What Is A Physician Assistant? Is It the Right Career for You?

If you want to learn everything about the human body, and use that knowledge to help diagnose and treat patients, then you should think about becoming a physician assistant! Also known as a PA, physician assistants practice medicine on a team supervised by doctors and surgeons. They are able to examine patients, diagnose injuries and illnesses, and treat the patients, which includes prescribing medications. Physician assistants can work in a variety of environments, ranging from small offices to hospitals to urgent care. In a rural setting, a PA might act as a primary care “physician,” and confer with their supervising doctor as the law requires.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, physician assistants held about 86,700 jobs in 2012. By 2022, this number is expected to increase by 38%, which is much faster than the average career. There will be an increased need for healthcare professionals, for reasons including a growing population and increased chronic disease. In 2012, the median pay of a physician assistant was $90,930 per year, and it’s likely to increase every year.

In order to become a PA, one must receive a Master’s degree from a nationally accredited PA program. There are 170 schools in the US that offer these programs. These programs require up to 1,000 hours of direct patient contact that can come in the form of an emergency medical technician, certified nursing assistant, or other healthcare jobs.  Schools like to see people with experience, people who know for sure that they want to work in the healthcare field.

It typically takes about 2 years to obtain a Master’s degree from PA school. The first year is usually classroom-based, while the second year is full of clinical rotations in various fields. From this, you’ll be able to get an idea of what specialty you would like to choose. Luckily, you can switch specialties throughout your career! These specialties include surgery, cardiac, family medicine, emergency medicine and pediatrics. To keep up with the always changing medical field, PAs must have 100 hours of continued education every 2 years, and will be required to retake a certification exam every 10 years.

Personally, I am on track to become a physician assistant and I can’t wait to start my career as one. Going into college, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I knew that I loved science, but I was unsure of what careers were available. I started doing internships in the medical field, including one with an orthopedic surgeon, and I learned that I definitely wanted to be a healthcare professional. Still, I didn’t know what exactly I wanted to do. I spent time interviewing doctors, PAs, medical students, PA students, and even nurses. The one big thing I learned was that every single PA I spoke with absolutely LOVES their career. They wouldn’t change a thing about it. I wanted to have that passion for my career, and I wanted to love going into work every day, so the summer before my senior year I officially decided that I would attend PA school. In order to get my patient contact hours, I am currently taking an EMT class and will most likely take 2 years off before I pursue my Master’s degree. I am enjoying taking this EMT class, and I’m glad to be learning new things that will help me in my career as a PA.

Are you considering PA school? Leave a comment!

CNYAHEC Names 2015 L. Thomas Wolff, M.D. Scholarship Recipient

The Central New York Area Health Education Center (CNYAHEC) recently announced John Paliakkara as the recipient of this year’s L. Thomas Wolff Scholarship. John, an undergraduate student in the SUNY Potsdam Rural Medical Program, aspires to become a physician. The competitive annual award is available to past CNYAHEC program participants who are entering into a clinical health professions program.

“I’m pleased to congratulate John on being selected as this year’s L. Thomas Wolff, M.D. Scholarship recipient,” said Richard Merchant, CEO of CNYAHEC. “This honor is a reflection of Dr. Wolff’s spirit, integrity, and dedication to providing care to those most in need. All of us at CNYAHEC are proud to support outstanding students, like John, on their paths to become our future healthcare providers.”

John is a former MedQuest Health Careers Exploration Camp participant. MedQuest, sponsored by SUNY Upstate Medical University and CNYAHEC, is a resident summer camp offering a week of hands-on activities, interactive workshops, and classes to introduce high school students to a variety of health career opportunities. CNYAHEC and SUNY Upstate Medical University have partnered for more than a decade to bring the popular and highly competitive program to area high school students. Last year, nearly 300 students applied for one of the 25 program openings.

“Experiential programs like MedQuest are key to engaging local students who are interested in pursuing a career in the health professions,” said Donna Vavonese, Director of Admissions at SUNY Upstate Medical Center. “Students have the opportunity to understand why it takes a team effort to provide quality patient care. They also learn how medicine is more than science — there is a human relationship component, as well. Through the MedQuest program, CNYAHEC and Upstate provide an excellent opportunity for students who wish to learn more about the many opportunities in health care.”

As an expression of gratitude, CNYAHEC established the L. Thomas Wolff Scholarship in 2014 to honor Dr. Wolff, a long-time local family physician and co-founder of the New York State Area Health Education Center (AHEC) System. Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Wolff has been an active presence among local, state and national professional organizations. Most notably, he served as president of both the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and the American Board of Family Medicine. Dr. Wolff is currently a Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Physician Assistant (PA) program at SUNY Upstate Medical Center, where he served as the Chair of the Department of Family Medicine for twelve years.

The L. Thomas Wolff, M.D. Scholarship is possible because of generous gifts from our community supporters. For more information regarding the L. Thomas Wolff Scholarship, or to make a tax deductible donation, please contact the CNYAHEC office at (607) 756-1090 or info@cnyahec.org.

PPS Workforce Leads Meet

CNYCC hosted the first NYS PPS Workforce Leads meeting to collaborate on strategies and showcase workforce vendor resources.

View presentation here

Reflections from Rural Health Immersion

While sitting across from four New Visions students in the conference room of Oswego Hospital, I felt nervous. These students were about to graduate and embark on a long journey to bushwhack their own path through life; I realized I was still in the thicket of my own. They looked so put together and had firm, confident handshakes. I was embarrassed to admit that I didn’t participate in the New Visions program at my own high school because I had always assumed that I would get a job, not a college degree. As questions were posed to me, about how to best prepare for a career in healthcare, I could only muster a single message: believe in yourself. It was that night, after having dinner with the CEO of the hospital and other accomplished professionals involved with the Rural Immersion Week in Oswego that I realized I also needed to heed the words of my own advice before entering my second year of medical school.

I remember the first time I was given permission to believe that I could be a doctor. It was by the man who gave me my first immunizations as a baby, and managed my grandmother’s diabetes, and convinced my father to get a colonoscopy at age fifty despite his adamant protests and red cheeks that declared this country boy’s utter embarrassment at such a prospect. I was nineteen and had already bounced around to multiple colleges while working full or part time jobs as a waitress or cook, changing directions and majors more times than there are bones in the body. I asked to shadow my family doctor out of raw curiosity; but after a day of witnessing him care for the members of my community, some of whom were perplexed to encounter me working with him at his office, he told me without hesitation that I could be a doctor too, and in fact “Lord willing and the creek don’t rise,” I might even be good at it.

By that point I was attending a large university that is considered to be elite by many, and often considered unobtainable to those I grew up with in a small town and farming community in Central New York. I chose it because of its agricultural programs only to realize many of the students in my basic science classes considered agriculture as a pauper’s game and instead identified themselves as “pre-med,” a nearly foreign word to my ears. Many of these students seemed so self-assured, as if they were simply living out a preordained plan to attend the best kindergartens, the best middle and high schools, the best colleges, and the best medical schools. They were years ahead of me in preparing for the application process; it felt as if I was already too late and ill equipped to assimilate into this competitive profession. What right did I have, after all, to compete for a seat in medical school when theirs had been claimed since birth?

If not for a country doctor who grew up not far from where I did, and a distant twinkle of hope that rural medicine would still be viable by the time I was able to practice, I would not be attending SUNY Upstate today. I wanted those four New Visions students to feel the way I felt when my doctor told me I could do it; I needed to tell them they had permission to leave their small towns, and deserved to achieve their dreams, whatever they may be and wherever they may lead, because who knows if they have heard it before or would hear it again.

During my first year of medical school I faced many of the same insecurities about my cultural background and socioeconomic status as I did in college but with deeper penetrance. I grew up on a farm and felt privileged to have educated parents who held passionate debates about science, literature, and philosophy at the dinner table. My parents transitioned out of dairy farming and started their own business when I was very young. The business began with one desk in a converted milking room and struggled financially throughout my adolescence before reaching marked success and stability.

We still cut hay, manage a small orchard, and care for thirty chickens—I was called home before one of my exams this year to correct a hen’s vent prolapse, or kill and bury her if I couldn’t. It was my natural inclination to compare myself to other medical students, whose parents were doctors, lawyers, and formal professionals. I internalized that they deserved to be here, while I certainly did not. When I told my colleagues at medical school I wanted to be a country doctor, some would even laugh, and so I stopped saying it out loud. It wasn’t until the Rural Immersion Week in Oswego that I met outstanding physicians and medical students with similar ideals and sensibilities. I was reminded of the reason I came to medical school in the first place—to live and work in a small underserved community, to tear down the walls formalized medical training teaches us to build around our profession, to be, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, a damned good country doctor.