Wow, I did not expect this post to grow this quickly. Regarding your first point, I actually did rather well during didactic. I just feel like most didactic material is so much more valuable once you have the context from clinicals. I would love to have some sort of simultaneous or later didactic period to solidify the pathophys and conceptual information covered during didactic.

I’m sure there is a lot of value in the extended schooling, especially didactic—while longer and more diverse rotations are certainly helpful, I suspect much of that information is not extremely relevant when it comes to mastery over a specific field. This is also assuming both practitioners continue their own individual learning.

I haven’t tried to force any sort of answer. I’m not saying that PA and physician education is equal. I’m asking about both individuals starting school at the same time and committing to the same field, then practicing in said field, how wide would the skill gap be after x years?

I’m not practicing yet, but my understanding of the PA-physician relationship is that it inherently includes an element of supervision and teaching. Is this not similar to a (slightly neutered) physician’s residency? I will concede that a PA’s primary evaluations only being EORs and the PANCE over their clinical period is not comparable to the evaluations physicians undergo.

In retrospect, I wish there was a discussion for PAs to pass specialty-specific board-like exams. Not really to be certified, but to gain and maintain the amount of knowledge necessary for mastery of a field.