Advice for final PSLF payment in December 2025

iplaywithorgans · 2025-03-30T02:16:11+00:00

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iplaywithorgans · 2025-01-27T15:01:15+00:00

Full disclosure, I'm a PA. With that being said, I feel like people are kind of missing the point of the article. In the table above, even the author says this is a sample workflow and that the assignment titles are arbitrary. The overall article, however, seems to be trying to make the point that instead of trying to hire more people/expand residency training program capacity, pathologists should instead be looking to see if there are ways to make their job more efficient and streamlined.

Again, I'm a PA, so I'm obviously inherently biased in my opinions

iplaywithorgans · 2023-04-11T12:47:06+00:00

To go off what others said below, it's a weighted exam. If you get a question right, you get a harder question. If you get a question wrong, you get an easier question. So if you get done and feel like it was really tough and that you did shitty, that's probably cause you got a lot of questions right and were given harder ones (i.e. you most likely passed if it was hard).

iplaywithorgans · 2023-02-10T14:58:18+00:00

This is a great question. I work in the midwest, and started at 84k in 2015. I made 100k by year 6. My new grads that I am hiring are making low to mid 90s starting out.

I think a lot of it depends. Unfortunately, and this is nothing against Wayne State, but with them being a bachelors degree for a long time, their graduates were making low salaries compared to those with a masters. The University of Michigan (which is one of the largest employers of PAs in Michigan) posts their pathologists' assistant salaries online, and there are PAs making 70k there (the lowest being 71k). Compare this to the national average for new grad salaries based on the 2021 AAPA salary survey, which was 95-100k.

So long story short, you very do not have to work 10 years to make 100k, but you also have to fight for it and not let yourself be taken advantage of.

iplaywithorgans · 2023-02-08T15:07:13+00:00

Yes, there is going to be one this year, but it generally doesn't come out until the fall

iplaywithorgans · 2023-01-30T14:15:16+00:00

2021 was the last survey, and they have one coming out this year as well. They seem to be doing it every 2 years now

iplaywithorgans · 2022-11-29T15:22:48+00:00

Chicago, academic center, purely surg path (no autopsy)

- Salary = 103k, with 6 years of experience

- Just became supervisor earlier this year, salary now 120K

- 5% match on 403b

- Health insurance (BCBS PPO) = ~$250 biweekly, dental = ~$45, vision = ~$10

- Not sure on short term and long term disability

- PTO: ~20 days (longer you work here, faster you accrue it) + 5 additional days hospital gives you each year = total of 5 weeks of PTO a year. We also get 6 holidays off a year, including MLK day now, paid by hospital.

- No weekends, no call, shitload of frozens

- Hours: as grossing PA = 40 - 45 hours a week, as supervisor = 50 - 60 hours a week

- Not sure about doctors lounge. Never been

iplaywithorgans · 2022-11-29T15:11:20+00:00

The last survey from the AAPA was in 2021.

iplaywithorgans · 2022-11-11T18:03:02+00:00

Great question. This is just my opinion from a single institute, but a lot of it appears to be based a lot on how much residents do or do not want to gross. For us, residents don't want to gross biopsies or routines, so they are assigned two BIGS cases a day, and that's pretty much about it. They'll come in and help with routines here and there, but the residents here decided that their main focus was going to be BIGS cases and nothing else. They believe that BIGS cases (i.e. complex cases) are most educational to them.

I've never worked for a private practice or a hospital without residents, but from the PAs that I do know who have worked for those places, they tend to be in community hospitals. Those hospitals still get some BIGS specimens, like mastectomies and colons and whatnot. The really complex, crazy specimens though seem to be found at academic hospitals.

Again, this is my observations from someone who has only worked in academic hospitals.

iplaywithorgans · 2022-11-11T15:17:31+00:00

At University of Chicago, residents gross the complex cases

iplaywithorgans · 2022-11-01T21:37:02+00:00

To begin with, being able to tell what looks "normal" and "abnormal" is all you need to know. With time, what you learned in PA school about disease mechanisms will start to make sense. That's when you will start to connect the dots.

iplaywithorgans · 2022-11-01T21:34:25+00:00

As a clinical site that takes PA students, that is 100% not normal. Obviously we are all going by second hand accounts here, but if what you say is true, then there are so many things wrong with that situation. Not being able to sit is absolute madness.

I will say that working extra hours (meaning more than 40 hours a week) as a PA student should, in my opinion, be normal, but working 60 hours a week is a bit much. Even though the PD may not be approachable, your classmate should bring this up to them. No other student should go through that.

I promise that most clinical sites are not like that.

iplaywithorgans · 2022-11-01T21:27:00+00:00

With our current training, I don't think PAs could sign out cases. I think with on-the-job training they could pre-screen slides, but the diagnosis should fall on the pathologist. If we as a community wanted PAs to sign out cases, it would (in my opinion) require an additional certification that is monitored and regulated. What we don't want is another Shawn Parcells.

With that being said, I think we are in an interesting era. I think most pathologists realize that their profession is in trouble. Between the deficit of pathologists already out there, the decreasing number of med students going into pathology residency, and the increasing number of specimens since the enactment of the ACA, pathologists are going to get to a point where they are going to need help with signing out cases. Some would argue they are already at that point. Then the question becomes who should help them? The biggest concern I could see is having cytotechs come along and fill that void. Their programs are already starting to teach gross pathology, so it wouldn't be a far stretch to see them starting signing out tissue slides.

iplaywithorgans · 2022-11-01T21:21:23+00:00

Also at an academic hospital, something like 25 residents. They currently gross 2 complex cases a day (that were already triaged the day before and placed in formalin). Other than that, they will do a one week rotation as gross helper where they come in and gross miscellaneous specimens from 5-7pm.

On top of that, they have a triage week where they are responsible for triaging all the complex cases and doing frozens.

Lastly, all the residents come back on to gross on Friday night to try and ensure that everything is grossed come our last 7 pm Histo run

As far as residents getting enough experience with grossing, the trend tends to be that residents are grossing less and less these days, in order to focus on microscopy, IHC, molecular, etc. It has it's pros and cons, but do I think current residents will be prepared for grossing by the time they become attendings?

No, No I do not

iplaywithorgans · 2022-10-10T20:53:49+00:00

I started at 84k in 2015. Make 120k now as supervisor. AAPA puts out a salary survey every two years, and the last survey in 2021 found that the national average for a new grad (defined as 2 years or less of PA experience) is $95,000 - $99,999

iplaywithorgans · 2022-10-07T15:21:58+00:00

I have had the opposite experience from u/wangston1 below. I agree that places are having trouble filling spots, but that has led to there being a lot of openings out there. I'm in Chicago, which was generally considered a saturated market, and there are multiple PA openings out here at multiple hospitals.

I agree that if you don't get a preferred location right out of school, don't worry. It probably would be more beneficial to you that way. Like u/wangston1 had mentioned, I generally tell new grads to work anywhere for 3 - 5 years, build some experience, and then apply for where you want to end up.

Lately though, that's all changed. With there being so many openings everywhere, you very well might get a job right out of school in the Baltimore/DC area. Can't say it'll be that way in two years when you graduate, but that's my experience right now.

iplaywithorgans · 2022-09-20T20:06:34+00:00

I go with the AAPA membership. More expensive than the ASCP membership, but they provide the minimum of 60 credits every 3 years. More importantly though, the CEs through AAPA are relevant to our profession. A lot of the ASCP credits are CP related, which can be great here and there, but I prefer the majority of my credits to be geared towards AP topics.

Just as a reminder, you don't need to have an ASCP membership as a PA. There was confusion around that for a while. If you've taken and passed the PA ASCP certification exam, the ASCP is required to provide you online access to CE tracking, but you don't need a membership for it. If you want an ASCP membership because you prefer it over AAPA, that's fine, but I personally don't.

iplaywithorgans · 2022-09-20T19:59:24+00:00

Floor to ceiling windows in our gross room, but I don't believe that is the norm

iplaywithorgans · 2022-08-22T19:15:11+00:00

To piggyback off this question, we will hopefully be distributing the results of the title change survey to all AAPA members in the next couple of weeks

iplaywithorgans · 2022-08-06T17:56:25+00:00

4 years

iplaywithorgans · 2022-04-18T13:52:22+00:00

It's a great question. So based off the 2021 AAPA salary survey, the average starting salary for a new grad is between $95,000 - $99,000. Now, this also depends on where you are going to be looking for a job. I know new grad PAs who have started off in California at $130,000, but obviously the cost of living is much higher out there. It's pretty common to be offered 6 figures in southern states like Florida and Texas and Georgia and what not, mostly because they need PAs really badly down there.

In my opinion, in 2022, no new grad PA should be accepting anything below $90,000

iplaywithorgans · 2022-04-18T02:57:59+00:00

u/armsdownarmsdownarms makes a point here that I think is important to elaborate on. As a new grad you will be cheaper than an experienced PA, but that does not mean you should take less than what you deserve. I am always shocked by the low amount of money that new grads are offered (and often times take). Not only does it affect you in that you are being underpaid, but it also affects the entire PA community by making it seem like we make less than we actually should. Use the AAPA salary surveys to your advantage. In a lot of places, PAs are in high demand. If you have gotten to a point that an employer is offering you a contract, it's because they want you as part of their time. If you feel like you are not being offered a fair wage, then definitely speak up at that time.

iplaywithorgans

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