Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm surprised how many people chose PA. I would choose dentistry hands down. Being second fiddle will get old after a while. As a 50 year old PA, you will still be considered "not as good" as the 28 year old doctor and patients for the most part will not want to be seen by you.
This may be O.K. when your young, but it will suck as you get older.
Only if you have some stupid immature ego problem.
I can tell you a few times my older PAs have told me they are glad I am there.
And we can all teach each other things.
>>>snip<<<
Just want to get your guys opinion on pros and cons of each and what you guys would choose. I am just confused on the two. Oh and dentistry I would have to study my ass off for the DAT which is pretty long and grueling. I must get a high dat score to have a competitive chance. I am thinking it is probably a bit easier to get into pa school since there are way more schools open compared to dental.
Don't count on it. You're not getting into any well regarded PA program unless your bona fides would also be good enough to get you into med school and you have the same prereqs..
ok. I will weigh in since this has morphed. PA can be a wide range of locations from clinic to critical care and all in between. Frequently PA in cardiac are assisting in surgeries and I have worked with 2 in a trauma ICU who are the eyes of the MD. They are dynamic working easily 14 hours per day and know their stuff. They defer to the supervising MD frequently and the relationship is one of trust. However, if someone wants a position which is equally dynamic and you work a reasonable week (3 12's per week) and has most of the dynamic choices, Nursing is by far a prudent choice. We work collaboratively with the MD. We earn as much as a PA without the mind bending hours (and stress). We also have the choices to work "anywhere" and move forward. In addition, rarely do we take home the responsibility of the patient as we turn over the care to the oncoming RN.
We guide team members, tell MDs what to look for and are the locus of control for everything which impacts that patients health. We are trained to holistically treat the biopsychosocial of the patient, their family and their relationships. In addition, we time treatments, accompany the patient to all procedures (except surgeries) and keep the patient alive using at times up to 12 vasoactive, sedation and other medication drips all while the patient is ventilated. If a person wants excitement, responsibility and control this is the area I would encourage anyone to look at carefully. It is not uncommon for an MD/PA/NP to ask the bedside nurse "tell me what's going on with your patient". We look for and catch errors with drugs, determine if a patient can be transported safely and are the eyes and ears of the doctors which in complex cases are as many as 7 with their interns etc. I am tired at the end of the day. I had the choice for all of the disciplines and I chose nursing. Glad that I did.
My sister is a Phsyician's Assistant and it's a very good profession to be in. Urgent Care centers often only have PAs and NPs on site, with a doctor on call for when he/she is needed.
But, you're mistaken on salary. It's not a guaranteed 6 figure salary. But it's close. Some areas have a saturation of PAs, so in those areas, salaries are only 60-90K. My sister had one job where she had to be on call also. So work life balance depends. She often worked 10-12 hour days. On surgery days, it was almost always 12 hours. It's stressful, you can get stuck with needles and get Hepatitis or even HIV, so there are risks.
Another great professions is Pharmacy, depending on where you live. This is another profession that is saturated in certain areas. But, with the baby boomer generation aging into retirement, the millennial generation aging into the working age population, i don't think you can go wrong in any sort of healthcare profession if you're willing to move to where the jobs are in the highest demand especially.
PA is not a 9-5 schedule at all. Many PAs work just as long hours a doctors, and in some places PAs work more hours than the doctors. Sometimes doctors hire PAs to work the hours they don't want to work. FWIW, no jobs in in healthcare are 9-5, you'll be working very early mornings, late evenings/nights, overnight, weekends, and holidays depending what you do.
Before I went to PT school, I wrestled with the idea with being a PA. However, there are several factors that swayed me against it.
-PA school is only 2 years, but most schools now require 1000-3000 hours of direct patient care experience before applying. So that means you'll probably have to fulfill those hours by working full-time as a patient care aide or EMT 1-2 years. Patient care hours + PA schooling = about same amount of time as 4 years of dental school.
-As for school debt, apparently there was a study done that said PAs who went to private schools had the same income to debt ratio as MDs.
-Average PA income is about $90-$100k, the only PAs making ~$150k+ are mid-career PAs in high-end specialities and surgery. From what I've seen surgical PA is very stressful. Dentistry has much higher income ceiling.
-If you're interested in work beyond the clinical, such as management and research, dentistry and medicine offers way more opportunities than PA.
-PA school is very competitive to get into, but if your grades are competitive for dental school then you're probably competitive enough for PA school.
BTW, don't get me wrong I'm disparaging the PA profession. I have some friends who are PAs and they love their jobs. I think it's a wonderful career if someone is genuinely interested in it. Although, I do believe there are many misconceptions about the profession, particularly when it comes to hours worked and salary.
The best thing you can do shadow/talk to some PAs, and compare it to dentistry. Good luck.
this is a great post and pretty much an accurate description based on the PAs i know.
Healthcare is ever evolving and seems to change with the wind with legislation. All I'm saying is, I'm not convinced the job of PA is going to be widespread, in another 35 - 40 years. And nobody can state with certainty that it will be.
Years ago, people in healthcare predicted that at this point, every doctors office would have a PA. In actuality, I think a little more than half do.
With expansion into surburbia, we thought hospitals would see great growth back in the 1970's, but more than a thousand closed between 1980 and the mid-90's. And hospitals that had beds dedicated to long term care, eliminated them. These were changes nobody could predict - in fact we saw the opposite of our predictions occur.
In the past thirty years we've seen the role of nurses expanding more and more. I think it's highly possible that the scope of their jobs will expand further so the role of PA's won't even be necessary; an easy cost reduction that would help the bottom line - which seems to be the only thing that matters in the field of healthcare.
Dentistry is not changing as quickly, so predictions about a long term career are a bit less risky, imo.
The projections about how many PAs there would be by now were also thrown off by one of the worst economic downturns the globe has ever seen, but growth in that field is there, and will be there, for decades. Remember - 12 million more people have insurance today than did 2 years ago. In addition, the population is aging rapidly. PAs gain more and more responsibilities, while doctors try to take care of more and more patients. I'm not familiar with predictions that every doctors office would have a PA. And i can't even find a site that says what % do.
""Employment of physician assistants is projected to grow 38 percent from 2012 to 2022, much faster than the average for all occupations," according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Physicians and surgeons are only expected to see an 18 percent employment growth."
My wife is a derm PA. She makes 6 figures and works 3 or 4 days a weeks by choice (depends on schedule). She has patient interaction all day long (that's the job) without the headaches of practice management, liability, etc etc. The work environment is strictly a function of the medical practice. Some are good, others not, can't generalize. The latitude the PA works under is a function of the employer. There are also some differences in what's allowed from state-to-state.
from what i'm told by my sister - derm PAs have the best work/life balance. It's also the most competitive to get into. but you're right - the employer of the individual really has control over whether it's good or bad. for the most part, you've basically got a bunch of small businesses, except for the large conglomerates that are out there now gobbling them up.
I would take a look at what happened with other 'hot' medical career trends, like pharmacy and nursing. Shortages were widely publicized and training programs got mobbed. A friend's daughter was in a pharm program that quadrupled the number of students in the few years she attended. Salaries have come down quite a bit as a result.
this happens with any job category that's experience explosive growth though. people flock into programs to get jobs, and inevitably, too many people flock to it.
my wife is a pharmacist in NJ, and makes 6 figures. Retail pharmacy is where the big bucks are at. If she lost her job tomorrow, I'd be fairly confident she'd have another one within a few weeks. and it would pay 6 figures.
it's not like 10 years ago where she had 6 offers coming out of college. but pharmacy salaries are still high, and pharmacists are still in demand.
PA probably makes more sense, but I think you're sugar coating the work environment. Not a lot of room for growth, kind of like a dental hygienist. Good income though, as long as something huge doesn't change.
A dentist has much more prestige (doctor vs. assistant). But you have all of the school, the DAT, boards, and then you will probably end up in some McDentistry working like a slave 5 days (including a Saturday now and then) doing fillings and crowns, just to knock out maybe $150k so you can afford your loans and save a few bucks. You "could" end up in a beautiful cosmetic practice somewhere, but it's highly unlikely. You can definitely determine your own fate with your own practice, but buying one is not cheap either... so, more debt.
The long term potential with dentistry is there, but just because the potential is there, doesn't mean that you'll ever realize it.
It sounds as if you are leaning in the direction of PA.
Dentist is a high paying job, but it sounds horrible.
Since everybody has been to the dentist, everybody knows what dentists do.
Not only does that job seem really hard, but one little screw up can cost you a lot. It's basically having to do surgery day in/day out every working day. You need to be on top of your game every day.
My friend is a doctor who works with several PAs and she says they do well and get to do a lot. I would go that way. BTW, PA is more or less the equivalent to nurse practitioner, so you can think about it that way.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
