I'm a slightly non-traditional student looking for advice. I was pre-vet in undergrad then switched as a junior after realizing caring for animals wasn't my passion. I took most pre-med requirements and almost changed majors when I got cancer, took a few years off and am now in remission at 25 and became interested in oncology. I'm very interested in a healthcare-related field but also have other interests such as music. I've shadowed oncology docs and while many of them have been great, doctors in general seem to be completely consumed by their work to me, even when they go home they are researching or working on cases, and some seemed burned out or tell me that their job is their life, and they wouldn't do anything different. Would being a PA give you more flexibility to work a regular job and do other things whereas with Mds/Dos it's essentially a 24/7 job apart from vacations?
PA vs. MD/DO Advice
- Thread starter guest794
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Love this, thx for posting PsychNPGuy! I appreciate your frankness. I'm older and looking to go into PA after having spent too much time deciding on whether or not to apply to medical school. At my age (late 20's) it no longer makes financial sense. That must've been terribly taxing guest794, I hope you're well.
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As someone who was/is a PA and went back to med school in my late 20s, I would say Physician is the way to go. Everyone complains about the debt but there are ways to pay it off( live like a resident, find someone to pay it , pick a higher paying speciality etc...).
I didn't want to be 55yo and being told what to do by a fresh out of residency doc. But that's just my mentality. Also if my speciality pay stays as high as it is currently I will retire about the same time as I would have being a PA.
When this comes up, I tend to think about folks in a career field that want to climb to the top, and know it early on. It's like if every cop wanted to be a police chief. But in the medical field, everyone deciding between midlevel and physician has that option to be a "chief" from the moment they choose a path if they go md/do . If you don't choose to go all the way, either we ourselves, or our peers think there is something wrong with us. Sometimes people make the argument that physician training is just a few more years stretch that aren't a big deal, but isn't that true of just about any degree out there that people forgo. Just about anyone is a few years out from obtaining a degree. But with a PA degree, it's two years and then you are there. Medical school is 4 years, plus a residency, and a lot of that time is spent in locations you have no control over. It's 80 hour weeks. The way I see it is it's 5 years more with the residency. It's understandable that that won't appeal to everyone. It didn't appeal to me much. I'm finding that money isn't making me as happy as time is. Obviously I have to meet a threshold of funds to ensure I'm comfortable, but I'm finding myself more jealous of people that have enough free time to themselves.
