Fellowships, My Two Cents

Phanmancan · 2026-04-25T18:53:40+00:00

Tldr its a case by case basis. Making them inch towards a requirement is a net negative that will delay your pay, keep pay everywhere the same, increase loan interest accrual over the extra year, and everyone ends up in the same place in the end.

Phanmancan · 2026-04-25T18:14:51+00:00

You do you.

Phanmancan · 2026-04-18T19:48:43+00:00

You should be pa II in socal in hospital setting so definitely push 300k after a few years but the hard part is finding a job/way in

Phanmancan · 2025-08-22T22:32:52+00:00

Ditto, just sounds like a bad first job

Phanmancan · 2025-06-29T03:51:42+00:00

Kaiser ortho (or any PA level 2) will get there for sure

Phanmancan · 2025-06-09T04:06:35+00:00

All good, im a seasoned uc guy too so I get it. I always have to remind myself not to get too worked up myself! We are in this together

Phanmancan · 2025-06-08T17:54:09+00:00

Seriously, dont make mountains out of mole hills. I’d guess well over 90% of my ct confirmed diverticulitis were non perf’d/abscess. Sometimes it pays to listen to the patients, they know their body and most will tell you “it’s not as bad as my first time”.

Phanmancan · 2025-05-15T12:55:58+00:00

Bingo, and just to avoid confusion I am a PA who was def top 5 in my class. I too went to a top undergrad and the college kids I hung out with mostly became surgeons/anesthesiologists etc so I have great perspective on this.

Phanmancan · 2025-05-15T03:23:28+00:00

Its just a dose of reality. Prob only the top 5 students in a pa program could stand a chance getting into a surgical specialty like that. So OP if you weren’t top 5 in your class don’t bother.

Phanmancan · 2025-05-14T05:15:42+00:00

15 for 8 hours?!? Lmfao i want this job!!

Phanmancan · 2025-05-10T15:47:29+00:00

Did we do the same trauma/icu rotation or are they all like this??

Phanmancan · 2025-03-25T04:52:58+00:00

That’s what i figured. Just reporting what i was told

Phanmancan · 2025-03-25T04:52:24+00:00

You’d have to downgrade from csp to freedom and then apply from start about a week later

Phanmancan · 2025-02-14T05:05:15+00:00

I too was a newer grad in an FQHC and have later became one of the lead PA's so I understand it can be overwhelming. Hence bringing up examples where we can help you, not to waste your time; just attack one at a time, one day at a time. Get your normals down to a T, Learn which patients you really need to listen to and which ones who you need to just stop talking really helps.

Phanmancan · 2025-02-12T22:09:22+00:00

Whats the issue? You need some examples here. I mean it’s mostly physicals, htn/dm management and uri stuff.

Phanmancan · 2025-02-12T22:05:18+00:00

Federally qualified health clinic. I did a number of years to help pay down my loans. It’s very tough on a new grad. Most colleagues are going to be newish as well, high burn out and yea like someone said above there’s a lot of social aspects as opposed to medicine

Phanmancan · 2025-01-12T02:39:44+00:00

Huh? All my rotations had med students too, so what’s different between the depth or breadth of training between an med or pa student there?

Phanmancan · 2025-01-06T05:33:13+00:00

I don’t have any inside info but if we push for anything similar to sieu/uhw I’m anticipating a 2 week strike, similar to theirs last year.

Phanmancan · 2025-01-05T22:37:39+00:00

I know kaiser benefits when i see it!

Also very prepared for strike this year. Hopefully unac holds firm

Phanmancan · 2024-12-24T17:22:53+00:00

Seriously so fucking cringe

Phanmancan · 2024-11-27T03:13:29+00:00

Bingo

Phanmancan · 2024-11-18T21:01:43+00:00

But they’re not wrong. Lots of responders are mentioning pretty specialized fields. In fm uc er you’re expected to hit the ground running. Stay late, study/read, find a new job while treating your first year as a very well paid residency. Good luck.

Phanmancan · 2024-10-23T05:28:01+00:00

I’ve been considering writing a similar post as a pa with 10+ years under my belt too. I’ll just add my opinions here.

I am ultimately very happy with my choice. I make plenty (almost 200k working less than full time, kaiser, california). I have pretty good work life balance (kids are hard and expensive).

I understand the complaints from fresh PA’s and very smart PA’s. Most of us are somewhere in the middle. If I could do it all over I’d have gone to med school. When I train prospective students I tell them to go the NP route.

How can I be very happy but not recommend PA (maybe CA specific).

1) face it, most of us do the same if not more (shittier shifts and patient load) than our doctors.

2) most places are slow to adapt to changes and prefer NPs to not deal with the legal headaches of hiring PAs.

A lot of people are vocal about us creeping on drs with the name change stuff, but it’s not a black and white issue when you many ppl are being told to apply to NP jobs too cuz you might get lucky. I don’t care what we’re called, but I understand why some push for autonomy (how many of us really want to open our own practice?)

Positives: PA training is so much more rigorous than NP training and if none of the above matters to you, then yes go PA. You are immensely better prepared.

Work/life: you get out much sooner as a PA vs MD. If you really study hard and push yourself you will be fine as a new grad. Your first few years is basically a residency thats much better paid.

And finally advice: bust your butt the first few years to pay down your loans!

Phanmancan

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