PA job functions

[steiner2]

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Hi everyone. I am needing more information on what a PA can do when they graduate. I know they can specialize on the job but does this mean that a graduating PA are all capable of doing primary care, say, working at a GP's office, or do they need to work at a primary care facility before they can actually work at a primary care facility?

When you want to specialize, you just go and get trained at your new employer, say a dermatology group, correct? Is the training really sufficient? I mean, you think it would be more in depth.

Please enlighten me. thanks.

 

[Starpower]

in short, it largely depends. yes, of course, any PA new grad should be able to handle a decent modicum of primary/general. but skills also depend on prior employment (EMT, medic, RN, etc) as well as education (rotations). using myself as personal example, i rotated in two pain mgmt clinics for my primary care rotations. i saw a large degree of primary as well since they also saw general, but if i hadn't had that huge jumpstart in pain mgmt then i wouldn't have been able to as easily jump into it in real practice. now, with that rotation experience as well as half a year of primary care involving a good number of pain mgmt patients (thrown at me due to my rotation experience), i landed a great job at a combo urgent care (prior work as an EMT) and pain mgmt practice.

if we could know everything in all the books, we would. but we can't. life is learning. like one of my 72 year old pediatrician preceptors told me (and she had been practicing for 40 years), "i know but a drop in the bucket that is pediatrics." but if someone wants to go into derm like a bat out of hell, i would do nothing but immediately start searching for a dermatologist to shadow or even begin working for as a tech in a derm clinic. then, if their PA program would allow derm for one of their electives, they'd seriously be set in a greatly competitive way.

also too to remember is that PAs are basically in paid residency for their first few years of working, say their first 10,000 hours. but hey, if you can gain some early experience before you hit the workforce, then you are that much closer in your 'residency' experience, or at least your groundwork laid is much more solid.

hope that helps a bit.

 

[deleted6669]

there are also actual pa postgrad residencies and fellowships:
www.appap.org
agree that prior experience makes a difference. several of my er jobs were landed due to a prior paramedic background

 

[badasshairday]

Can a PA work in a primary care with a supervising physician of another specialty who is not on site? Say a radiologist working as the supervising physician to look over 10% of the quarterly charts? What about a family physician and PA working at the same office but the PA is the owner of the office and the FP is working at the clinic with a radiologist the collaborative/supervising physician?

 

[Starpower]

Can a PA work in a primary care with a supervising physician of another specialty who is not on site? Say a radiologist working as the supervising physician to look over 10% of the quarterly charts? What about a family physician and PA working at the same office but the PA is the owner of the office and the FP is working at the clinic with a radiologist the collaborative/supervising physician?

i never was good at algebra lmao ill let someone else handle that one

 

[badasshairday]

i never was good at algebra lmao ill let someone else handle that one

lol. Full disclosure. My future wife will be finishing PA school when I finish med school. I'm going into radiology, and she is interested in family, IM, and ob/gyn right now. If she does family, she would learn a good deal of FM while I am in residency for 6 years. My plan is interventional radiology, and I will likely need clinic space for 1/2 day to 1.5 days a week. If she does primary care as a PA, and we jointly own a clinic after I am done with residency with another FP doc as a partner (or not), is it possible for me to be her collaberating physician? I'm thinking way to far ahead in the future.

 

[deleted6669]

Most states require sponsoring physicians and pa's to have the same specialty background so I would say that generally having a radiologist sponsor/supervise a primary care pa would be a bad idea. in theory the sp should know as much or more than the pa and if you worked full time rads and she worked full time primary care she would know more about cholesterol management, htn, dm, etc than you fairly quickly from doing it every day and staying current while your knowledge of the subject(primary care) would be years old.

 

[badasshairday]

That's what I thought. Thanks. Now back to the OP, sorry for the thread hijack. I'll make my own on the subject to clarify it more in the future. 👍

Most states require sponsoring physicians and pa's to have the same specialty background so I would say that generally having a radiologist sponsor/supervise a primary care pa would be a bad idea. in theory the sp should know as much or more than the pa and if you worked full time rads and she worked full time primary care she would know more about cholesterol management, htn, dm, etc than you fairly quickly from doing it every day and staying current while your knowledge of the subject(primary care) would be years old.