pre med possibly concidering PA

[igcgnerd]

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I am currently completing my bachelor's in biology with the intention of going to a DO schhol. However I have also kept an open mind abount being a PA due to the autonomy and the lifestyle. I would be able to practice medicine and definitly have a life. Any advice? I would be especialy interested in any advice from PA to MD or DO people.

 

[deleted6669]

if you are a traditional medical student without any prior medical experience your best bet is md/do. if on the other hand you happen to be a paramedic/rn/rt/etc by all means consider pa.

 

[igcgnerd]

im currently an EMT which, even though I love the field, I went into primarily to gain experience for med school

 

[billydoc]

I am currently completing my bachelor's in biology with the intention of going to a DO schhol. However I have also kept an open mind abount being a PA due to the autonomy and the lifestyle. I would be able to practice medicine and definitly have a life. Any advice? I would be especialy interested in any advice from PA to MD or DO people.

Hey igcgnerd!
I hear you. Lots of folks are strggling with this issue. I'm not PA (to MD), but an RN to MD. I'm not in med school at the moment (health problems), but I intend to resume once well enough. The thing you need to decide for yourself is what do you want to do. It was stated in multiple threads on this forum by ppl who are in med school, but had been PAs, NPs, RNs, PTs,RTs....you name it. The bottom line is..IF...you want to be a doctor, just go to medical school. Midlevel carreer is the best kept secret in the premed world. Many, many premeds are overlooking this option untill they get in debt up to their ears, and then it's too late to spin back the clock. But the other side of this coin is "sattling for" something less than what you wanted. After going the NP/PA or some other route ppl still wind up in med school, because nothing else will cut it for them. Nobody knows what the future holds. Please DO make peace with yourself, and choose wisely.

Good Luck on your decision

 

[burntcrispy]

Shadow MDs and PAs and see which you prefer. If you want to have a very deep level of knowledge, see the most challenging cases, and have pretty much complete autonomy then you should go to medical school. The last thing you want to do is go through a PA program and then decide to go back to medical school. I was a RN turned MD and there is usually a PA in every other class in my medical school. I've seen alot of NPs on this board who have gone back to medical school. That is alot of wasted time.

As far as lifestyle, there are lifestyle jobs for physicians that let you live like a rockstar!!!

Bottom line: Do thorough research to make sure you know exactly what you're getting into.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

Then go MD/DO. EMED is talking about seriously hard core EMS experience, not application padding. Of course if your GPA is low enough that you're looking at PA school (which given the typical premed mindset, and the fact that you pointed out you are pursuing DO schools, is a likely reason for the sudden shift in interest), your chances of getting into a PA school are not going to be that great and you'd be better off looking at the Caribbean.

 

[Jengirl18]

I think if you are currently an EMT, no matter what the reason for going into the field, you would be a competitive applicant for PA school. Good luck in whatever path you choose.

 

[igcgnerd]

I was looking at DO schools beacuse i like the philosophy and the culture and comunity at those schools not because of low GPA. I believe for me it will ultimatly come down to how i want to practice medicine, time comitment, financial comitment, and whether or not i will only be satisfied with a DO

 

[PharmDr.]

Let me give you a background of myself....I am going into my senior year and majored in biology, but I switched gears and was accepted into a specially designed AS RT program locally where I am taking classes this summer free of tuition to catch up with the 2nd yr students. This was given to me at no cost b/c of my drive, previous CPhT. exp., my pre-med coursework completed, and that I can handle a yrs worth of classes over the summer (no work). I reccommend this to you if you want to go the PA route. I chose PA over DO because of the wide range of areas in medicine that I can be a clinician in w/out having to go back and complete a residency. I like the fact that I am educated as a generalist and then can work in areas like CVT surgery one day and the next do ER. In a way it is more assuring for me to be able to have the oppurtunity to work in these specialties than the mess that is residency placement in med school. I want to work RT for 2 years while getting my bach. in cardiopulmonary sciences and this will give me a great background for ER,ICU, and pulmonary/cardiac work. I know I have made the right choice after stressing about this big decision. After talking to some very happy and generally satisfied, not to mention well compensated PA's, I knew I had found a field that most pre-meds dont consider or just are not aware of the oppurtunities available. If you want to focus more on research then I would recommend going the MD/DO route, but if practicing medicine with knowing you will have limitations (as most docs do anyways), then PA is a great field that is promising. Good luck

 

[DropkickMurphy]

Have fun in RT. 🙄

 

[PharmDr.]

RT will give me good pay, flexibile schedule, and a job most anywhere I want to live in this country....all while taking a few extra upper science courses for admission to PA school. Yes, not the best job as I will be limited to what I can do and most patients will have chronic illnesses which I wont being able to cure...but at least there will be less headaches than the nursing field. The science is interesting and the procedures( ABG's, intubations, assisting in bronchoscopies) will give me a head start for PA school. I will let the nurses deal with code-browns and the bickering within the profession. Although I respect competent nurses greatly, it is just not that appealing to be that stressed out with 8 and even 9:1 patient ratios with critically ill patients. Having a very limited scope has its advantages. 😎

 

[DropkickMurphy]

RT is not immune to bickering. Trust me. Message me on AIM and I'll give you the rundown.

But at least you have a good idea of how limited and lackluster RT is as a career....that's refreshing.

 

[guetzow]

I was an RT for 6 years before becoming a PA. What you must "Know" is vastly beyond what you actually "Do". I found myself wondering why I just didn't become a Pulmonologist and rake in the $$ with a nice little sleep practice (Every pulmonologist I've met has talked about/done that at some point. Intesivist/ICU action just doesn't pay enough and the hours suck). Anyhoo.... Intubations, ABGs, and Ventillator management (The two latter, RNs have been fighting and bullying their way into for some time) do get one-dimensional (Boring) after awhile. You will find that PA "Scope" and compen$ation is much more vast than RT. You will be kicked around by RNs much less as a PA (Usually😉), and...... You can make much more $$/work a normal day shift.

P.S.- In general, also considerably less bodily fluids/HepC-B-HIV infection risk than RT. Then again, If you "Like" working 2nd or 3rd shift, having RNs always trying to do your job (Incorrectly), Bodily fluid risk from jumpy patients (At ABG time), dealing with docs and residents who don't know how to use ventillators(Always fooling with controls arbitrarily and ordering ABGs after Multiple setting changes; a big no-no), dealing with anesthesiologists who don't know how to tape tubes (The Vast Majority, because they tape for a 'controlled' environment.... 'Not' the ICU...the wild, woolly west, where patients toss and turn constantly, or RNs yank their tubes for them...then page 'you', of course😉), and "Not" practicing medicine, RT is for you!! 🙂

 

[Jengirl18]

Good Idea PharmDr. Do what you gotta do to get into PA school. Majoring in RT is better than bio b/c you can actually come out of school and get a JOB, while at the same time applying to PA school. Even if ya learn the stuff in RT and don't get to actually perform it, you will still have a heads up on those without experience.

 

[Febrifuge]

There's a lot of really good advice on here. Definitely take the time to figure out what you really want, and why you want it. That should help you get to the $1M question, which is about how you want your medical career to be.

I was a reluctant pre-med; I say "reluctant" because I knew I wouldn't be satisfied or challenged with any career other than medicine, but I fought it for a long time because I was familiar with how difficult, unfair, and soul-crushing medical education can be. I was seriously turned off by the idea of spending 8+ years around the stereotypical, Type A overachiever kids who make "great" pre-meds and med students -- and who often become good docs somehow, some way, but who also sometimes remain horrendous tools.

Anyway, I wound up working in a really excellent hospital, and realized that about a quarter of the kick-ass faculty people I admired so much were actually PAs. Seeing that if you work in a place that appreciates PAs and is designed to give them respect and consideration (and yes, that's a big if), the job can be as rewarding as MD, that sealed it for me.

No path is going to be free of frustration, or downright ridiculousness, but there are gradients in all the pros and cons, when you look at MD vs. DO vs. PA vs. NP vs. RN vs. RT vs. anything. Finding a path that you can go down, find success with, and in the meantime not go mental is the key to everything. Plenty of people have "achieved the pinnacle" of a four-year medical degree, only to realize they would be miserable if they used it to practice medicine for 20 years or more. I figure, as long as you don't become one of those people, you're a success.