I had the impression PA’s were Nurses with extra training. I’ve been treated by PA’s at Urgent Care Centers. They can prescribe antibiotics, give shots etc. There’s a real doctor in charge at those clinics. But the PA’s see a lot of patients.
Google Physicians Assistant Program
You’ll see colleges offer it as a Masters Degree. Why would someone skip medical school and get a PA? Six years of school and your still not a doctor? I know they still have a residency to complete but there’s a 120k, or more annual salary afterwards.
There are many more people applying to medical school than spots for them. Some people become PAs in that circumstance. Others decide not to take on mountains of debt and years of extra training and just go the PA route without trying to get into medical school.
To get an MD, you need 4 years undergrad, 4 years med school. And then if you’re lucky you match with a residency and spend your next 3-7 years getting more training. Then you need to pass your specialty boards if you want a real good job.
So that’s 6 years to become a PA vs 11-15 years for a fully certified, qualified, boarded MD. Who tend to get sued more often, for larger amounts than PAs do.
The PAs I worked with often liked the limits on their responsibility. They were often relieved to say to me “sorry, this is beyond my scope, you’ll have to handle it”. Ultimately the supervising physician was the one who has to answer for them, though the PAs are subject to peer review, discipline, legal judgments.
At least in the US you get an MD after four years of Medical School AND at least two years of residency AFTER four years of an undergraduate degree. A total of ten years. For many specialities it’s followed by a fellowship. The doctors in my family weren’t “full doctors” (i.e. making doctor money) until age 28-30.
Until that time they were spending their parents’ money or borrowing money.
Only two years of residency will NOT serve a physician well in trying to get a job these days. It’s the barest minimum needed to get licensed in nearly all (if not all) states these days. And finishing only two years of post grad medical training will not qualify you for any major specialty boards.
It used to be different. When I graduated (in 1983), a number of states would grant medical licenses to anyone who did graduate a US med school, no post-grad internship/residency required. That changed and soon all states required at least 1 year. Now that’s progressed to 2 years.
To be a Physical Therapist you need a doctorate degree. This is a new development; back in the 1970s when my sister got her undergraduate degree that was all you needed to practice. Levels of training are higher, there’s more competition for jobs, and people are willing to go to school for longer to establish a career path.
“Urgent Cares are always searching for extra help and many do not require a formal residency, just a license. If you’re a physician without a residency but with a license, you can find ample work at Urgent Care.”
Sorry, the doctors in my generation qualified in the 1980s/90s. Things might be different now. I also might not have misremembered. I do remember my brilliant 29 year old cousin sponging drinks off me.
He’s a psychiatrist now and has more money than God. But bless him, last year he was taking training in pulmonology and waiting to be deployed to some hotspot before the crisis abated somewhat.
When giving lectures to other practitioners, I have on occasion worn my Tim the Enchanter hat. Been decades since I smoked any type of cigar, tho I did try a few Cuban ones back in the days of my mis-spent youth.
They also have a Master’s Degree. You don’t leave nursing school and qualify to be a nurse practitioner. Usually you work as a nurse for a while, then go back to school to specialize.
My family has two master’s level nurse practitioners (family practice), one master’s level nursing administrator, and one master’s level certified registered nurse. anesthetist.
Physician Assistants are no more; now we have Physician Associates:
The American Academy of PAs (AAPA) House of Delegates (HOD) passed a resolution to affirm Physician Associate as the official title of the PA profession. A majority of delegates voted for the name change (198 to 68) during this year’s AAPA 2021 Conference.
Doesn’t the US Armed Forces have both Nurse Practitioners and Physician’s Assistants in their Warrant Officer corps? I don’t think a master’s degree is required for that.
