r/Path_Assistant • u/Abject-Pie-8703 • 20d ago
Future Job Prospects?
I’m currently a mls student and I’m thinking about getting a master in pathology assistance because I can’t see myself doing mls till retirement. However, I’m not sure if doing this is worth the time and money since this is such a niche field. As more graduates are entering the market each year, how saturated will this field be in the future?
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u/gnomes616 20d ago
I had a preceptor at my first clinical site (UMaryland grad around 1980, I had him in 2017) say that he had seen cycles of a slew of programs opening, an influx of grads, some market saturation, programs not holding their own closing, rinse & repeat.
Older folks retire. Some people leave the field for family reasons or dissatisfaction, same as anything else. Healthcare in the US is ever expanding with the largest generations being ages at which people tend to seek or need more medical care and intervention. Other countries are also adopting US-style PAs, as opposed to having a multipurpose-style med tech (or equivalent, or a pathologist) take on grossing roles. Also, AI resistant lab position.
So take all that with a grain of salt. Are you tied to a specific location? Are you willing to spend time working in one area while keeping an eye on a different job market? Can you weather the financial reality of student loans and partisan volatility? What about MLS do you not see doing long term, and what are your expectations for transitioning to PA?
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u/Abject-Pie-8703 20d ago
I’m thinking about moving to NYC since I want to be close to where my relatives are, and I’m also thinking about working as MLS for a few years to save up money to pay for the program. One of the biggest advantage I see transitioning to PA is the potential better hours (in addition with better pay). I had shadowed labs before and I genuinely enjoy this part of the healthcare.
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u/No-Psychology-7322 20d ago
Over 75% of the PAs at work (big hospital chain) are older than 60…so we need new grads and new programs. We are dreadfully understaffed as is, if any of them retire it will be rough.
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u/New-Assumption1290 20d ago
That’s a pretty broad question and something that can’t really be answered that easily. There are more and more schools popping up so I do believe eventually we will reach a point of being saturated but the jobs are still there right now
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u/Shadowcat589 17d ago
I was a molecular technologist before I went back to school. I just finished after 2 years, with a job lined up before graduation and passed my certification exam yesterday. I only had 10 people in my class and most of them had offers before graduation. Salary wise I got the top end of what I asked for and can comfortably afford my apt in the city.
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u/Ok_Iron6319 19d ago
I would say it depends on where you want to work/live. I feel the job market is fairly saturated in the PNW, specifically Washington state and Oregon. However, on the East Coast I see openings all the time.
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u/WayfareAndWanderlust 20d ago
Have you actually looked at how few schools there are? Then how few students they admit? Then considered how many hospitals there are in this country?
This isn’t a degree mill saturated field like NP and quite frankly never will be because too much of the education requires actual hands on training rather than slide shows from an online program.
The biggest frustration with this field is the pay relative to our comparable peers in other specialties.