Early Life crisis

[mike172]

For the past number of months I have been seriously considering becoming a Physcian Assistant (PA). I am currently a major in international relations, and enrolled in NROTC.

My dilema is 4 fold:

1. Would I rather be a line officer or a staff corps officer? - I have no idea.
2. As a civilian would I rather be a PA or work in some company or goverment institution?- I have no idea.

The problem is not that I like one more than the other the problem is I feel I would like any of these options. The problem is since I have never been a line officer, never been a staff corps officer, never held a job with a major in IR, and never worked as a PA I have no idea which would suit me best.

I know no one can answer these questions but me. However any input anyone can give in terms of life for a medical corps officer (do we have any medical folks on here?) As well as just general information would be greatly appreciated.

I am trying to get as much info from every aspect as possible, so any input anyone can give would be awsome.

Thank you.

 

[Flash]

For the past number of months I have been seriously considering becoming a Physcian Assistant (PA). I am currently a major in international relations, and enrolled in NROTC.

My dilema is 4 fold:

1. Would I rather be a line officer or a staff corps officer? - I have no idea.
2. As a civilian would I rather be a PA or work in some company or goverment institution?- I have no idea.

The problem is not that I like one more than the other the problem is I feel I would like any of these options. The problem is since I have never been a line officer, never been a staff corps officer, never held a job with a major in IR, and never worked as a PA I have no idea which would suit me best.

I know no one can answer these questions but me. However any input anyone can give in terms of life for a medical corps officer (do we have any medical folks on here?) As well as just general information would be greatly appreciated.

I am trying to get as much info from every aspect as possible, so any input anyone can give would be awsome.

Thank you.

Hmmm, PA you say? Well, I know that it is a grad degree or a follow on degree in most cases, it is a 'second' career for many PA's. Since it is a follow-on career in many cases it might be something you want to consider after doing a stint as a Unrestricted Line Officer. If you like being a SWO Aviator then you could continue that but if you don't like it or still yearn to be a PA after a few years of being a line officer you would not be out of place if you went to a PA program at that time. One of its origins of PA's was to help former Corpsmen and Medics who wanted to still be involved in medicine, especially someone with the training as an Independent Duty Corpsman.

As for PA's in the military, I never knew any in the Navy. I know they have a big program in the Army but in the Navy I think the only ones in uniform are Aviation Physiologists or something along those lines. I don't think there is a specific officer specialty for PA's in the Navy.

I have no idea if this helps, maybe Feddoc could provide more knowledges on this subject. Most of what I know is second hand.

 

[BigIron]

For the past number of months I have been seriously considering becoming a Physcian Assistant (PA). I am currently a major in international relations, and enrolled in NROTC.

My dilema is 4 fold:

1. Would I rather be a line officer or a staff corps officer? - I have no idea.
2. As a civilian would I rather be a PA or work in some company or goverment institution?- I have no idea.

The problem is not that I like one more than the other the problem is I feel I would like any of these options. The problem is since I have never been a line officer, never been a staff corps officer, never held a job with a major in IR, and never worked as a PA I have no idea which would suit me best.

I know no one can answer these questions but me. However any input anyone can give in terms of life for a medical corps officer (do we have any medical folks on here?) As well as just general information would be greatly appreciated.

I am trying to get as much info from every aspect as possible, so any input anyone can give would be awsome.

Thank you.

When it comes down to it, the only major difference between line and staff is what/where you can command. A minor difference is the collar device staff folks wear. Medical staff types play a support role. If it's medicine you're interested in practicing, then go the PA-C route. I haven't been a staff guy, but I can tell it's somewhat different in the training aspect. As a line guy, you would have to get warfare qualified (SWO in your case) and get through the early career milestones of ship-driving. It could be a kick in the pants, and gain you some valuable Navy traning, but it would put off your medical schooling.

Or, do both. Become a PA-C and then join the Navy as a staff officer.

You would be gainfully employed. 2 birds with 1 stone.

 

[Spekkio]

I was pre-med myself once upon a time:

Bear in mind that PAs don't have a residency the way that MDs do, and if you look through the papers you'll notice that all PA jobs require "3 years of experience." If you know someone as an "in" to a hospital so you can get hired out of grad school, great. If not, you might seriously want to consider getting those 3 years experience and then some in the Navy.

My question to you is: why are you becoming a PA? Most people who enter the medical field as MDs, DOs, PAs, or RNs are very passionate about it, so I'm curious why you'd give that up for 5 years to become a line officer. The fact that you are considering working in a private office or government agency leads me to believe that perhaps being a PA isn't right for you.

Had I gotten into med school I would've joined either the Army or Navy as a doctor depending on who could offer me the better deal. This is because I wanted to serve my country while still doing something I was passionate about. Med school didn't work out, so now I'm going nuke. Basically, ask yourself what job do you want to do: do you want to be seeing patients, or do you want to be in charge of a warship?

 

[HH-60H]

My question to you is: why are you becoming a PA? Most people who enter the medical field as MDs, DOs, PAs, or RNs are very passionate about it, so I'm curious why you'd give that up for 5 years to become a line officer. The fact that you are considering working in a private office or government agency leads me to believe that perhaps being a PA isn't right for you.
.....
do you want to be seeing patients, or do you want to be in charge of a warship?

Why can't you be passionate about medicine and serving your country?

Why can't you do both?

 

[Spekkio]

Did you read my post? You certainly can do both as a staff officer. I was curious why he was going to give up the PA part, albeit temporarily, to become an unrestricted line officer. If he applied for a commission as a staff officer, his primary job would be seeing patients, so my question was directed towards what he wanted to do in the Navy, not what he wanted to do in general.

 

[feddoc]

A minor point here......PAs are Medical Service Corps, Clinical Care Provider, not Medical Corps.

FWIW, my nephew, former HM3, just got hired (fresh out of school) as a PA in New Mexico. $93K to start.

Hard to give advice, 'cuz you aren't me. BUT, If I were in a similar position, I would do the PA thing.

 

[mike172]

Thanks for replies.

The school I currently attend offers a 5 year PA program which ends with a Masters Degree . I would enter the Navy after that I. It seems foolish to join the navy and then not use the skill set I have just used 5 years to get. Perhaps not?

I am currently in NROTC and majoring in International Relations.

The problem I have is not that I DONT want to major in international relations or that I DONT want to be a line officer. I do...

But on the other hand I also like the idea of being a PA, and a staff corps officer.

I have talked and am talking to a number of people on all sides of the spectrum.

I have no idea what is best for me.

I love helping people and enjoy serving hence a large reason why I am interested in the Navy. I am an Eagle Scout and my time working as a lifeguard and counselor was the best job I ever had. The worst job I ever had (in my opinion) was working in a law office. I have no idea which is "better" for me. Thats why I am here soliciting peoples knowledge and experience.

@spekkio- That is my whole problem. I want to fly planes, drive ships, lead sailors. But I also want to be a healthcare provider. What it comes down to is which I want more...and so we have the 1,000,000$$$ question.

 

[Spekkio]

I love helping people and enjoy serving ...

No wonder you can't make up your mind -- you're in the wrong field. What you really want is to be a janitor or waiter.

 

[mike172]

No wonder you can't make up your mind -- you're in the wrong field. What you really want is to be a janitor or waiter.

helpful...

 

[raptor10]

Have you done cortramid yet?

 

[3P4Life]

Ever thought of becoming an AMSO? Aviation Medical Safety Officer? You get to dabble in some pretty cool fields, safety, physiology, education. You also get to rub shoulders with the medical staff from time to time and I think you can even log SCT time and get flight pay.

Hey don't forget about USUHS, they've got a pretty cool program there. (Uniformed Services University Health Sciences) It's where they make flight docs!

 

[Spekkio]

helpful...

1. Lighten up 2. Read between the lines: The reason that you can't decide what you want is because the whole "I want to help people" thing is a croc of shit. There are 9,000,000 different ways to help people that don't involve either a commission or a master's degree. As a matter of fact, almost any profession you pick will be helping people because you'll be paying taxes, and those taxes go towards things like education, roads, and, of course, the military. Somewhere along the line you picked up the thought that that's what the PA program or officer recruiter wants to hear, so you adopted that as your motivation. You have to sit down and ask yourself why you want to be a PA or an officer beyond that shitty politically correct reason you just gave.

 

[mike172]

Have you done cortramid yet?

I have not done Cortramid yet, I would love to wait and make a decision after that however the PA program is a pretty strict program and I don't know if I can do another semester of liberal arts classes when I need to be taking biology and Chemistry. Should I choose to switch this semester, it would not have been a total waste because I have taken care of some core curriculum requirements, however I would still have to do some catch up.

 

[pennst8]

Go to Cortramid... there's always a way to figure your schedule out later.

That first hop in a real no shit navy airplane changed my life. I came out of that airplane and my priorities did a 180. I changed majors, I started drinking more, etc... I had to take a heavy courseload but it wasn't the end of the world.

(BTW If you're out there Puck, thanks... I was thinking about going surface or nuke at the time.)