EMT-P to PA Route

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Bubba12253

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Has anyone, or is anyone, thinking about using their EMT-P background as a stepping stone into PA School?

This is the route I'm currently taking, I'm graduating with a BS in Health Sciences within a year, in the mean time I'm working as an EMT, planning on going to medic school. I'd like to be an ER PA so having an EMT-P would benefit me greatly.
 
I'm thinking about the PA route from EMT-B, but as of late I have been leaning a bit more towards nursing and eventually NP after watching how misfitted PAs are in ERs in my area.
 
How are PA's misfitted in your ER? I know if you plan on being an allied health prof. specifically in the ER, PA is the way to go because they're taught in a medical school like school, in comparison to an NP who is taught in the nursing school modeling. NP's often stick to internal medicine from my experience.
 
My EMT instructor did this. He also works at my company (though I havent seen him on the schedule in a while). If I see him Ill ask him if it helped at all.

I can tell you from experience that being an experienced EMT helped in Nursing school (at least in the first semester)
 
I work in an ER just outside of Pittsburgh, PA. We use PA's 24 X 7 in the ER. During the day they are working along side of an MD doing simple procedures. At night we use PA's to see patients just as an MD does.


Hope this helps.


Dan
 
I suggest the PA route for midlevel work. Its actually somewhat close to real medical training with actual strong clinical experiences. The DNP is a joke.
 
I had a discussion with the old director of my EMS institute about this. He told me he had secured recognition of the medic program by one of the local PA programs, allowing the medic program to fulfill some of the PA pre-reqs. I thought it was brilliant. I don't know many medics who go PA (most go RN), but I think that might sloooowly be changing.

Regarding the competency of PAs or NPs in the ER, I think competency is person-based not profession-based.
 
I just got my EMT-B and I'm working on my BS in Biology.
 
I forgot to mention that I'm going for PA with that BS in Bio.
 
tnoye1337 said:
I forgot to mention that I'm going for PA with that BS in Bio.
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Why not go all the way and go to med school? Not trying to be a ****, it's an honest question.
 
NVRob said:
Why not go all the way and go to med school? Not trying to be a ****, it's an honest question.
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Money and time most likely. If I'm not mistaken there's a pretty steep difference between an MD and PA in terms of both.
 
bigbaldguy said:
Money and time most likely. If I'm not mistaken there's a pretty steep difference between an MD and PA in terms of both.
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Very true but after the fact the salary difference makes up for it but that's just my opinion.

For what it's worth I have considered the PA route. I'd be starting from scratch though since I chose medic school over college :unsure:
 
I figure it like this: After you've gotten your BS degree, you'll spend another 7-10 years learning how to become a Doctor (Med School and residencies where you're paid crap) and once you're completely done, you'll spend another dozen years paying off the school loans... Once those are paid off, you'll be doing pretty well. The young ones will be the ones better off financially at retirement. I have no doubt that I could thrive in MS and become an MD. By the time I'd be done paying for all that school, I would have about 5-10 years to prepare for retirement...

Instead, I'll become an RN, make a little $$$ to keep myself "comfortable" and perhaps go to NP/PA school and get certified in both. That way I'll have a chance to do some work as a mid-level practitioner, as a Medic, or as an RN... whatever tickles my fancy! Most importantly, I won't have any school (or small ones anyway) loans looming over my head for a good chunk of the rest of my life.
 
My best friend is a dentist I'm a flight attendant. I started as a flight attendant in 1995 he was finishing up his senior year of college for the next 13 years he worked scrimped saved went back to school for a masters (to give him a better shot at getting in) the whole time living like hobo and killing himself slowly with stress. 3 years ago he finished his DDS and bought a practice. Now three years later he's broke and so massively in debt he'll probably never dig out. Then there's me who through pure dumb luck fell into a good job and started saving through my 401k and have always lived cheaply but very well.

MD's make good money but they have lots of loans. The young rich ones you occasionally see are most likely wracking up even more debt.
 
Well I don't want to be a nurse because I want to have more control over the patient outcome. I don't want to become an MD because I don't like the hours and always being on call as well as the loans and the amount of schooling.
 
Bubba12253 said:
How are PA's misfitted in your ER? I know if you plan on being an allied health prof. specifically in the ER, PA is the way to go because they're taught in a medical school like school, in comparison to an NP who is taught in the nursing school modeling. NP's often stick to internal medicine from my experience.
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The PAs often spend their days suturing and doing little else. They might also have a few low acuity patients that they're managing but that term is a bit of a stretch given that their physician still has control of the patient. I'm sure that it's location dependent but I see PAs being used more like nurses, basically doing the MDs dirty work. It may come down to trust too, but I can understand where the MDs' collective irk comes from when it comes to midlevel providers, the education component is just not there. Of course I have no interest in being a doctor as I realistically do not have the patience to make it through med school. At the very least the majority of the NPs that I come across have strong clinical backgrounds, this has not been always been true with PAs where the zero to hero route seems more prevalent.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still strongly considering it but I want to see the direction that midlevel providers take before committing.
 
tnoye1337 said:
Well I don't want to be a nurse because I want to have more control over the patient outcome. I don't want to become an MD because I don't like the hours and always being on call as well as the loans and the amount of schooling.
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I think that especially in critical care, nurses have a lot of control of the outcomes. The units I worked in relied heavily on nursing input. Also, for the benefit of anyone reading this, not in an attempt to sway you, at the bedside, nurses get to impact the families, and many more aspects of the patients' lives. It's not just coming around a few times a day and giving orders.
 
abckidsmom said:
I think that especially in critical care, nurses have a lot of control of the outcomes. The units I worked in relied heavily on nursing input. Also, for the benefit of anyone reading this, not in an attempt to sway you, at the bedside, nurses get to impact the families, and many more aspects of the patients' lives. It's not just coming around a few times a day and giving orders.
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Well I understand what you're saying. Nurses do impact the families and impact how the patients end up, care wise. PA's and MD's control what methods or drugs will be used, as well as amounts and times per day. Nurses don't have a decision making part as much as PA's or MD's do.
 
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