Physician Assistant

[i_like_sun]

Anyone on here a practicing PA? If yes, do you like your job?

[underworld]

i'm not, but i do like my job.

[wfinley]

Not I - but two of my good friends are PAs. One does the 9-5 (well 8am - midnight) 3 days / week. He works hard and tells us great stories about removing glass out of legs and taking Xrays of severe breaks. His stories make me queasy.

 

My other friend travels alot; last year he worked in Antarctica and South Africa. Right now is he doing the Bush Alaska circuit. He loves his job - and likewise works hard and finds it very rewarding. They both make my job seem trivial and boring.

[i_like_sun]

Not I - but two of my good friends are PAs. One does the 9-5 (well 8am - midnight) 3 days / week. He works hard and tells us great stories about removing glass out of legs and taking Xrays of severe breaks. His stories make me queasy.

 

My other friend travels alot; last year he worked in Antarctica and South Africa. Right now is he doing the Bush Alaska circuit. He loves his job - and likewise works hard and finds it very rewarding. They both make my job seem trivial and boring.

 

 

Yeah, thanks! I'm thinking of applying to PA school next year...... Everyone I talk to about it speaks very highly of the field, and I know that you can make a pretty penny at it too.

[JayB]

Not sure where you're applying but I got the impression that at Uw getting into PA school without ~ 3 years experience as a PA, Navy corpsman, Army medic, paramedic, or some other type of day-in-day-out hands-on medical background is fairly difficult. It also sounded as though they value life experience, so there weren't many folks that got into the program straight out of college.

 

This is all second hand stuff and may not be accurate, so hopefully someone who is working as a PA will chime in and correct it if it's not accurate.

[cj001f]

If that doesn't work out Value Village is hiring for management track positions!

[Alpinfox]

Not sure where you're applying but I got the impression that at Uw getting into PA school without ~ 3 years experience as a PA, Navy corpsman, Army medic, paramedic, or some other type of day-in-day-out hands-on medical background is fairly difficult. It also sounded as though they value life experience, so there weren't many folks that got into the program straight out of college.

 

This is all second hand stuff and may not be accurate, so hopefully someone who is working as a PA will chime in and correct it if it's not accurate.

 

JayB is right. You won't get into UW PA school without at LEAST 2yrs of full-time, hands-on, patient experience. Other schools are different.

[chesterboo]

I am a PA and have been for the last 10 years. I love my gig and think highly of the field. Don't limit your choice of schools to the U.W. as they are very strict on wanting at least 3 years experience in med fields before applying. Most schools look for this but don't always require it. Find some people you can shadow before you apply.

[Greta]

The UW is a cert program and does require a good bit of experience. OHSU and Pacific down in OR have masters programs that dont have the rigorous requirements as far as experience goes, but you do have to be quite competative. Not sure its a field you can just wake up one day and decide to throw in for.

[archenemy]

I have a good friend who just went thru the program and loved it. She also said that exper in the med field was req'd for the UW thing--she had been a pretty high up person at Sweedish. She loved school, and I think will make a great PA.

It sounds like a really great field to be in--good luck. I think there is a pretty big need for more PAs!!

[i_like_sun]

Thanks for the replies! After five years of preparing myself for PT school, I'm finding that I'm getting a bit bummed out with all the degree inflation and conservative politics put in by the APTA. I mean seriously, new PTs with doctoral level degrees still can't order X-rays, MRI's, prescribe medicine, or EVEN have direct access to patients! Its pretty much bullshit. PA's can do all that, and I even just learned that orthopedic PA's can do much of the manual musculoskeletal manipulation that PT's do. So yeah, I'm certainly interested.

 

I've also talked with several MDs, new PT grads, and a PA student, and they all say that the profession is SOLID.

[archenemy]

The coolest thing is that you can live in a rural area. When I lived in MT, we only had a doc come up once every other week; but we had a PA three times a week. He was awesome!

[i_like_sun]

The coolest thing is that you can live in a rural area. When I lived in MT, we only had a doc come up once every other week; but we had a PA three times a week. He was awesome!

 

Hey thanks Archy! Yeah, I'm getting more pummed about this. It also seems like a good profession for climbers. You can make plenty of $$ to support gear and holidays, and you can work ANYWHERE.

[Greta]

ILS, One thing to consider. It sounds to me like you are looking for independent practice. If this is the case (as arch mentioned), you can work in rural communities as a PA, but in WA state, you are still required to work under a MD/DO, and from talking to friends and collegues, this can be a difficult arrangement to obtain and maintain. The title may concern you, but NPs can work independently here in Wa, and have recently earned the right to independently prescribe meds without MD/DO support. Im a RN working on an MPH, and will likely go the NP route when Im ready to settle down and practice. The money and flexibility is too good in nursing right now. The UW has a new but respected condensed RN/NP program, the Masters Entry Program, that is ideal for those without nursing backgrounds.

[ericb]

ILS, One thing to consider. It sounds to me like you are looking for independent practice. If this is the case (as arch mentioned), you can work in rural communities as a PA, but in WA state, you are still required to work under a MD/DO, and from talking to friends and collegues, this can be a difficult arrangement to obtain and maintain. The title may concern you, but NPs can work independently here in Wa, and have recently earned the right to independently prescribe meds without MD/DO support. Im a RN working on an MPH, and will likely go the NP route when Im ready to settle down and practice. The money and flexibility is too good in nursing right now. The UW has a new but respected condensed RN/NP program, the Masters Entry Program, that is ideal for those without nursing backgrounds.

 

Not to mention, I like his odds in a masters program with ~ 90% + women.

[kevbone]

Not I - but two of my good friends are PAs. One does the 9-5 (well 8am - midnight) 3 days / week. He works hard and tells us great stories about removing glass out of legs and taking Xrays of severe breaks. His stories make me queasy.

 

My other friend travels alot; last year he worked in Antarctica and South Africa. Right now is he doing the Bush Alaska circuit. He loves his job - and likewise works hard and finds it very rewarding. They both make my job seem trivial and boring.

 

 

Yeah, thanks! I'm thinking of applying to PA school next year...... Everyone I talk to about it speaks very highly of the field, and I know that you can make a pretty penny at it too.

 

I dated a girl who was a PA. Had been for about 5 years, worked in Vancouver, WA and made about $14.50 an hour. What do you consider a “pretty penny"?

[Couloir]

I had a friend that was a PA. He would say, "I'm a Physician........................................................................................................................................................... 's Assistant."

[chesterboo]

Kevbone, prob a medical assistant (MA) if that was her true wage...or maybe a very bad contract negotiator.

[kevbone]

Kevbone, prob a medical assistant (MA) if that was her true wage...or maybe a very bad contract negotiator.

 

Yeah....that sounds about right! My bad.

 

PA's cannot authorize time loss. Ha ha.

[i_like_sun]

Not I - but two of my good friends are PAs. One does the 9-5 (well 8am - midnight) 3 days / week. He works hard and tells us great stories about removing glass out of legs and taking Xrays of severe breaks. His stories make me queasy.

 

My other friend travels alot; last year he worked in Antarctica and South Africa. Right now is he doing the Bush Alaska circuit. He loves his job - and likewise works hard and finds it very rewarding. They both make my job seem trivial and boring.

 

 

Yeah, thanks! I'm thinking of applying to PA school next year...... Everyone I talk to about it speaks very highly of the field, and I know that you can make a pretty penny at it too.

 

I dated a girl who was a PA. Had been for about 5 years, worked in Vancouver, WA and made about $14.50 an hour. What do you consider a “pretty penny"?

 

 

 

Uhm, yeah, right. Thats odd, considering that the national MEDIAN salary for PA's working at least 32 hours per week is around $81,000 per year, and for new graduates in a first time job, around $70,000 per year. The top 10% of all PA's in the United States make more than $100,000 per year, and the lowest 10% make less than $50,000 per year. Overall, from the statistics I've read, it looks like I could continue my current "lets play as much as possible" philosophy as a PA, and still provide a service to society while eliminating financial anxiety.

 

As for graduate nurse practitioner programs, it looks like I would still have to go through the steps of first being established as an RN, then work on the Masters of Science. I don't know, seems like too much to do considering I've just spent the past five years earning my bachelors degree in something thats NOT an RN program........

[i_like_sun]

ILS, One thing to consider. It sounds to me like you are looking for independent practice. If this is the case (as arch mentioned), you can work in rural communities as a PA, but in WA state, you are still required to work under a MD/DO, and from talking to friends and collegues, this can be a difficult arrangement to obtain and maintain. The title may concern you, but NPs can work independently here in Wa, and have recently earned the right to independently prescribe meds without MD/DO support. Im a RN working on an MPH, and will likely go the NP route when Im ready to settle down and practice. The money and flexibility is too good in nursing right now. The UW has a new but respected condensed RN/NP program, the Masters Entry Program, that is ideal for those without nursing backgrounds.

 

Not to mention, I like his odds in a masters program with ~ 90% + women.

 

 

 

EXACTLY!!!

[archenemy]

Uhm, yeah, right. Thats odd, considering that the national MEDIAN salary for PA's working at least 32 hours per week is around $81,000 per year, and for new graduates in a first time job, around $70,000 per year. The top 10% of all PA's in the United States make more than $100,000 per year, and the lowest 10% make less than $50,000 per year.

Wouldn't that make the median more like $75,000?

How much less than $50K are they talking?

even at the 14.50 mentioned for 32 hour weeks comes to more than 50K a year.

Edited July 25, 2007 by archenemy

[i_like_sun]

Sorry, I was off a little bit.......... the 50K per year was from an older study I read........

 

Here is the data from the 2006 annual income for PA's from the American Physician's Assistant Association:

 

Respondents of study 17346

 

Mean $84,396

Standard deviation $21,975

10th percentile $62,472

25th percentile $70,016

Median $80,356

75th percentile $94,260

90th percentile $110,721

 

*Excludes self-employed PAs

Edited July 25, 2007 by i_like_sun

[archenemy]

Not bad. You'll need the money to pay off all those school loans.

 

Sucks, don't it?

[underworld]

Uhm, yeah, right. Thats odd, considering that the national MEDIAN salary for PA's working at least 32 hours per week is around $81,000 per year, and for new graduates in a first time job, around $70,000 per year. The top 10% of all PA's in the United States make more than $100,000 per year, and the lowest 10% make less than $50,000 per year.

Wouldn't that make the median more like $75,000?

How much less than $50K are they talking?

even at the 14.50 mentioned for 32 hour weeks comes to more than 50K a year.

 

14.5 $/hour * 32 hours/week * 52 weeks/year = 24,128 $/year

 

did i miss something?