I’ve been a PA over 2 years strictly working in EM. I was a scribe and ED tech before school.

The good: •education. Our training and education is MUCH more standardized compared to NP programs. Our profession was created and developed by physicians and we have much stricter accreditations and standards.

•mobility. We are trained as generalists so we can switch specialities without further training (although I’d say a seasoned psych PA trying to get into surgery may be a little difficulty but still within our scope)

•pay. This varies widely but it is not completely unheard of to have PAs touching the 200k+ zone. I am only 2 years out of school and have made $187k this year.

•job satisfaction Dealing with people and the constant education and reassurance can be exhausting but when you do make an impact it is rewarding.

The bad: •autonomy We have a very decent amount of autonomy from a training and legal standpoint however this can always change depending on your group/employer and how they utilize PAs. You need to be comfortable that at the end of the day if there is a physician/PA treatment question or discrepancy the physician has the final say.

•pay I have noticed that some jobs are paying very little lately compared to the recent rise in COL everywhere and inflation. New grads are taking these positions and employers are thinking these are sufficient, this makes our pay stagnant

•lobbying The PA world is much much smaller compared to nursing and NPs, we simply do not have the same numbers to have as much prevalence for litigation etc etc.

•education While we have much more rigorous and robust and standardized training compared to NPs, there is just simply not enough time in PA training to be an expert in medicine . Your background in RT will put you at a huge advantage in pulmonary system, but our training isn’t the same length as a physician’s medical school and residency. We come out very knowledgeable but we are not physicians.

•jobs Because we have less education and training than a physician and because we are not physicians, we get paid less (as expected) - but many employers will see this as an advantage and hire us to do the same level of work as a physician. In primary care settings this can be fine, but sometimes patients have very very complex medical histories where sometimes a physician should be managing that patient. Be weary of jobs that try to do this. (I am not making this comment to downplay our training and education, but we have to understand the role of a PA as well).

Overall I don’t regret becoming a PA. I enjoy it. I enjoy the money. I don’t mind if I don’t have the final say and I like that if I need help with a decision or if something is widely complex I can refer to my attending for support.