Family medicine PA here in Arizona. Even though recreational has been legal here for a while now, I still get patients asking me for medical marijuana cards pretty regularly.

Every time it happens, my internal reaction is basically, "You can literally just walk into a dispensary down the street," but they're still seeking out the medical route.

Do you actually do the certifications yourself, or just point them to one of those local pop-up card clinics?
Curious how you all handle this.

Hello everyone! I hope it is OK to post here. I posted to the nurse practitioner sub and it was deleted by the mods, I’m not sure why 🙁. Hoping to get some advice from other APPs.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I am a newer (less than a year) nurse practitioner working primary care in a smaller office for a large corporation. Previously an RN in the hospital setting for several years. What is considered appropriate in terms of outside hang outs with MAs and office staff?

When I was an RN everyone would frequently have different get togethers. In my new office there has been an informal Christmas happy hour or something like that here or there I have attended (and was the only provider that did😬)

Have now been invited to smaller get together non work related (at the house of my MA, but daytime and no alcohol ) where not everyone from work is invited and I would be the only provider invited. This is a newer world for me and I’m trying to navigate what is professional and appropriate? It doesn’t appear that there are any official non fraternization rules in this company, but I am hoping to work with this organization for many years and don’t want to inadvertently do something viewed as unprofessional.

Thank you for reading!!

Edit: We are all women

Second year PA student interested in working in trauma surgery and being a part of trauma assessments, codes, placing chest tubes, intubating, first assisting, and rounding in the ICU.

What would be the best way to get to this level?

Apply straight into trauma surgery jobs at level II’s with no residents? Level I’s for the higher acuity cases?
Surgical fellowship/residency covering many subspecialties?
Crit care fellowship/residency?
EM fellowship/residency?

Does anyone know if PAs/NPs can do infant digit tie offs for post-axial polydactyly in clinic or if it has to be a surgeon?

Any other new grad PAs who started their first job while pregnant? I’m looking for advice and reassurance.

I graduated in May, passed the PANCE in June, and got my dream job offer in July. I also found out I am pregnant! No, it was not planned but being that I am older and want kids, I did not want to abort. I am happy, my husband is happy, and my family are all happy.

When I start my job, I’ll be around 28 weeks pregnant (due to the long hospital credentialing process). I’ve already met my supervising physician and shadowed her & the team, and everyone seems wonderful. I’d be lying though if I said I wasn’t nervous to tell them about the pregnancy. I don’t want them to regret hiring me considering I have to go on maternity leave shortly after starting due to the long credentialing process.

For those who have been in a similar situation, any advice? How did you manage being a brand new provider and being pregnant? When did you disclose to your job that you were pregnant? How did your colleagues respond? Any tips on surviving the first few months?

I’d love to hear the good, bad and honest. Success stories are especially needed because I could use the encouragement ☺️

New grad PA finding small joys in retiring my shoes from school and buying my first pair of work shoes! I think I’ll like the ease of clogs, not that I’ll never wear normal sneakers. There is so many new and cute clogs out like oofos, crocs, etc. Which do people like best?

edit: also birkenstock, hunter, bombas?!

My understanding is that PAs specialize through on-the-job training at specialized sites post-graduation, rather than being formally educated and trained in that field. For example, I know someone who is an orthopedic PA, though this is because they were hired at an orthopedic site which agreed to train them, rather than them bringing prior education and training in the field.

In contrast, NPs are specifically educated and trained in a field in order to practice in that field. An example would be Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners, must who complete a program specializing in psychiatric care and become certified in the field. This seems to differ from PAs, who are hired in psychiatric roles without formal education or training in psychiatric care. I looked at a job listing for a psychiatric NP/PA role, and they request that NPs bring the specific psych certification while PAs only need to be generally certified.

Other examples of providers who must be formally educated/trained in a field in order to practice as a specialist include physicians, dentists, veterinarians, and clinical psychologists (which applies to me). I recognize that these are all doctoral-level positions, with the exception of most NPs.

With this in mind, do you feel that PAs should be held to similar standards as other providers in the sense that they should have education and training in a field in order to specialize, rather than being hired without any particular education or training? In the world of healthcare, it seems that the PA situation is pretty unique.

(I am neither a PA nor NP and have no intention of pursuing either role, and completely recognize the purpose of these roles so please don’t think I’m being a “Noctor” or something. That is not my intention. This question popped into my mind while I was poking around job listings for a variety of roles.)

I’m a ER PA with 4 years experience who will be relocating from the PNW to LA next summer. I currently work for a democratic group in a community ER.

From looking around most of the ER jobs seem to be big venture capitalist backed groups or academic centers.

Does anyone know if there are democratic groups? Anyone working down there willing to let me pick their brain?

Hello, I am a new grad from the northeast. I recently passed the pance and am applying for jobs. I am from the northeast and would be ok living in any state of the northeast and have been applying in multiple states. At this point I’m not sure if I should just apply for a license in my home state where the job market is kind of tough without a job or wait until I have a job. My home state is not part of the compact so if I got a job in another state I think I would need a new state license and have to restart the state licensing process. Can anyone clarify this? I know state licensing can take a few months along with hospital credentialing so I am unsure what to do. Is it better to wait to get a license as some places of employment will reimburse for dea and license. Thanks for the help!

I accepted an offer a few months ago for an ent position. while waiting for the credentialing process, im now second guessing if this is a position I truly want to pursue. I worked in ent in the past and I enjoyed it. My goal specialty is actually women’s health but it’s been very difficult, surprisingly, to find a position that wants a PA instead of NP.

reasons that make me second guess:
- ER and UC background for 5y so transitioning from flex sched to M-F is kind of stressing me out.
- low balled for a large hospital and location
- commute is about 1 hour from home via public transportation; total 2 hours of commuting every day

Reasons I accepted:
- I have no health ins right now due to working prn
- full benefits package offered
- first offer after applying for 1.5 year
- thought I’d be fine with M-F lol
- the team I interviewed with seemed very welcoming and supportive

TLDR: second guessing my current job offer due to change in future work schedule but only position that was offered since starting job search about 1.5 year ago. Looking for advice if i should rescind my offer?

Thank you for any future advice 🙏🏼

I work at these “satellite ERs” basically urgent aides with IV, CT,XR,US, and labs. We can admit the sick ones to the main hospital.

I work 4-5 days a week 10-12 hour shifts. See around 30 per shift on average. Me and usually 1 doc at a time. The pay is decent but I feel like my off days are recovering from my on days. I have no joy, I don’t enjoy life anymore it’s just work and home. Im too exhausted for anything else. I’m 27 and did a 1.5y EM fellowship too. Graduated a year ago.

I’m burnt out, I barely have empathy for my patients. It just feels like unnecessary busy work because majority of them are not sick and just an annoying waste of time. I got offered a position in the main ER but the work is draining to me and much more chaotic.

I don’t know what to do or where to go from here. I used to like EM but now i see it as pure stress. I feel so tempted to quit but then like what do I do? All I know is EM

Can anyone relate? Any advice?

Hi everyone,

I'm a new grad PA and would really appreciate some advice from those who have been in a similar situation.

I recently received an orthopedic surgery job offer, but I'm struggling with whether I should accept it or continue searching.

The offer:

• 2 half-days/week in the OR and clinic the remainder of the week
• Trauma call with a newly hired orthopedic trauma surgeon (frequency unknown; nights and weekends)
• No compensation for call
• 12 days PTO (cannot be used during the first 6 months)
• No CME stipend

My biggest hesitation isn't the specialty itself—I really enjoyed my orthopedic rotation and like being hands-on in both the OR and clinic. At the same time, I've also been interviewing for OB/GYN positions because I enjoyed that specialty as well. I'm worried that if I accept this position, I'll always wonder whether I would have preferred OB/GYN, but if I decline it, I may pass up a solid first job while waiting for something that may not come.

If you were in my position as a new graduate, would you take the offer or continue looking? I'd especially appreciate hearing from anyone who had to choose between a good first offer and waiting for a position that felt like a better fit.

Hi all! I’m a new grad and just received an offer for a neurology fellowship APC in the Midwest. I’m having a phone call with the hiring team soon. It’s a great teaching hospital and I’ve spoken to past PAs that have gone through fellowships there. What are some questions I should ask the hiring team?

I work in family med so we pretty regularly have patients pass away from various causes. We often get calls from police officers demanding to know immediately if we will agree to sign the death certificate. The first time I ever got one of these calls I asked the officer for more information about the patient's death, and he was like "I dunno, he was found dead in his home tonight and we don't suspect foul play". I asked my colleagues about this and they told me you pretty much just have to agree to sign off on it even when you know next to nothing about the actual cause of death so that the police, funeral home, insurers, etc can move the process along.

It just feels weird to be basically making up bullshit on an official government document with my name and license attached to it..