"In my life, family will always be my greatest priority. I love my patients like I love life itself, but I love my family even more than life itself." - Stephen Pasquini PA-C.
Years ago, I dreamt of being an MD.
Since I was a small child, in fact, to me, this would be the pinnacle of life. Stethoscope around my neck, working in the trenches, saving lives!
This was my childhood dream and my young adult dream, all the way through college.
Not even Organic Chemistry could stop me. I just pushed through it, head to the grindstone, determined to reach my goal.
Then one year away from finishing all my pre-med training, something happened: I met a physician assistant!
To me, life has always been more than my job. The reason I created this website is that I love art, photography, and technology. I love kids, the outdoors, and my family. I love to surf, bike, and take my son and daughter for long walks. I like to make shapes out of the clouds, go on long weekend getaways, take my wife out dancing.
I love life!
If you don't know already, being a doctor requires a TON of sacrifices.
If you are not prepared to give your life over to medicine, then I encourage you to take a long deep inward look at yourself and decide if what you want is really MD.
Before many hours working at the University of Washington Medical Center, I thought to be a doctor was fun like Michael J. Fox in the movie "Doc Hollywood" or rugged like the doctors on Mash. I wanted to be like George Clooney in the TV show ER.
This is an illusion. Being a Dr. means long hours, late nights on call, missed birthdays, missed anniversaries often second marriages. That last one is the part that is like the movies.
Wants vs. Needs
I realized that what I wanted most out of life was to help people be healthy. I love the human body, I love anatomy, and I love science.
I liked the thought of propping a young child upon the exam room table, making a funny face, and treating their ear infection.
I loved the idea of sewing up a wound, setting a fracture, being there when another human being needed someone to hold onto.
Helping someone come to terms with death while helping another come to terms with life.
I didn't want MD; I wanted all of the above. There was no other way.
Finding Balance
I have met more doctors who want to be PAs than PAs who want to be doctors.
Why? Because there is more to life than medicine. PAs have the unique opportunity to live this.
It is not about being lazy; it is not about a lack of dedication. PAs tend to be some of the most dedicated and hard-working people I know.
PA is the sweet spot! Where life and medicine meet in the middle.
I honestly believe you can be better at compassion when you are more grounded. Having a life outside of work justifies life. It makes for a happy person, which translates to better patient care.
After quite a bit of soul-searching, I realized that I never really needed to be a doctor, but I wanted to feel like one.
If you are on this journey to being a healthcare provider, know that life exists beyond MD. It is a beautiful life, and it has fulfilled every single one of my dreams of being an excellent health care provider.
And every time I prop a small child up on the exam room table and write the script to make their ear feel better, I smile. Then I go home in the evening and give my kids and my wife a big hug and a kiss.
In my life family will always be my highest priority. I love my patients like I love life itself, but I love my family even more than life itself. Click To TweetI don't think I could have found this balance as an MD, and I thank my lucky stars that life, or God or whatever directed me to UMDNJ, to PA School, to the job of my dreams.
Being a PA is truly where life and medicine have found the perfect balance. I hope you, too, will give the physician assistant profession consideration as you go about life and pursue a rewarding career in the field of medicine.
Warmly,
Stephen Pasquini PA-C
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Often the decision between PA and MD is considered a difficult one, but should it be? Click Here.
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Stephen your story really helped me. I have just been accepted into the undergraduate Physicians Assistant Program at Rutgers University. ever since I was little I’ve always wanted to be a “boo boo doctor” and now I get to pursue my dream. It’s good to know that there is a balance between Medicine and Life because that is what I want in my future. God Bless.
Yeahhh Naomi. Way to go! The Rutgers program and staff are the best. Carol Sadley was my PA school adviser, she is the Queen of the ECG! Congratulations on your acceptance and achieving your dream… Now the fun begins 🙂 I wish you the very best as you begin the journey.
– Stephen
Hi Stephen,
Absolutely love your post and website. I’m currently in the limbo of getting my hours in for PA school and beginning the application process in April.
I’m currently working as a medical assistant for 2 MD’s and a DO. I love them all, and I know they’ll be great references for me – however, on every PA school website they say “we prefer you have one reference from a practicing PA.”
Stephen, I have tried and tried to get connected to a PA. I have sent emails, made calls, sent faxes, and just recently went door to door handing out letters to PA’s in the area asking if I could just take them to lunch to pick their brains about what it really means to be a PA. I have had 0 bites in everything that I’m doing. I don’t know any PA’s, and all the hospitals in my area say that I either need to be a “sophomore, junior, or senior in college,” (I’ve already graduated) or I have to know someone who knows someone to set me up with a PA.
I’m just terrified I’m going to be sitting in that interview in the next year with the staff staring at me, asking “Why did you not shadow the very profession you are wanting to spend the rest of your life doing??”
I have no idea what to do. Or how important this really is. Please help 🙁
Hi Vaida,
I feel your frustration and I applaud you for your efforts. If you came to my house with a letter and money for lunch I would say you had me at lunch 🙂 I too can’t believe how hard it is to find someone to shadow. I know the hospital I work for has made it a rule that PAs are not allowed to have student shadows. Something that is very frustrating and you are right, if you are not currently a student many teaching organizations will not let you through the door. The only other way to do this is to have a job volunteering in a hospital and then befriend a PA, sometimes this can lead to an opportunity to follow them for the day. But even this is getting harder. I know when I applied the only “shadowing” experience I could claim was time spent with the PA in the campus health center where I was working. I did not have a letter of recommendation from a PA and I don’t think it is necessary. If you have good letters from a DO and two MDs you should be fine in this regard. But it is important to say you have seen a PA in action in some capacity, they will ask you if you have shadowed a PA and know exactly what it is we do, it will be hard to tell your story at the interview and sound like you are not making excuses (even though both you and I know this is not the case). Have you tried the PA Shadow Website? http://pashadowonline.com
Where part of the country do you live in? Where have you been trying to find shadowing opportunities?
Stephen
Stephen,
I greatly admire your passion for your profession as well as your perspective on life! I am currently halfway through my first year of medical school, and am reconsidering why I chose medical school over PA school. I mainly chose this route because I wanted greater control over my patient’s care, the regret that might come with not trying for med school, and because I had previously seen the mid-levels at the hospital I worked at get stuck with the more “mundane” cases (lancing boils, flu, etc.). I’m sure the respect/prestige factor played into the decision as well.
Since my father’s death 5 months before medical school started, I have rearranged my priorities and am seriously contemplating the change to PA. I worry that in the end a lot of my memories will be of medicine, and that medicine will take some of the memories away from those who have made me, and do make me the person I am. This is one of the most difficult decisions I have contemplated thus far in my life, and thank you for your perspective.
Hi Shawn you are at a difficult crossroad.. I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your father.
I am not sure that leaving medical school to pursue PA school would be the best decision at this point in your training. Especially as you have put in the time, work and effort to make it this far. This article is obviously a bit biased and it was the byproduct of a lot of soul searching myself. You can create “work life balance” as a doctor or any profession for that matter, as long as you keep your priorities straight. I heard a great saying once “decide what you want to do with your time or someone else will decide for you”, this is o true! I work with doctors who have refused call, cut their hours, wen’t part time, become hospitalists or changed specialties in an effort to find that balance. They were quite successful. I know doctors with strong families and very fulfilling personal lives who still make it to all their kids’ soccer games.
It is often a “wake-up-call” like the loss of a parent, that reminds us truly what is important in life. Having been through this you can bring this perspective to your patients, it will make you an exceptional doctor.
Hold onto your values, pay particular attention to the important things in life, surround yourself with those people who share your values, know that in any situation you always have lots of options, bring this with you into your profession and I truly believe that your wife and your kids could be very happy that you chose MD.
I wish you the very best on your journey, I am sure whatever you chose, your father would be very proud!
– Stephen
Stephen,
Thanks for your timely response! I’m going to finish the year out and try to speak with as many physicians as possible to get their perspective. My biggest fear is of the unknown (how much time residency and the career itself will take away from my loved ones). I don’t want to get so deep into the process that I can’t get out. I have never felt “called” to be a physician or to be PA. I have felt, and do feel “called” to ease the suffering of others, and I chose medicine because I love the patient interaction and human physiology. I’m just not sure if I love being a physician enough to sacrifice precious time spent with those who are and have been permanent fixtures in my life. I wish you the best in your future practice, and in your personal life as well! Thanks again for everything.
I first read this article over 6 months ago, when I first started to consider not going the MD route and possibly pursuing PA instead. I keep wondering if I’m making the right decision and if I’ll regret not going all the way medicine-wise, but every time I would consider applying to med school, this article would pop back up in my head. I know it’s different for each case, but you seem to prioritize the same things I do and can put them into words I can’t when attempting to convince med students that PA is just as satisfying a career (or would be for me at least). My problem right now, however, is getting the large amount of direct patient care hours PA schools require. I’m already taking a year off, after deciding not to apply to med school, but in order to get those sort of hours and still have applied by a decent time (this June or so) I’ll almost have to take two. Again, thank you for your words; they really resonate with those of us who are passionate about multiple facets of life.
Hey Stephen! I just want to start off by saying that I LOVE THIS BLOG!
I know you have probably received multiple comments like these but I would greatly appreciate some advise! I am a third year Pre Med Student majoring in Psychology (BS) and Biology (BS) with a 3.6 overall GPA. I am very much considering going the PA route because of the lower overall debt, more family and personal time, and specialized salary ranging from upper 90K to 150K in the Atlanta metro area!
I am going to be going on a week long Mobile Clinic in Peru this Winter Break and then spend the next 3 semesters in undergraduate to raise my GPA, study for GRE, gain more volunteer hours in hospice, and try to get a part time job in hospital in my senior year, hopefully. My ideal application would be a GPA at 3.7+, high GRE and at least a 1500 to 2000 clinical hours (I have 0 as of now). I want to specialize in Pschiatry or maybe Surgery. I do not know yet, but are PA Psychiatrists a thing? Is the salary bracket I am expecting normal? I would STRONGLY be thankful for some advise on my projected track and expectations.
Hi Aman,
There are PAs who work in psychiatric specialty they commonly work in:
County mental health facilities
Managed care systems (Kaiser, for example)
Hospitals: in-patient psychiatric units, psychiatric emergency units, and emergency rooms.
Private health clinics, particularly those that serve large volumes of patients, and can therefore afford their own mental health provider
Prisons and jails (one of the highest paying settings, for obvious reasons)
And yes, this is also one of the highest paid specialties. It would be a very interesting and rewarding career that would also come with a large learning curve depending on your background. But I think it would be fascinating!
Stephen
Hey Stephen!
I enjoyed your article! I’m in the same situation as many others who’ve commented on your blog struggling to decided between MD and PA. I can say i relate to you in many ways. I love the idea of having time with my family, helping people, and having a life outside of medicine. The idea of working 4 days a week, so I can spend 3 at home with my wife, and kids sounds incredible, and is honestly one of the biggest factor in my decision. I’ve spent a good amount of time researching, and the issue is i’m finding contradicting information. Some say MD’s get better hours, and PA’s are given more shifts. Others say just the opposite. What factors will determine your work load? Do all doctors have to give up their life at home? How many days do you find yourself working as a PA?
Hope to hear from you soon! Thanks!
Kyle
Hi Kyle,
The factors that will determine your workload are a product of your time and trust at an institution and the values you hold above all else. I worked for 4 years full-time at my job before I modified my schedule to 3 on and 4 off. By this time I had made myself valuable enough that administration saw it worthwhile to keep me on “part-time” and adjust my schedule accordingly. Of course I was working at a rural healthcare facility and to be honest they had a harder time recruiting and retaining quality medical staff. So for these reasons I probably had more leverage. My cousin, for example, works for Kaiser in San Jose, they have been very demanding and non-budging when it comes to her schedule, call and long hours. I would never work for them because of that, but she doesn’t have kids and is looking for longer hours and overtime pay. Another close friend of mine who has a wife and 3 children, is very busy at home and works 50+ hours a week… He is incentivised by pay and patients seen. He doesn’t seem to mind the extra work, and he has a very good home and social life.
Although I love my job and my patients I have made it a priority to make my family time a top priority while my children are small. I have turned down job offers that demanded call and variable shifts. Your life situation will determine some of this, but also, I don’t have a big mortgage or expensive car loans and I believe this gives me some more freedom as well. I am also blessed by the fact my wife is a nurse and works part time and receives a good salary.
So as you can see there are many variables that will determine your situation. That being said, I think everything is tradeoffs to some degree or another. The question is what tradeoffs are you wiling to make and what is valuable to you? I have worked with doctors who have traded salary and dumped call to work in clinics that did not require hospital rounds to be at home with their children. I have worked with PAs who work long hours and love every second of it. It doesn’t have to mean your family life is a mess either.
But, I do believe the key ingredient to being able to design your lifestyle is dedication to your partients, your family, and even the institution you work for. As you make yourself valuable to your workplace you will gain a lot more flexibility over time. Keep your lifestyle in check to avoid lifestyle servitude and guard your time very carefully, if you don’t determine what you want to do with it others will be happy to do it for you.
– Stephen
Thank you so much for this. I’ve been stuck in the middle for so long, not knowing exactly what I want to do. What you explained is what I want out of life so thank you thank you x a million.
Thank you Alyssa for your kind comment, I wish you the very best of luck along they way!
– Stephen
Very well said! I struggled to explain my reasoning for wanting to be a PA throughout my 4 years of undergrad to pre-Med students who just thought I was being lazy and unambitious. All I want is a well balanced life where I don’t get so caught up in work that I miss the things that are most important. I am applying to PA schools now, do you think its a good idea to mention the pa vs md route in my personal statement?
No, I don’t think you need to mention it, if it comes up in an application or on an interview address it honestly, nobody will call you unambitious, PAs will applaud you for being the wiser 🙂
– Stephen
Hello Stephen. I am very glad I ran across your article. The entire article sounds like me minus the family life because I am still single with no children. I am a 27 year old woman who every time she steps into a hospital she gets tickled pink but I’m getting older not younger and getting back into the swing of college after a 2 year break is not easy. It has been brought up to my attention by my adviser to look into becoming a P.A. and when I first heard it my heart slightly fell into my stomach. He could see it all over my face but he was so positive to me about the alternative. Then a few days ago I was telling my dentist of what I was going to school for and she verbalized that if she knew what she knew now, she would have taken a different route. Not saying that she wouldn’t have been in the medical field but that she more than likely wouldn’t have been a doctor as sometimes the job in itself can be very stressful. She encouraged me to look into other alternatives as well before fully deciding to be a doctor. She is such a GOD Fearing, happy, positive woman. So I began looking up information about P.A’s and I found out a piece of information that was VERY interesting to me. P.A’s have the ability to move from one specialty to the next if they so choose and I always said that I want my range of knowledge to be broad. I’ve been praying about it and I’ve received positive feedback from my mother about it. I think she’s happy because if Its GOD’s will for me to be a P.A. my time in college will be shortened TREMENDOUSLY and she can get the grandchild that her and my father want lol. Regardless, there are many pros for me in my situation that I have found in regards to pursuing possibly becoming a P.A. and your article is one of them. I Thank GOD i ran across your article and May GOD continue to bless you as a P.A. May you NEVER short to do GOD’s will in helping others to help themselves. GOD Bless! =)
Your words are so kind and loving, thank you for taking the time to write such a thoughtful note. It is because of people like yourself that I am confident that the PA profession will continue to grow and prosper and will be the place where all the good practitioners go 🙂 Every reason you mentioned are perfect reasons to choose the PA route. School is shorter (including the time it takes to build up the necessary prerequisites), loans are smaller, life balance is better and the chance to move within medical specialties is something you just don’t see in many other medical professions. It sounds to me like you are on the right path! May God bless you as well and I wish you the very best on your journey, feel free to drop me a line anytime if you should ever have any more questions.
– Stephen
Incredible replies to these inquiring minds.
Now mine.
In a response up the page you said, “My wife is happy I am a PA not simply because I am not an MD, but because I respect my time and place family at the top of the list.”
You also said your wife would have divorced you if you went to med school. (Maybe you were joking).
I am 22 and have been married 3 years. I have the most supportive husband. He would follow me down any route, and I am at the PA/MD deciding point.
Personally, I want the MD route. I scribe in IM and the PAs in UC next door are always asking the physicians questions. I want to be that person who answers the PA questions. I want to be the ultimate decider. I WANT two more years of school. I WANT to be called doctor and not have to correct anyone.
My husband says this PA/MD decision is up to me. He has given me everything to help me get where I want to go. Now… I’m wondering if an MD route is selfish. An MD cant always place his family at the top of the list… and this is really the only thing my husband is asking for in my future career.
I know I can be an MD, stay happily married, and have a happy family. The question is… are all the sacrifices worth it? Will the unpreventable sacrifices of my marriage and family be worth it? Will I retire at age 60 and say, man.. I really wish we had more time to climb mountains and travel the world at age 35? I’ve been at this spot for the last year.. and it’s time to decide.
Thanks so much for your insight. Your thoughts are very encouraging to many of us!
-EA
Thank you Emily for such a kind and thoughtful response highlighting the complexity of this question!
And yes, you are 100% correct, you “can and always will place your family at the top of the list”. This is a decision that lies far outside the realm of career choice. But, as you so poetically pointed out, there are “unpreventable sacrifices” and you have to decide if it is worth it and how you will go about managing them.
I know many an MD who have very stable, supportive, and wonderful home lives with strong, capable and well-rounded children and partners.
A particular example comes to mind: She is a pediatrician I work with. Her husband is a very supportive professional who works full time for Cisco Systems. She demanded that her call schedule be modified and she cut her hours at the clinic to 30 hours per week so she could balance her home and work life. I know another who refused to do call or round in the hospital. It was a bit of a process to negotiate their schedules but they are both great providers and our hospital administration was willing to work with them. They are also genuinely wonderful people.
I do see the stress though that this places on a person, and I still think, after 11 years in practice that work/life balance (whatever that means exactly) is better designed into PA schedules. But, I also know PAs who have horrible home lives and this has nothing to do with their work schedule… It is a result of our priorities.
Go where your heart is calling you! If you know yourself and commit 100% to your husband and family placing them at the top of your list at all times, you will be writing the article “Why I am happy I am an MD and not a PA-C” and I would love to share that. Because I love doctors, and we need more of them like yourself!
I wish you the very best on your medical journey.
– Stephen
Hey Stephen I really enjoyed reading this as I’m debating on going to PA school. Currently enrolled at Rutgers New Brunswick as a freshman and this article really helped me decide that PA school is a great alternative to med school. I have a question on clinical/hospital hours, what would you recommend for that? Like as a career and how many hours of volunteer or working hours. Thanks so much
Hi RuStudent,
As a college freshman you have the advantage of time to build a strong portfolio of medical experience and volunteer work. I would recommend approaching both the campus health clinic and UMDNJ medical center and see what opportunities are available for work and/or volunteering as a student. This can open many doors… This is the route that I took.
One thing I didn’t do, and looking back wish I had, was to work/volunteer overseas. There are so many great opportunities for students to spend a summer working/volunteering abroad that can add to your resume and build your character. I would look into these as well, you could even consider a semester abroad, preferably in a Spanish speaking country… building proficiency in a useful foreign language can be so valuable later on and looks great on a transcript/job application.
Consider speaking with the Rutgers PA program front desk staff and asking them where you can get involved. Maybe you could help the program somehow, or even help with volunteer activities. I know the staff there and they are wonderful. Getting to know PAs on their home turf is, as the American Express commercials say, “priceless”.
The doors are wide open for anybody with a little passion and a lot of compassion. If you start now you will have all the hours you need, there is no need to count, you will have built a portfolio that speaks for itself. This is my humble advice….
– Stephen
Stephen, I am really in a tough place! I am very much like you – the MD dream, but I went in to Naturopathic medicine and now in second year of the program I want the PA life. The problem is I live in Canada… we have three uncertified PA programs. Which means I would be unregulated so it will be harder to find a job and the schools are not recognized anywhere other than 4 provinces, so I could never work somewhere else in the world (i.e. USA). THEN when I look at US schools there is so much variability… what do I want a BSc. or a masters, tuition at $100k or $20k … as an international students its even higher. Also because I am traveling regardless of location…when do I want to study, I have only been to the states a very few times, do I want to go to Texas or New York .. I don’t know. I have tried to email schools and boards for help and no one has advice … PLEASE help me.
– Logan
Hi Logan,
I think we have all been where you are and we can all feel your pain. I know when I was applying I was asking many of the same questions, but the truth is (at least in my opinion) none of this is really as important as it may seem.
It doesn’t matter if you graduate with a BS or Masters or even an associates degree. When it comes time to apply for a job employers do not asks or really care. As long as you have completed your required education, passed the PANCE and hold your PA-C license in their eyes you are very golden.
2. Which school? There is of course a difference between programs but it will be almost impossible to know what that difference is until you are actually in the program. Probably all accredited programs will give you what you need and your goal is to be a PA. There is also a difference between States for sure, but again, your goal is to be a PA, and Kentucky can be just as delightful as Palo Alto CA when you comparing the library study halls and hospital rotation wards. That, and I think all locations have their charm, especially when you become part of a tight knit group like your PA class will become.
3. Cost… Of course this is an issue as well. But again, you are looking to be a PA, how much is it worth to you? You can always find a way to pay, whether this is through loan repayment, taking extra shifts on the weekends, or just doing what most do and slowly paying down the loan over the next 30 years. Cost again, is of less importance in the long run.
The defining factor should be to what schools do you have the prerequisites completed? And when can you start applying. The sooner in my book the better, so I would focus more on things like GRE requirements and prerequisites than the other variables and start applying as soon as possible. Don’t worry so much about location, degree type and even cost for that matter.. They are much less important in the long run. I do think you are smart thought to apply to a US school. This will open up a lot more doors!
– Stephen
I woke up this morning and I was standing in front of my bathroom mirror brushing my teeth and this thought crept into my mind…”by the time I graduate with my bachelors I will have all the pre med and pre pa course requirements completed”. I started my undergraduate degree with the hopes of being an MD in mind and I began taking the necessary required courses. 1 year into my bachelor’s degree it hit me that being a PA was also an option. I was no longer fulfilled by the thought of going to medical school and being a doctor. I saw myself in many of the students around me at UCSD: Pre Med, hard core, antisocial, school comes first, we can’t work together because you’re my competition type persona. Then I saw the medical students, in scrubs, looking tired more often than not, they too ate,slept, and breathed school. I saw the doctors, nice big houses, fancy cars (in the part of California where I lived everybody is flashy if they have money), and each had the same story…a neglected family, a family they wished they had more time for, a family they had lost because medicine had to be the center of their world. I saw no side of that picture that I liked. Which is my I decided to be a PA. But this morning that thought crept into my mind that I could choose to either be a PA or an MD. It is almost as if I have this constant battle in my mind sometimes between the two. I feel as if the people who know me so well have always seen me as a future doctor and feel as if I’m taking the “easy way out” in becoming a PA. I’m told as a PA I’ll work UNDER someone else as if that’s such a horrible thing. As an MA I work under someone else and its not that bad, because I do my job, I see my patients, and at the end of the day I am satisfied because I’m doing something that I love. I don’t feel I would have that satisfaction as a doctor. If I don’t enjoy life outside of work, if there is no life outside of work, if there is no way to achieve balance, then being a Doctor is not the route for me. This post solidified that. At the end of the day, it is not about the money, its about enjoying what I do both at work and outside of work, its about enjoying the time for myself, my family, my husband, and hopefully my kids that I’ll have in the future. I just want to thank you for this post, and for this entire website. It has been and will continue to be an essential component on my path to becoming a Physician Assistant.
Samantha Denson
Thank you Samantha, what a beautiful comment!
You will have lots of moments like this on your path to finding a profession that fills your purpose and your passion. Sounds to me like you have asked all the right questions and are headed in the right direction. Thank you for sharing your story, I know a lot of people will identify with what you had to say, including me :-).
– Stephen
Hi Stephen,
First thank you so much for this article. It mirrors my thought process and feelings that I am experiencing right now. I am junior and have been mentally focused for a while now on going to med school and getting everything done in order to make that happen. However, I have had thoughts recently that maybe this is not what I want to do. I know without a doubt I want to help people. Everything you said you love about being a physicians assistant is exactly what I want out of my job. As I am going back and forth between physicians assistant and MD, the major question that continues to pop up in my mind is which path will allow me to spend as much time with patients. Would you say that a PA spends more time with patients than a MD does?
Also, as I am researching what it will take to make the switch most of the classes are the same, but the hands on patient hours/health care experience is what worries me. As a pre-med major of course I have had to get some volunteer hours, but I do not know if they would be considered hands on or health care experience. I have volunteered at the hospital in my hometown and was known as a “high risk safety volunteer.” Basically, I checked the patients rooms to make sure every thing was on and set up in case a patient fell. I also volunteered with a camp in which I worked and spent a week with kids who have been or being affected by cancer. I was a counselor so I personally did not provide them with any medical attention; I was there to make sure the kids had to best week they could at camp. Right now I am volunteering with hospice in my hometown and I plan on continuing volunteering with hospice. Do you think these things qualify as patient care/health care experience? If not what would you suggest I do to get these hours?
Also, would you mind describing just what your typical day kinda looks like?
Im sorry for all the questions, but thank you so much for being so helpful!
Jennifer
Stephen,
Your article is so inspiring and confirms my reasons to go to PA school. I am a senior biology major at FSU. This is my last semester; I’m graduating in December. The problem is up until last semester I was a pre-med student. I have a 3.0 science and 3.5 overall GPA. I have about 3 months clinical experience. I have not taken the GRE. I want to get into the next cycle of PA program next year. Last summer I took A&P 1 and I have yet to take A&P 2. My questions are: is my application strong enough? Should I take a year off to get more experience and take the GRE test?
Hi Joline,
Unfortunately you will not really know the answer to this question until you apply. For some schools your application may be strong enough and for others possibly not. Much of this depends on the quality of your essay, and your ability to convince the admissions committee that you are indeed ready for PA school over 100’s or possibly 1000’s of other applicants with the same goal and often lots of experience.
Every bit of experience you have and everything you do will help to differentiate you from a sea of like minded applicants. It will also give you confidence as you face the admissions committee and they ask you those tough questions. There is a law of nature at force here – One that says the more experience and skills you have the more likely you are to be chosen for anything really, and this applies to PA school.
That being said you also don’t want to hold yourself back and wait for “the perfect time”. I was just reading a book about Richard Branson the founder of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Records. He started a magazine at the age of 16 with no money and a diagnosis of Dyslexia… If he had waited for the right time to start his magazine and accepted what people told him about his inability to read and write well, who knows what would have happened.
The only reason not to apply early to PA school is likely a financial one (the application process isn’t cheap), otherwise you have nothing to lose and every time you apply you will learn something. The same Richard Branson that I mentioned above headed out on a catamaran to cross from New York to England and during the first attempt his boat sank. This was the learning experience he needed to finally cross a year later and set the world record.
Do everything you can to help other people, make the world a better place, do this in the realm of medicine, study hard, take the GRE if you want to expand your application pool. Believe in yourself!
The words for your essay will be an extension of your life experience, and your life goal will be in line with your good intentions. This is the path to PA school, and with this in mind you can apply any time.
– Stephen
Thank you so much Stephen!!
Hi Stephen,
I am a junior undergraduate student and I have spent my first two years pursuing the MD route. This has academically put me in a very good spot with a very high GPA, but I am beginning to realize that I don’t want to sacrifice my life for work and so have been looking toward the PA route. The only problem with this is now is that I have not accumulated any actual health care work experience as of yet and was wondering if you could lend me some advice. Do you think I should attempt to get the hours in before graduating college, or would it be better to take a year off in between college and PA school to get my work experience?
Thanks
Hi Kev,
My answer would be: do both. You can gain valuable healthcare experience while attending college without having to sacrifice your grades. I would highly recommend volunteering, or a part time job in the hospital or campus clinic. Another option is to use your summer breaks to find experience. For example, my junior year I volunteered for our Parks and Recs Special Needs Youth Summer program, which was a wonderful experience, not only caring for the children but also the campers health needs 24/7 (which were often quite complex). You could consider working overseas as well and working with a healthcare team… You do not have to be a medical provider much of the time. Then upon graduation, yes, find more healthcare experience. This could be as an EMT, CNA, Phlebotomist, etc. etc. The key is to find experience that does not take an extensive amount of training.
Make sure to attend seminars and join your local PA chapter as well as the AAPA. Attend the annual conferences which are very cheap when you are a student. Consider taking classes at the community college which will agment your studies. Often time as a pre-med student you had a lot of Chemistry and Physics, but have not taken human anatomy or physiology. These classes can really help down the road.
– Stephen
Hey Stephen,
I’m a 20 year old pre-med student who’s being drawn away from medical school and toward PA school because of many blogs on the internet like yours. My dream is to work in global medicine and I’d love to practice in places like rural India or Africa. Do you know anything about the international practice rights of PA’s? I can’t seem to find much on the internet about it and it’s the major factor keeping me from wholeheartedly pursing becoming a PA. Any information at all would be awesome. Thanks for creating this site man, it has completely opened my eyes to an amazing field!
Hi Jacob thanks for the kind comment.
International laws regarding PAs are very confusing. In fact just two weeks ago I contacted doctors without boarders who takes NPs, Nurses, Physical Therapists etc. etc. but does not accept PAs and I asked them why not? Their answer was sub-par in my opinion and reflected a lack of knowledge and understanding of our profession.
In my experience working overseas there is very little regulation. This of course is both good and bad. Good, because anybody with a kind heart and a stethascope and any amount of resources can set up shop and start helping people, and bad for the same reason. Nobody is checking medical credentials and medical groups in places like Haiti for example are everywhere. When we do work in Haiti our group of PAs always hires local doctors to accompany our team just because we feel it is good practice, but it is not required. In places like Africa I have a good friend and a PA who has been doing work for years and even started his own non-profit. I know people teaching the next gen of mid-levels in South Africa and PAs volunteering all over the world.
When it comes to true employment few countries actually offer jobs for PAs in the role of PAs. These are limited to England, New Zealand, Australia, I have heard there is a program in Canada and I am sure a couple others if you look hard, I believe Demnark is accepting PAs as well. Many of these are pilot programs, but things are changing rapidly.
The truth is if you want to work in a particular country as a PA there will probably always be opportunities, you will have to search to find them but they are out there, especially in the third world. You can’t work for Doctors Without Boarders as a PA, but no big deal. If there is a need to be filled and you have the skills and the passion to fill that need you will find a way, and doors will open. And I certainly don’t think the opportunities for doctors to work overseas are that much greater that it should warrant a change in your professional goals, especially from PA to MD.
– Stephen
Thank you so much for this article. At first I was stoked to become a doctor and was about to start my pre-med courses. I work with an ENT specialist and looking at her life kind of got me thinking. She spends her day in clinic hours then off to meetings, then surgery and its nevereding.! She is not married and i realized that…. that is not the life I want. I want to be able to create life! enjoy time with my family and overall have a balance. I love medicine and it is a thrill. I love helping others and I realized that becoming a PA will satisfy my hunger to be helping the sick and still be able to balance and have a happy life.
I love your post and I am sure I am making a good decision in becoming a PA. Got like 3 more years to go 😀 Super excited!!
Well Angelica, you know I couldn’t agree with you more!
I wish you the best of luck as you finish up your studies and on your path to PA school, it is truly a wonderful profession. But, like all things, work/life balance should remain a priority no matter what profession you choose. I know many PAs who work long hours and endless weeks on call, because they get caught up in the rat race.
A wise man once said: “the only problem with the rat race is that even if you win you are still a rat”! So true indeed.
Best,
Stephen
Stephen,
Thanks alot for the blog first and foremost. I myself value family and living life #1 outside of the work life. So many people in my generation (I’m 27) think money is everything but Its not. I understand that we all have to work to provide a necessary living but life is not all about work. I was trying to tell my ex about this but some people just value money and career more. I’m at that crossroad of PA vs Med School (UIC) and your blog just makes me know that my future desired situation of Family First and work second is realistic because it really is important for me to be involved in my future family as much as possible, that will be my ultimate happiness second of course to helping people in our world live longer, healthier and disease free. Hope i wasn’t all over the place lol. GREAT GREAT BLOG. Peace -Marv (U.S. Navy Vet)
Hi Stephan,
Thank you for the awesome post. As most of the other human here, I am at the crossroads with my medical decisions. PA vs MD and even throwing Vet in the mix. I am working my way through my bio major and really need to start making decisions.
Some say that the PA works just as much as the MD and ends up getting the jobs the MD doesn’t want to do. Thoughts?
Being that you work under the MD, what is your freedom like at work?
You say you have a lot of time off. Can you put that into perspective please. How many hours a week? How many days on and off and is it flexible? What is vacation time like?
Like you I love medicine and helping others. Making a difference whenever and wherever. With that said, I also love my family/friend/fishing/snowboarding/adventure time.
One more thing, do we need medical experience before applying to PA school?
Thank you so much for your time. You’re awesome for helping all these people make the tough decisions.
Jayson
Hi Jayson,
1. Some say that the PA works just as much as the MD and ends up getting the jobs the MD doesn’t want to do. Thoughts?
Yes, you can choose to go this route if you want, especially if you decide to enter into specialty and take call. But as always you are the protector of your time, if you value it as you should and refuse to sell it to the lowest bidder you will have more of it. My wife is happy I am a PA not simply because I am not an MD, but because I respect my time and place family at the top of the list.
2. Being that you work under the MD, what is your freedom like at work?
Answer: As PA’s we don’t work “under” an MD, we work “alongside” an MD. This may seem trivial, but it is actually a very big difference. I work three 11 hour shifts with 1-2 other mid-level providers in a very busy, rural medical clinic that is a subsidy of a large community hospital. The closest MD is about 30 minutes away and I hardly ever see my supervising physician. This would have been a horrible situation as a new grad, but as an experienced PA with 10 years under my belt it is really great.
My supervisor signs 10% of my charts and I see him from time to time when I go to the administrative meetings at the hospital once a month. The patients call us “doc” even though they know we are PA’s and I have corrected them a million times. I don’t want to be a “doc” at all, but what I am trying to say is from a freedom standpoint (at least in my setting) we call the shots, we make decisions, we manage our patients and the doctor is often completely disconnected from our work. Things have really changed since I started, clinics are realizing PA’s make them a lot of money, in a community center you can have 6 PA’s for every one supervising doctor, the doctors do not need to be there for direct supervision but simply a phone call away. This has created a system of wonderful autonomy that is great for the experienced PA’s… On a side note this is horrible for new grads who really benefit from a concerned and helpful MD in the beginning.
3. You say you have a lot of time off. Can you put that into perspective please? How many hours a week? How many days on and off and is it flexible? What is vacation time like?
Answer: Like all things you work hard at first and if you stay somewhere long enough you reap the benefits later on. When I started at my current position I was pulling 50 hour workweeks in the clinic and living in rural central California through the National Health Service Corps. I had long hours, and long weeks. Then after several years the landscape changed, we lost many doctors and the once, doctor-centric medical clinic became PA and NP centric. I moved farther away from work and modified my hours to reflect a commute. I now work three, 11 hour days and have a 1 hour and 15 minute commute. This can easily become 3, 14-15 hour days back to back. I work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and the rest of the week is reserved for family and my online passions (such as this blog). I know PA’s who work less and more, it all depends on what you want to do.
Hope this helps,
Stephen
Stephen,
Thank you so much for your reply. I logged on here a while back to see if you had responded but never found the right page. This time I logged on to your site and the first thing that popped up was your message. Stoked.
I like what you have to say about my questions. I have heard docs are becoming less and PA’s much more common but not from the mouth of an experienced PA. I guess this would make sense why word on the street is that it is also becoming harder to get into school. I also love that there is room for both passions to exist.
My long term dream goal is after practicing the PA life for quite some time, to adventure off and help others on my own time. I want to travel, mainly to third world countries along with the poorer ones to help people who otherwise would be unable to find medical attention. This would involve vaccinations, wound care, health related issues, and recommendations as to how they may be able to get better or stay healthy.
Have you heard of PA’s, docs, nurses doing this? Would I be able to use my license out of the country?
Thanks in advance for the advise and for being awesome!
Jayson
Like Jayson I have often wondered about the possibility of volunteering abroad as a PA. Excited for your response, Stephen (as they are most helpful!)
Yes of course there are opportunities to volunteer abroad. There are a few organizations who do not accept PAs such as Doctors Without Boarders, but there are many others that do. I am on the board of Physicians Assistant For Global Health. Here is the latest copy of the members newsletter “The Nexus”. In it you will find list of volunteer organization that accept PAs.
Cheers,
Stephen