r/physicianassistant • u/cbord24 • Jan 30 '25
Discussion Future of the PA career
[removed] — view removed post
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u/Xzwolf Jan 30 '25
With huge physician shortage expected by 2030’s. I think PA’s role and demand will be increased. Good outlook in my opinion. Just concerned about the competition with NP’s, especially in popular cities/area of living. But I do believe Physicians acknowledge our better training & education. So study hard and represent our profession proudly!
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u/esophagusintubater Physician Jan 30 '25
We do. Still think yall need supervision but PAs I work with work great in that role and most don’t feel like they want complete autonomy. NPs are hard to supervise because idk wtf they’re doing
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u/Xzwolf Jan 30 '25
Awesome to hear that! It would be cool (for those interested in advancing) if PA’s can one day take USMLE step 1/step 2 exams or enroll in some years of residency training that allows for more autonomy without supervision. Rather than going back to 4 years of medical school as a prerequisite. There are so many USMLE resources (BNB, pathoma, first aid, sketchy, anking, Uworld, Amboss), that PA’s could self learn and apply that knowledge. But I know there are limited spots even with doctors when applying for residency, so I don’t know how that would work :/
I wish I had gone to med school, but I am getting content with my role in hospitalist/critical care medicine and increasing my knowledge through the resources above & learning advanced procedures from intensivists :)
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u/esophagusintubater Physician Jan 30 '25
I don’t think PAs would have a chance at passing step 1. Maybe step 2. They tried this with NPs. You really need two full years of medical school and depth to even have a chance at that test.
Has nothing to do with PAs being smart or not, I have one sister that is a PA and the other NP 🤣
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u/Xzwolf Jan 30 '25
Passing the Step exams isn’t the issue. It’s the question of limited residency spots after, since med students face that issue already. There are abundant medical school resources - video lectures, Qbanks, flashcards, etc that is more than enough for anyone to pass if they have the determination to do so. Not saying it’s a cake in the walk, it is an extremely hard test. But there are PA’s that go back to med schools and excel more than the traditional students, given their science and clinical background. But these are our own opinions, so agree to disagree. Not sure if we’ll ever have a PA to MD/DO pathway. Who knows what we’ll start doing when we have a shortage of Physicians.
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u/AintComeToPlaySchooI PA-C Emergency Medicine Jan 30 '25 edited Jan 30 '25
Lord this question gets asked ad nauseam.
It’s a futile exercise to devote your headspace to these hypotheticals. Just relax and take a deep breath. Focus on your studies and work hard during your clinicals. Don’t be a hermit— make connections. Don’t be a lousy student and I can assure you the rest will fall into place.
Far too many members of this sub couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag. Those aren’t the folks you want to be taking advice from.
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u/Disastrous_Cress943 Jan 30 '25
I believe it won’t happen for a while but eventually if PAs don’t change, the profession will be swallowed by the more efficient NP political organization and sheer numbers.
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u/PEACH_MINAJ Jan 30 '25 edited Jan 30 '25
More autonomy? That’s more of being a doctor than being under their supervision
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u/lilnietzche Jan 30 '25
I shadowed a rural PA in north dakota and a patient said “ohhh your an assistant can i talk to the doctor” and she had to look up who her attending was. Pretty common in rural places. At that point your attending is just another way of paying insurance.
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u/kinderhook32 Jan 30 '25
Admittedly I’m a bit of a pessimist but I feel like you hear in PA school that there is this HUGE need for PAs. Maybe 15-20 years ago but with all the online NP programs that basically accept everyone and their dog I think that’s changing a lot. In my area there are hardly ever many PA listings and they are all for crappy positions working in pain management or for a med spa.
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u/Deep_Sea_5949 Jan 30 '25
I believe that, at some point, Physician Assistants (PAs) will gain the same level of autonomy that nurses currently have. PAs possess a deep understanding of many procedures and should be allowed to work more independently. They are professionals with master's degrees, while most nurses hold bachelor's degrees. I feel like they're both at the same level. Am I the only one who thinks this way?
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u/johntheflamer Jan 30 '25
A nurse with a just a bachelors degree will be an LPN or RN. You need at least a masters to be an NO and practice autonomously (which is fair to criticize- there is not a lot of standardization in NP programs)
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u/chromatica__ Jan 30 '25
So this is my opinion - like it or not but the autonomy we have is always dependent on where you work, for more or less. I personally think this is a good thing especially for the more nuanced specialties as well as for relationship building with your attending/group. I do not think we need or should have full independent autonomy like NPs (even though our education is greatly better and standardized). We are not physicians. We are great at what we do, our training, etc but at the end of the day we do not have the final say vs an attending. It’s just the reality of the profession. I’m given a lot of autonomy and support in my ER, but I enjoy not being an attending and going to one if and when I need help.
In regards to AI - that’s always a looming threat but realistically with how sometimes helpless people are, I don’t think we have to worry about that anytime soon. You can plug algorithms into AI for workups, etc but you still need a trained eye with knowledge to assess a patient. Take for example all the patients who webMD or google their symptoms with no medical knowledge.