Med school vs. PA school

[Anonymous]

Can somebody who has experience of going through both or either one explain the differences and why a kid would go for one other than the other? Can you share what their path to med school/PA school was. Any useful tidbits for my kid who is considering both? Scared of the cost of both (but particularly med school).

[Anonymous]

PA school is 2 yrs after undergrad. That’s it. Some programs require a certain amount of “clinical” hours to be accepted, some don’t require any at all. Once you graduate you can get a job, there is no specialty training. You are free to job search once you graduate and pass board exam. PAs that get hired in specialty offices just get on the job training from whatever physician is working with them.

Doctors have 4 yrs of medical school after undergrad. Acceptance to medical school is highly competitive. At the end of those 4 yrs they pick an area of interest (internal med, peds, gen surgery, etc) and do a bunch of interviews to gain a spot for residency. There is not a residency spot for all graduating doctors. Some have to do a year or research or get a masters degree or something and wait to reapply for residency the following year. Depending on area of specialty, residency can be 3-5 yrs plus another 1-2 of fellowship following residency for some sub specialties. It’s a long and tough road

[Anonymous]

I decided to do med school. The whole process sucks esp because I had kids during training but it’s worth it now that I’m done. I make more than PAs and have more options career wise. I would go PA if you can’t handle residency (it was rough).

[Anonymous]

Most PA school require 1000-2000 hours of direct patient care. Many applicants get upwards of 2500 to be competitive. While an MD will make more, several PA specialities pay very well. Those I’ve known who went that route wanted more balance and we willing to accept a lower pay for a different life.

Both are valid options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most PA school require 1000-2000 hours of direct patient care. Many applicants get upwards of 2500 to be competitive. While an MD will make more, several PA specialities pay very well. Those I’ve known who went that route wanted more balance and we willing to accept a lower pay for a different life.

Both are valid options.

You can easily get these hours working part time for 1-2 years during undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most PA school require 1000-2000 hours of direct patient care. Many applicants get upwards of 2500 to be competitive. While an MD will make more, several PA specialities pay very well. Those I’ve known who went that route wanted more balance and we willing to accept a lower pay for a different life.

Both are valid options.

What are the better paying PA specialties? How do you get “direct patient care” hours?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most PA school require 1000-2000 hours of direct patient care. Many applicants get upwards of 2500 to be competitive. While an MD will make more, several PA specialities pay very well. Those I’ve known who went that route wanted more balance and we willing to accept a lower pay for a different life.

Both are valid options.

What are the better paying PA specialties? How do you get “direct patient care” hours?

DP. But medical assistant, EMT, phlebotomist, CNA. Personally I think being a CNA is the best choice and easiest to rack up hours. You take a short training course- usually through local adult Ed or some hospitals have their own programs, then take a state test. I did this in college and the training program was only 13 days! Do it over the summer. Then work PRN at a hospital- super easy to work 1-2 shifts during the week while in school (I did night shift, usually Fri and/or Saturday) then pick up more hours on holiday breaks and summer.

[Anonymous]

I was pre-med, ultimately deciding to go to PA school. I haven't looked at application requirements recently, but ~10 years ago, 2,000 hours of patient care experience was a common requirement (or strong recommendation). A lot of people had been CNAs or EMTs. The course prerequisites were often more than med schools were looking for as well. I ended up taking a couple of years after undergrad to take additional courses and work as a CNA.

Medical school obviously costs more, but MD salaries are substantially more. The program I went to costs a bit over $110k today.

The first year of PA school was coursework. The second year was a series of clinical rotations, usually in the same metro area as the school (albeit sometimes a long commute).

Ultimately, you can expect a fair bit of on-the-job training when a new PA starts their career. In our office setting, a new PA will often shadow for couple weeks. In the hospital, it was one week. While the cases are more complicated there, there's more support from other mid-levels and physicians.

Was it worth it? Maybe. I don't think I would have liked residency and followship, or being on-call, so I'm glad I didn't become an MD. But the hours can still be long, schedule flexibility is limited, and the pay is mediocre.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most PA school require 1000-2000 hours of direct patient care. Many applicants get upwards of 2500 to be competitive. While an MD will make more, several PA specialities pay very well. Those I’ve known who went that route wanted more balance and we willing to accept a lower pay for a different life.

Both are valid options.

What are the better paying PA specialties? How do you get “direct patient care” hours?

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