Questions about PA

Started by emttim
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emttim

Addicted to SCUBA
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
So I'm leaning far more towards PA these days than MD for the following reasons: 1) I don't want to spend 7 years minimum in school 2) I don't want to have the inability to dive that much for 7 years consecutively minimum and 3) I've learned from paramedic school that it's not necessarily that I want to be a physician which is making me think I won't be a paramedic long but rather that I just want to be able to do more at the advanced level than a medic can. I want to provide advanced level care with pharmacology and I want to have the ability to change my specialty without too much headache if need be since I get bored easy.

Anyway, I've found some disturbing stuff at least about PAs out here in Cali so I wanted to see what you guys have to say about it. First, I heard that the health care community (employers of PAs, hospitals, etc.) are very hostile to PAs in silicon valley in norcal where I plan to work. Second, I saw that they tried to pass legislation several years ago trying to ban PAs from practicing in Cali. Last, I looked up a lot of job forums and outside one site, I noticed that there doesn't seem to be that many jobs available for PAs.

I'm mainly concerned that if I go through PA school, I don't want to be out on a limb and unable to find a job either due to prejudice or lack of any being around. I also don't want to go into a profession thats in threat of being removed in this state. I'd prefer to stay in California hence why I can't just move to a more PA-friendly state; my girlfriend has a very good job in silicon valley and its close to Monterey for diving so I would prefer to work in silicon valley or the SF Bay Area. Any advice, input, etc. will be appreciated!
 
Northern ca is very pro-np so not a lot of pa jobs up there. the opposite is true in socal.
 
emedpa said:
Northern ca is very pro-np so not a lot of pa jobs up there. the opposite is true in socal.
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So what other areas aren't hostile to PAs then? I would specifically be interested in states connected to the Great Lakes or the Atlantic since I'm a diver and have no interest in living somewhere unless it has great diving like California does. I can't even consider SoCal, because regardless of what they pay PAs down there, I already know it's not even close to keeping pace with cost of living there.
 
emedpa said:
the opposite is true in socal.
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pro-pa, anti-np, or both? and any idea why nps get paid more by la county? based on the job descriptions, i don't see why. not to mention pa training seems a lot more rigorous. if scope of practice is similar, i'm thinking it's union thing?
 
emttim said:
So what other areas aren't hostile to PAs then? I would specifically be interested in states connected to the Great Lakes or the Atlantic since I'm a diver and have no interest in living somewhere unless it has great diving like California does. I can't even consider SoCal, because regardless of what they pay PAs down there, I already know it's not even close to keeping pace with cost of living there.
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avoid indiana, ohio, pennsylvania,louisianna and mississippi and you should do fine.
places that pay np's more typically have nursing unions.
 
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