Question for ER PAs

[CVPA]

Hey Guys:

I am trying to break into ER medicine. Most of my experience (6-years) has been in CV surgery and electrophysiology for the past 10-months. As you all know, EDs do not like to hire anyone without experience, so I am trying to be creative. This is what I am doing.....

The Collman Institute, a local organization owned and operated by an ER doc, runs a well known 8-day Board review course for ER docs studying for their boards. One doc i was talking to recommended I take it and it may help.

The other thing I was thinking was to get either BTLS or ATLS certified. Would that help at all. Many EDs use PAs for fast-track, so how much would ATLS/BTLS certification really help?

Thoughts and advice??

Chris

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[MrBob]

Listen.. Maybe you can break into the job by finding an Urgent care who needs help and boning up there. I didn't find ATLS to be so important in the beginning..; most good trauma cases will be handled by physician anyway, at least in most places. If you are inexperienced they will ususally not let you go on the hard stuff anyway. In most places (not all mind you) PA'S do fst track stuff in the ER's. Many DO use PA's for primary ER work but USUALLY the PA's will do quick stuff to keep the Er running while the hard stuff is handled by the MD/DO's. I realize, for those of you who might get a ruffled feather about that comment that that is not everywhere. When I work in an ER I ususally do whatever the Docs are doing, depending on thier comfort level with a PA....did this help?

 

[deleted6669]

CVPA-for what it is worth... to work as a PA in our ED you need the following:
ACLS, PALS, CPR level c, ATLS, and an intubation refresher course (to be qualified for conscious sedation).we also like 2 years recent ED experience but do accept former medics and ED nurses who are new grads for our on call list(as long as they have the above credentials)-these folks never work solo.
you shouldn't have a hard time finding an urgent care or fast track position, but any ED that would allow you to see more difficult cases with autonomy will want a few years experience. best of luck-e

 

[Bandit]

"ACLS, PALS, CPR level c, ATLS, and an intubation refresher course " dude, I thought that was needed for practice any field. Could be wrong.

CVPA!!!! Glad to see you again. Where have you been? Hope thgis finds you well.

I have been in the ED and have been trying to get into CV!! If you want the change--simply prove our worth to someone (I know you have that). But I seem to remeber someone here sdtating --- water and fertilize your own grass and dont worry about any one else. Hmmm, Bob, do you know? lol

 

[CVPA]

Hey Bandit:

Just took a little hiatus from SDN. The malignant personalities were taking the joy out of SDN surfing. I see that they still exist.

Additionally, I did a lot of hard thinking lately and I finally faced up to a few inescapable realities that I was ignoring because of the ?blinders? I had on. I have decided to ditch the medical school plan and continue as a PA. This has been an extremely difficult and painful decision to make. I did, however,withdraw my secondary application after I took a long hard look at the reality of pursuing medical school with a wife (who has already been through 8-years of my schooling), a 2 1/2 year old son, and one on the way in July. The bottom line is that I chose to become a PA for the same reason that I am choosing to no longer pursue medical school, my family. It?s just not fair to ask my wife to go through another 7-years of school. She was willing to do it because she didn't want to deprive me of a dream. I, however, was being a bit of a selfish schmuck. I also don't want to introduce myself to my son at 10-years old (which he would be after my residency) because I never had a chance to before then. An exaggeration, yes, but you get the point. Becoming a physician would be nice, but not at the price of my family, its just not worth it. Although I am not crazy about certain facets of being a PA, in the long run the Pros do outweigh the Cons.

Therefore, the revised plan is to start my Master's at Nova in the fall and possibly the DHSc in a year or so as I have always had an interest in teaching. The DHSc will facilitate that nicely, I think. I need to look into that a bit more, however.

Anyway, thanks for your input on the ER thing, guys. Bob, I have thought about Urgent Care centers and even sent in my CV to a couple, however, time constraints make that option a difficult one. As far as ATLS, I?m sure it won?t have a lot of practical use, but my question is will it help me get my foot in the door?? If it will, then its worth pursuing, right?

EMEDPA, what is the difference between CPR Level C and basic CPR? Also, if I have ACLS (which I do) why do I also need CPR? Isn?t that a requirement and component of ACLS? I am definitely going to get PALS certified, that is in the works.

Bandit, why are you looking to jump ship from ER? Seems to me, you have much more job security in the ER because 1) EVERY hospital has an ER although not every hospital has an open-heart program. Statistically then, your choices of employment settings are wider 2) PTCAs are on the rise and CABGs are on the decline as are the reimbursements. That aint good. Additionally, if you compare the hour to hour of an ED position vs a CV surgery position, ED pays much more. Yes, you have to work more hours than the standard 12-14 shifts/month, but you can always moonlight somewhere else, end up working the same (or less) hours in the long run as CV surgery and still make more money.

Chris

 

[deleted6669]

cvpa- cpr level c is the class taken by health care providers as opposed to lay person cpr. level c is probably what you have been taking all along. cpr is a prereqisite for acls(although some places teach them together). pals is a great class. I use the info from it every shift. atls looks great on a resume and it gives you a nice method to use when evaluating the trauma pt.
if you want to save some bucks, yoiu can take btls, but it does not have an animal lab so you can't practice the skills. best of luck-e