Updated July 2026 with the latest available national data on salaries, student debt, work hours, student loans, and taxes.
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Physician Assistant vs. Physician: Show Me the Money
Often, the decision between PA and physician is considered difficult—but should it be?
This was the first in a series of posts designed to help answer the age-old PA-versus-physician question. And because one of the most common searches after “physician assistant” is “salary,” I thought I would begin by addressing the elephant in the room and showing you the numbers.
Annual salary numbers by themselves are nearly useless. They do not account for the hidden variables: time spent in training, education debt, residency, taxes, career length, and hours worked each week.
So this post addresses those variables with one equation and calculates a much more useful number:
True Hourly Wage
This post is heavy with numbers, so grab your glasses—and perhaps a calculator. The results remain interesting, even after bringing the original analysis into 2026.
A quick note about the math
This is an illustrative comparison, not personal tax or financial advice. To make the three careers comparable, the updated model uses the same rules for everyone:
- May 2025 national mean wages from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics—the newest BLS occupational wage data, released in May 2026
- A married California household with two qualifying children, one income, the standard deduction, and no other income
- 2026 federal income-tax rules, employee FICA taxes, and the latest available California tax schedule (2025)
- A 20-year level-payment loan model using 2026–27 federal rates: 8.07% for graduate/professional debt and 6.52% for undergraduate debt
- No loan forgiveness, income-driven repayment, refinancing, origination fees, autopay discount, investment growth, raises, inflation, or geographic pay adjustments
- No employer retirement match, pension, health insurance, or other benefits for any of the three careers
That final point matters. The original post credited a pension to the teacher and a retirement match to the PA but not to the physician. Because benefits vary enormously by employer and state, this revision excludes them from every calculation.
The tax calculation is also a standardized snapshot, not a literal lifetime tax forecast. It holds the married-with-two-children household constant across each career so the occupations can be compared under identical rules; real tax rates, filing status, deductions, and qualifying dependents change over time.
| 2026 model input | Internal medicine physician | PA | High school teacher |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual gross wage | $267,200 | $141,280 | $76,320 |
| Estimated annual income after modeled taxes | $199,126 | $117,549 | $70,015 |
| Education-debt principal used | $215,000 | $112,500 | $29,560 |
| Modeled lifetime loan payments | $433,854 | $227,016 | $52,978 |
| Weekly work hours used | 56.5 | 40 | 53 |
Debt figures describe borrowers, not every graduate. Many people finish school with less debt—or no debt at all—and others owe considerably more.
So let’s get going.
Physician (MD or DO): True Hourly Wage
Becoming a Physician Is Expensive
For the 2025–26 academic year, the average published undergraduate tuition and fees are $11,950 for an in-state student at a public four-year university and $45,000 at a private nonprofit four-year university. Once housing, food, books, transportation, and other expenses are added, the average annual student budgets rise to $30,990 and $65,470, respectively.
The sticker price is not the same as the debt. Grants, scholarships, family support, school choice, and employment all affect what a student actually borrows. Among 2023–24 bachelor’s degree recipients who borrowed, the average cumulative debt was $29,560.
Then comes medical school. The AAMC reports a median four-year cost of attendance for the class of 2026 of $297,745 at public medical schools and $408,150 at private medical schools. Those totals include more than tuition, but they are still sobering.
Fortunately, the average student does not borrow the full cost of attendance. According to the AAMC, 70% of the medical school class of 2025 graduated with education debt. Among those indebted graduates, the median education debt—including premedical debt—was $215,000.
Service scholarships, loan-repayment programs, and programs such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness can radically change the outcome for an individual physician. But they are not universal, so they are not included in the central calculation below.
The federal student-loan interest deduction is also too limited to rescue the economics. It remains capped at $2,500 and is subject to income phaseouts. More importantly, a tax deduction reduces taxable income; it does not reimburse the borrower dollar for dollar. To keep this comparison clean, the model does not include the deduction for any profession.
What Does $215,000 of Debt Cost?
The fixed rate on new federal graduate and professional Direct Unsubsidized Loans first disbursed from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027, is 8.07%. At that rate, repaying $215,000 with equal payments over 20 years would require about $1,808 per month and approximately $433,854 in total payments.
That is an illustration, not a prediction. Actual medical graduates commonly have loans issued in several years at several rates, and their repayment paths may include residency-era income-based payments, interest subsidies, forgiveness, refinancing, or accelerated repayment.
Federal graduate lending also changed on July 1, 2026. Grad PLUS borrowing ended for most new graduate and professional students, with transition exceptions for certain continuing borrowers, and new federal borrowing limits took effect. That change may push some future students toward institutional or private financing, so the economics of medical and PA education deserve even closer attention going forward.
Physician Income, Taxes, Hours, and Training
The latest BLS occupational wage release places the May 2025 national mean annual wage for general internal medicine physicians at $267,200.
Under the household and tax assumptions described above, that becomes an estimated $199,126 after federal income tax, California income tax, Social Security tax, and Medicare tax. This is not a paycheck estimate for every physician; it is one standardized tax case used for all three careers.
Internal medicine requires a three-year residency. The AAMC’s projected 2025 first-year resident stipend was $67,400. For simplicity, this model holds that stipend constant for all three years. After modeled payroll and income taxes, the resident earns approximately $62,244 per year, or $186,732 over three years.
The original article estimated that an internal medicine physician spends about 34,000 hours training after high school, including college, medical school, and residency. There is no single nationally standardized “training hours” figure, so that estimate is retained for continuity.
In the AMA’s 2024 data, internal medicine physicians reported 56.5 hours per week on work-related activities. We will continue to assume 48 working weeks per year.
If our hypothetical physician finishes residency at age 29 and retires at age 65, that creates a 36-year attending career.
Let’s Run the Numbers
True Hourly Wage for an Internal Medicine Physician
[($199,126 × 36) + $186,732 − $433,854] ÷ [(56.5 × 48 × 36) + 34,000]
$52.58 per hour
And Now the Moment You Have All Been Waiting For...
Physician Assistant/Associate: True Hourly Wage
The latest BLS occupational wage data place the May 2025 national mean annual wage for PAs at $141,280. That number is reassuringly close to AAPA’s newer profession-specific finding: the 2026 AAPA Salary Report found median PA compensation of $140,000 in 2025.
Under the same household and tax assumptions, the BLS wage becomes an estimated $117,549 after modeled federal, California, and employee payroll taxes.
PAs are educated at the master’s level. Most PA programs are approximately 27 months and include more than 2,000 hours of clinical rotations. Many programs also require or strongly prefer hands-on healthcare experience before admission, although the amount varies by program.
The original article estimated about 12,400 total training hours after high school for a PA, including a bachelor’s degree, pre-PA patient-care experience, didactic education, and clinical rotations. Again, no single official national “total training hours” figure exists, so the estimate remains in the model for continuity.
The latest PAEA student-debt report is Student Report 6, published in January 2025 from the association’s 2022 matriculating and end-of-program surveys. It found that 83.0% of responding graduating PA students had borrowed for graduate PA education. The report publishes debt ranges rather than one exact median: the midpoint graduate borrower fell in the $100,000–$124,999 range.
For the calculation, I use $112,500, the rounded midpoint of that median range. This is a modeling estimate, not a PAEA-reported exact median. The same report found that 47.4% of responding graduates also had outstanding pre-PA education debt, with the midpoint borrower in the $25,000–$49,999 range. It would be misleading to add that earlier debt to every PA, so pre-PA debt is not added to the central model.
At 8.07% over 20 years, repaying $112,500 requires about $946 per month and $227,016 in total payments.
NCCPA data place the typical PA workweek near 40 hours; AAPA also reported a 40-hour median in several PA specialties in 2025. We will use 40 hours per week and 48 working weeks per year.
If our hypothetical PA finishes school at age 27 and retires at age 65, that creates a 38-year career.
Let’s Run the Numbers
True Hourly Wage for a PA
[($117,549 × 38) − $227,016] ÷ [(40 × 48 × 38) + 12,400]
$49.67 per hour
And Just for Fun—Because Both of My Parents Are Teachers
High School Teacher: True Hourly Wage
The latest BLS occupational wage data place the May 2025 national mean annual wage for secondary school teachers, excluding special and career/technical education, at $76,320.
Under the same household and tax assumptions, that becomes an estimated $70,015 after modeled federal, California, and employee payroll taxes.
Teachers spend about 6,400 hours training after high school in the original model—the estimated classroom and study time required for a bachelor’s degree. State licensing requirements vary, and many teachers later earn graduate degrees, so an individual teacher’s training time and debt can be higher.
Among 2023–24 bachelor’s degree recipients who borrowed, the average cumulative education debt was $29,560. At the 2026–27 undergraduate federal loan rate of 6.52%, paying that balance over 20 years would require approximately $221 per month and $52,978 in total payments.
The original version assumed teachers worked only 40 hours per week for 38 weeks. That excluded too much real labor. BLS notes that teachers commonly spend evenings and weekends grading and preparing lessons, and RAND’s 2024 State of the American Teacher survey found that teachers reported an average of 53 total work hours per week, even though their contracts averaged 38 hours.
We will therefore use 53 hours per week for 40 weeks per year. If a teacher finishes college at 22 and retires at 65, that creates a 43-year career.
Many public-school teachers participate in defined-benefit pension systems, but benefit formulas, vesting, employee contributions, Social Security coverage, retirement age, and cost-of-living adjustments vary widely. Rather than invent one national pension, the model excludes retirement benefits for the teacher—just as it excludes them for the PA and physician.
Let’s Run the Numbers
True Hourly Wage for a High School Teacher
[($70,015 × 43) − $52,978] ÷ [(53 × 40 × 43) + 6,400]
$30.32 per hour
For the Love of Money
| Career | Gross annual wage | Modeled after-tax income | True hourly wage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal medicine physician | $267,200 | $199,126 | $52.58 |
| PA | $141,280 | $117,549 | $49.67 |
| High school teacher | $76,320 | $70,015 | $30.32 |
After accounting for estimated training time, borrower debt, years worked, work hours, residency income, and taxes, the adjusted net hourly wage in this model is $52.58 for an internal medicine physician, $49.67 for a PA, and $30.32 for a high school teacher.
The physician’s annual gross wage is about 1.89 times the PA wage, but the physician’s true hourly wage is only about 1.06 times the PA true hourly wage in this model. The extra years of training, residency pay, higher debt, and longer workweek erase much of the apparent salary gap.
PA vs. Physician Round 1 still goes to the physician—but by an extremely narrow margin.
That conclusion is not universal. A physician in a higher-paying specialty, a PA with a large bonus, a teacher with an excellent pension, a graduate with no debt, or a borrower who receives forgiveness could produce a very different result. Career satisfaction, autonomy, time with family, professional risk, call schedules, geographic flexibility, and the work itself also matter—and none of them fits neatly into a salary equation.
But the central lesson survives the update: do not choose a career by comparing annual salaries alone. Compare the full path required to earn that salary and the life you will live while earning it.
Oh yeah, and how about that stay-at-home 35-year-old living in the basement in our poll? If anyone has time to run that calculation, post it in the comments. We may all be working way too hard!
If you liked this post, please feel free to share it.
—Stephen Pasquini, PA-C
Have You Seen the PA vs. Physician Infographic?
View the PA vs. Physician Infographic
Sources and Methodology
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: May 2025 national occupational employment and wage estimates
- AAMC: Medical school debt and cost of attendance
- AAMC: Resident and fellow stipends
- PAEA Student Report 6: PA education debt
- AAPA: PA education and clinical training
- AAPA 2026 Salary Report highlights
- AMA: 2024 physician work hours by specialty
- NCCPA 2024 Statistical Profile of Board-Certified PAs by State
- RAND: 2024 State of the American Teacher survey data
- College Board: Trends in College Pricing 2025
- College Board: Trends in Student Aid 2025
- Federal Student Aid: 2026–27 Direct Loan interest rates
- U.S. Department of Education: Federal graduate loan changes effective July 1, 2026
- IRS: 2026 federal tax brackets and standard deduction
- Social Security Administration: 2026 FICA rates and taxable maximum
- California Franchise Tax Board: 2025 tax rates, deductions, and exemptions
Calculation precision: displayed annual figures are rounded to the nearest dollar, while the final hourly calculations use unrounded values. “True hourly wage” is an illustrative career-adjusted earnings measure created for this article; it is not a standard labor-economics metric.
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Is it possible for a PA to start their own practice? I live in Michigan just applied to PA school. I have always wanted to be business owner. Is it possible to co own a practice with a doctor?
Hi Mike,
Yes absolutely! You must have a doctor on staff and in some cases they must own a portion of the practice (a small amount like 1%). Here is a great video of a physician assistant graduate from Duke University doing just that http://www.paflix.com/videos/part-4-history-of-the-pa-profession-opportunities/
Often times a PA will also buy into the practice as you have suggested and become a co-owner. We will continue to see more and more PAs doing this, especially in primary care medicine!!!
– Stephen
This post negates alternative repayment programs. I am a military Internist who went to undergrad at the Univ of Louisville with multiple scholarships (the norm among many of my colleagues) and made $12,000 on top of my costs, went to medical school (USUHS) for free as an active duty 2nd Lt ($45,000/yr), and made about $60,000/yr as a resident. As a staff physician, you start at $135,000/yr but jump to $150,000 after three years (promotion to Major) and, for me, to $190,000 two years later (bonuses). Average is closer to the $200-210,000/yr during career. Average net (as staff) is around $140,000 for argument sake. Total in 28 years (20 year service not including retirement here) is $2.78 million. We work 46 weeks per year (30 days of leave + federal holidays) at the expense of deployments (during deployment, I worked 12-16 hrs per day, 6 days per week, 8 months). For a nondeployable IM physician (doesn’t exist mind you), the average hourly wage (assuming 55 hrs/week [I actually do 60ish with resident and medical student teaching], 46 weeks per year, 28 years working) comes to only $39.36/hour. This comes at the cost of (a) deployments, (b) military politics that interfere with good medical care (a “Captain” physician has difficulty with his “Lt Colonel” nurse for example), (c) added stress from frequent moves, and (d) innumerable other things. Personally, I love it. This goes up to ~$60/hr if I factor in that I might collect retirement for 20 years afterwards. I am probably GROSSLY underestimating my hours, however. For instance, I do 10-12 weeks of inpatient but only get a TOTAL of one comp day PER WEEK of inpatient (could factor in 0.625 days of leave I accrue during that inpatient week, but this doesn’t make up when compared to a typical hospitalist schedule). My actual duty includes 10-12 weeks inpatient, acting medical director (19 physicians), resident clinic director (30-40 residents), medical student preceptor (two months per year during administrative time), staff physician (only 350 patients), disaster response team lead, group practice management advisor, and am the de facto physician alternate for several working groups. I average about around 800 RVU/month. So, hey, if youre feeling patriotic and want opportunities early in your career, I’d say go military; I wouldn’t, however, just do it because the “actual” hourly compensation is better!
Dr. B
The author’s conclusion that doctors make approximately the same as teachers is categorically false.
The conclusion of this article is based on the premise that the MD-loan holder will choose to pay off his/her debts over a period of 20 years. If one chooses to pay it back faster, interest is reduced and the scale soundly tips in favor of doctoring over teaching, even assuming correctness in the author’s other assumptions.
However, he egregiously glosses over extra hours worked by teachers as equal to that of doctors who must read up and stay current. Of course, teachers also read up to stay current, and in addition take mandated continuing education classes over their (unpaid) summer to stay licensed, and have unlimited planning and grading to do, completely outside of work hours as prep time has largely been removed. Teachers will often spend several hundred to a thousand dollars yearly for classroom supplies out of pocket or to attend teaching conferences/trainings. The teachers’ salary is also boosted in this article via paid vacation/pension funds, which are highly variable.
The author seems to know quite a bit of the medical side of the equation, but little of the realities of the teaching side (not surprising).
The thing is, real life check-balancing isn’t experienced the way he is calculating it. True, if you totaled lifetime income and subtracted loans, interest, etc. you MIGHT get a “tie” but you have to consider that this large debt doesn’t amount to much monthly compared to other adult cost-of-living expenses like mortgage, 2 cars, diapers, etc. The difference in monthly income of a physician and a doctor makes a HUGE difference in how comfortable you are.
In fact, many teachers never make more than the average salary that medical residents make ($40,000-50,000).
(Education is often touted as a panacea for crime & poverty…yet why are teachers paid so little?)
This is a pretty awesome post. I am a fellowship trained surgeon. Besides the financial aspect, following 7 points will make your decision easy:
1. It takes on an at least15 years (after high school) of head in the sand (books) to complete fellowship and reach the 200,000 figure that you are quoting.
2. 40-50 hr work week is a dream for most MD. Most of my colleagues work 60 hrs and some upto 80 hrs a week.
3. Not counting the hours after you go home and come back for ’emergencies’.
4. Family life is a ‘possibility’ for PAs. Look around and see how many MDs have kids before 30. You will be surprised by the small number.
5. Most my PA friends work two jobs (totaling 60-80hrs/ week), so their salaries go up accordingly. Ever heard of a MD working two jobs. I guess 120-160 hrs/ week is kinda difficult. Huh..
6. PAs work just as well and earn just as much respect by the patients and colleagues.
7. The only trajectory this trend is going is upwards. Mid level providers’ need and utilization has been increasing exponentially.
I am totally happy with what I am doing. But if I were to advise an aspiring student for MD vs. PA, I would totally refer him/ her to this post. I think the round 1 showdown is won by PAs, not MD
Wow, Dr. S this is a wonderful summary and it is the first time I have ever received a comment like this from an MD. If you don’t mind I would like to make this into a blog post and share it with my readers, I think many people would benefit from reading what you have to say. Thanks so much for taking the time to share your thoughts, these 7 points are spot on!
– Stephen
Interesting Article, would like to see the welfare recipient calculation….
Anyways, reference the 35 year old on the couch at home…if he decides to be productive at age 15 and start a website and assuming 0 cost then works an average of 40 hours per week to improve his own product and develop name recognition. Well do your own research…but here’s a starter. Now having attempted this myself for 6 months now …it’s a lot of work…but it is completely possible and after 20 years you could make a lot of mistakes and still be in a good position.
http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/my-income-reports/
Yep Justin, I agree completely and Pat Flynn is a great example. That being said, would you say the pursuit of a truly “passive” online income stream is becoming more or less elusive? Are there still profitable niches out there for the once “average” Joe such as Pat?
P.S if you run the numbers of a California Welfare recipient I will post them as an update on the blog!
– Stephen
But I’m still thinking about the recognition of the community as a PA and if we can help her with the money What is the best decision.
The best decision is the one that she feels confident about. Communities don’t recognize great titles they recognize great people!
– Stephen
Thank You very much, as a parent of a student ,you open my mine and you make a happy family supporting my doughtier to do what’s she feels is better for her.
Oh and I was wondering why a 50k residency does not provide any money to pay down some debt, while a teacher making 50k has enough money to live?
Also, my own friends who have become physicians were able to have their loans forgiven if they moved to an underserved area. Not too shabby.
Teachers must acquire a master’s degree after their bachelors to work in a public school system (about 50k). Although they have more vacation time, you’ve factored this into the equation already, right? So let’s throw that out – because if you wanted, you could work part time as a PA and come out way ahead. I doubt physicians have that option, but my dentist works M, T, 1/2 day on Wed, Thurs, and he’s off for the next 3 days.
BTW, I ended up at this site because I have the option of teaching or going to PA school… It’s a little dreadful working with no breaks (even for emergency bathroom) and making about 50K – still knowing you have to correct papers and do lesson plans at night. You also can’t change your vacations during the school year. You’ll always be fighting prime time travel, etc. PAs and physicians have access to better healthcare, even getting that blood test on the first try instead of trekking to multiple appointments before you get a decent diagnosis.
All good points Jenny! Also, it sounds to me like you may have made your decision… Maybe after a couple years you will find yourself teaching at a PA school, in which case you may have the very best of both worlds 🙂
Cheers,
Stephen
But really though, would you rather be a teacher (and deal with no appreciation or respect) OR be a PA or an MD (and have an exciting and respected career).
There are some advantages to being a teacher as well, for example, I recently traveled through South East Asia and met many American teachers traveling the world, teaching at international schools and having a great time. PAs, although we definitely can work Internationally are more limited in this regard. Also, teachers have summer vacations and holiday’s off, whereas we in the medical field often are working Christmas Eve and Thanksgiving Day. Also teachers have schedules that work well if you have small children. So there are pluses and minuses I guess to both. The two professionals I remember from my childhood were my teachers (I remember all of them) and my Pediatrician, so what teachers lack in pay they make for in changing the lives of kids and making future PAs. I have confidence that Society will eventually recognize the contributions made by our great teachers and they will be paid appropriately, especially as many more jobs become outsourced to computers. Teachers will have even more freedoms working and teaching online, which may provide them with even greater freedoms and the ability to earn income in a variety of ways from anywhere in the word.
– Stephen
I know you are trying to provide a simplified calculation of average hourly rate over the life of a Physician Assistant (PA) and Physician. However, I think a more accurate comparison would be to calculate the internal rate of return (IRR) or net present value (NPV) for each option. The IRR or NPV would allow you to compare both options over a multitude of periods and pick the option with the highest rate of return.
I know you are assuming wages will remain constant with no inflation. However, your calculation does not account for the time value of money which is very important when comparing investment options over time. If we view a medical education as an capital expenditure (asset) that produces future cash flows, we need to compare the rate of return. Although, your calculation is very instructional and produces a very high level analysis of future income and expense of medical professionals. I don’t think it accurately reflects which option is the better financial investment.
Hi Care Bear,
You have a great point and it would be interesting to see the result of your calculations! I am not sure I would know how to run these numbers. If you have the time I would love to post any calculations you have as an update on the blog.
– Stephen
Just read through this article Stephen, and it’s quite enlightening. One thing that came to mind to me is that a lot of kids today don’t go straight to college after highschool – or they goof off for a year or two during college and don’t finish when they should have. Your numbers are based on ideal students with the MD finishing residency at 29 and the PA finishing school at 27, yielding a working life of respectively 36 and 38 years.
It would skew the numbers a bit if you add just a few years to the age of the graduates. Say the MD finishes residency at 34 and the PA is finished at 32. Looking at the age of students today that’s quite common. The decreased years of full earning capacity would be more detrimental to the MD than to the PA. I’m not going to crunch the numbers like you did, but I think it’s worth thinking about for prospective students who aren’t 18 anymore.
With the correction, this is about $32 an hour. Shoulda been a teacher.
Yes, my 4th grade teacher mom has said that from the very beginning 🙂
I appreciate the factors you use – comparing hourly wages is useful.
One big issue in the calculations is that for the Doctor, you use a “After Tax” in the actual computation, and for the PA computation, you use the 100k before tax figure, instead of the 76k after tax figure.
After this adjustment, I think the hourly wage become less than the MD – but the quality of life (as described in your “why my wife is happy…”) post more that makes up for this.
Thanks for the useful info on this site
It’s pretty sad and telling that more people believe that the 35 year old living in his (yes, I’m just going to assume that’s a “he”) parents basement makes more than the average teacher, lol. Poor educators just can’t get any respect around here, I tell ya!
On a serious note, great and thought provoking article! I’m currently studying for my MCATs and going through all the lovely hoops for medical school admissions, and I’ve been wondering more and more if it’s the right choice for me over becoming a PA, so thank you for the great insight and resources! Individual outcomes within the field of medicine are so diverse, it seems like you really can do anything you want so long as you have the imagination, inspiration and drive, which I love! Once again, thanks!
What did you end up choosing? Medical school or PA?
Hi Mike,
It was PA for me all the way! Which I guess is a good thing, otherwise I would have to change the name of the blog 🙂
Cheers,
Stephen
Hi Stephen. This is great! But just as a sidenote ( and having had this argument with a friend who is in medschool), many med students go on to make much more than ~200K. Taking this into account, they probably will make more than the per hour you mentioned here. Also, this is a very interesting read on MD vs PA for women
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/07/is-medical-school-a-worthwhile-investment-for-women/260051/#.UA2RK8y_Cw4.email
Hi Sara,
Very thought provoking article, thank you for the link.
My wife is a Registered Nurse, I can say hands down without having even run the calculations that in California the Nursing Union has got us all beat if you were to run the numbers.
But, then again life is more than these numbers. A lot of it comes down to what you want out of life. In my opinion most Americans are willing to sell their most valuable asset (time) to the lowest bidder. Articles like these and the ones you referenced point out something that is important. And it goes along with what I have learned when I ask doctors why they became doctors. Most don’t (and shouldn’t) pursue medicine for money. If you do you won’t be a very happy doctor, just like you won’t be a very happy PA or a very happy person. In fact I have never met a doctor yet who chose her career with this in mind.
They say 80% of people hate their jobs. Most doctors I meet don’t hate their jobs, in fact most are happy they chose their profession. My next blog post is going to talk a bit about this, it is proving to be a difficult one to write!
Take care,
Stephen
No offense man, but your answers are vague and relative. I’m going to try giving a more specific answer.
Very few people HATE their jobs. Good chance that if you say that you “hate it” then you need a reality check. You won’t be happy if you pursue medicine for the sole reason of money? That’s not true either. You can be perfectly happy if you do that. It’s all about perspective. I can guarantee you that someone who is intelligent and has worked in the accounting profession pulling 80-hour weeks doing auditing bullshit would love to take a job that allows them to interact with people and make decent money (doctor).
Also, most doctors who I have met who have had a career in medicine (I’m talking 10+ years) would choose to do something else if they could have started over. Why? Bc of stress and lack of time. You live a good materialistic life and if that’s your goal then you win by being a doctor. But if your goal is to make a decent living and be able to have good leisure time and free weekends, don’t be a doc.
This is fabulous 🙂 thanks for working that out for us!
Thanks Ana!
Such a calculative content!!
This is not for you sameer, it is pretty calculated…but the author doesn’t mention that PA’s are “tool fetchers” and “scrip-tors”…I know a good auto mechanic with that kind of talent making a lot less money(oh and they didn’t require thousands of hours in deductive reasoning). Since my email is required to post this, I invite an onslaught from the author…because I could go on for days about “The smart person stealing from the intelligent ones” 🙂
This just reeks of insecurity – I mean I’m a MD and let’s be honest here I would never send my kid to medical school. With the future of medicine moving toward mid level providers and the loss of autonomy within the medical profession, doctors are rapidly becoming “scrip-tors,” look no further than psychiatry or primary care. If you want a wild wild west devoid of real scientific evidence and evidence based protocols, look no further than the surgical specialties. I’m glad the new generation of doctors and the culture is shifting, but it will not stave off the long term transition to mid level providers (such as PA’s, NP’s, and CRNA’s) who have been shown to have close to or better patient outcomes in the majority of cases compared to doctors. Or you can keep your head in the sand and ignore all this and resort to name calling a much needed group of valuable allied healthcare professionals who will be part of the solution to fix this broken and undermanned US healthcare system. I think I would rather want someone be a “tool fetcher” than a tool.
Dr. S, you just made my day! Thank you for standing up for us PAs, we salute you!!! You have an extremely valid point, it seems as though it may be just a matter of time until we are all computer assistants in a world of rapidly advancing medical technology. In this role the PA is very well suited, especially in primary care. The culture is indeed shifting from one of wild west “scriptors” to a more integrative approach in general to medicine. Hopefully this is just the natural progression of knowledge easily distributed and readily available. It takes a lot of time, and there are some very big obstacles to overcome – all of which I am sure you are very familiar.
– Stephen
Yaaaaaay Dr. S!!
You rock,
– current PA student and former med student
Hey Chris,
With you as a former med student and current PA student I was wondering if we could please chat. I’m about to start a two year special masters post-bac program to help raise my sgpa and MCAT score but am strongly considering PA instead of MD. I know each decision is based on personal preference but I was curious as what made you decide to switch.
Thanks