Pros and Cons of Being a Physician Assistant Review
Medicine

Pros and Cons of Being a Physician Assistant

The Physician Assistant (PA) is a wonderful work in a fast-paced career area with a wide variety of prospects. Under the supervision of the physicians, you help test and treat the patients. However, as with any profession, it is necessary to consider the pros and cons.

Pros

1. Outlook for Stellar Work: You’ve already heard that there’s a lot of job stability in the health industry. The medical assistant field is no different. The market for P.A.s is projected to rise by 35 percent by 2026. Thirty-five percent is insanely high, and growth is even higher than the rate for all other work industries.

2. Flexibility of profession: The flexibility of a job is one of the aspects that make the P.A. such an appealing proposition. Would you like to work in oncology? What for pediatrics or women’s health? Have you really been obsessed with surgery? You might just want a desk job and be a “paper pusher” P.A. We barely scratch the surface of what’s available as a P.A. Career choices like the P.A. are nearly infinite.

3. Above Average Wage: The P.A.s are making pretty good money. As per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wage of P.A.s in the U.S. is about $108,430. Considering the average income in the United States, according to the United States Census, it’s only $56,516, and you’ll see the P.A.s are doing pretty good. Some P.A.s would make less than that number, while some high-paying P.A.s would see their profits well over $150k.

4. You’re going to teach medicine: In certain nations, P.A.s have very close work roles to physicians (MD, D.O.). When you travel to remote or more undeserved areas where doctors’ training is more difficult, you may only encounter P.A.s as the primary care provider.

5. Helping patients in their moment of need: Some people imagine that they’re in a career where they can have a very big difference. If that’s you, the P.A. career is worth a peek. Physician assistants are responsible for handling medical treatment by diagnosing and controlling their symptoms and illnesses. You’ll get to see the patients recover after you get very ill.

Cons

1. You’re going to see the patients die: Your goal is to support patients, but you’re not going to help everybody, unfortunately. You’re going to see the patients who do it well right though they do so. The patient is now passing away. While there’s no doubt that you’re going to save many more lives than dead is part of being in the medical sector.

2. Inconvenient hours of service: You would most likely be expected to work evenings and weekends as a P.A. To add insult to injury, don’t be surprised if you have to be on call as well. While you can find a job that will get you out of it like clinical work or primary care, you’re still likely to have a schedule that’s going to be less than ideal and not a typical Monday through Friday at 9 a.m.- 5 p.m.

3. A physician never balances your salary level: In certain settings, P.A.s and doctors are going to do the same thing. The only thing that isn’t going to be the same is your paychecks.

4. You require a physician to supervise: No matter how qualified or independent you are as a medical assistant, you will still need a supervised physician (source). Different states would have different laws to decide just what that entails, but essentially the result is that you’re never fully autonomous.

5. You’re going to have to re-certify your license: Unlike most occupations where you only spend money to renew your degree, P.A.s have to retake a qualification exam every 6 to 10 years. In the case of P.A.s in a particular field of health care, they will have to re-learn information (not relevant to their daily work) just for the exam (source).

You could imagine how irritating and stressful this might be. Although it happens very rarely, it’s always something to hold in mind because not passing through is a real thing, and it could cost you your career.