorker - "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog."), and, if you make a (more) extreme statement, you're likely to offend someone, instead of engendering more collegial discourse.

Fatty McFat pants

 

[Apollyon]

Fatty McFat pants

Well, King double-red-dog humdinger Panty McFatty fatso right back atcha! Stinky!

 

[allendo]

But you must admit you've peppered multiple forums with the "how much money can I make in the ______ field" question. Then, this one-line, baiting thread gets added - it looks like you're concerned with the more utilitarian aspects of medicine - the generalities of any job, vs. the specifics that make a certain area more interesting or fun. Different points of view bring about different perspectives, but yours seemed clear right from the start, and you didn't put forth much more data for discussion. Online, you get what you pay for (and, from that cartoon from The New Yorker - "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog."), and, if you make a (more) extreme statement, you're likely to offend someone, instead of engendering more collegial discourse.

I understand, and I'm not trolling I just like to hear people's opinions on subjects. I just wondered about the midlevels moving in, I see how the Crna's basically do their own thing and I wonder what will be the place of the Anesthesia doc? So just an honest question to get replies to displace my fear of investing years of my life and lots of money for someone with less education to displace me in the future.

 

[docB]

Something about med students in general and on SDN in particular is that they all want to be assured of a few things:
-They want to be told that medicine will stay exactly as it is right now forever.
-They want to be told that if you do x,y and z they will get their favorite residency.
-They want to be told that they will never be limited to one field, hence all the questions about dual residencies and cross over priveledges and if internists can work in ERs and so on. This includes the questions about not doing a residency and being a "GP."
-They want assurance that they won't burn out.

Now I certainly don't mean this as a put down. It's just a fact. We were all worried about this stuff at one point. The unpleasent answers are that anyone can burn out. I don't even know that I won't burn out in 5 years. No residency is a given. There's always an element of chance. Always. Every decision you make after college limits your future options. In this society you specialize. You are a farmer or a banker or a mechanic. Medicine is especially like this. You must choose and live with it.

As for the current landscape of medicine and midlevels I am not at all worried that they will take my job. They don't want it. And there are plenty of pt's to go around. Right now I have a full waiting room and a line of ambulances out the door. The PAs in my group aren't taking money away from me they're making me money. The midlevels out in the community who don't make me money see all the level 3s so I can see more level 5s (and they refer me level 5s directly). Will this change? Sure. What will take its place? I dunno. But for right now midlevels are not the thing to worry about in EM. If you want to worry worry about malpractice.

 

[Febrifuge]

Well said DocB. As usual, practicality and common sense - and let's see if it's "interesting" enough to satisfy that pre-med urge. Maybe it's because I'm older and maybe it's because I've put in so much time hanging around the real live ED, but I would offer this advice to my fellow pre-meds: worry about those things that are actually yours to worry about, right now. Do the work, and move on to the next step. Repeat as necessary, and soon enough you'll be worrying about patients and shift schedules. Why rush to get to the point where those are the stressors? There are no guarantees in life. Be glad you're not slaving away in a cubicle, hoping to get recognized for your brilliance and talent. In medicine, at least it's clear what you do, and what it means to do it well.

Me, I just want to do well in my Chem and Bio classes. Anything else I choose to get into, like "will ______ County or ______ Memorial give me an interview even if my Step I is average?" or "will I have an attending who calls me girls' names like on Scrubs or will they think I'm the best thing ever?" are diversions and maybe motivational tools for me. They're not for anyone else to reassure me about, not that such a thing is even possible anyhow. This board is a great source of ideas and interactions, but I don't need anyone to tell me I can or should do this, or tell me what my opinion should be about anything.

These guys are really good, but they can't predict the future any better than we can. That's the deep dark secret of medicine: docs have climbed this big huge mountain, and from where we sit, it's daunting. But they did it one step at a time and so will we. The OP makes a common mistake in assuming there's some kind of magic to the process, and wisdom to be handed down from on high. EPs are particularly attuned to how silly this is.