In light of the recent AMA negativity toward PA’s, do you think being a PA will harm my chances of acceptance to medical school?
I’m 29 years old with 2 years of experience as a PA. I currently work in Dermatology and volunteer at a family medicine clinic. I also have experience with multiple volunteer organizations in the area and recently joined the Red Cross Disaster Health team. I graduated undergrad with a 3.2 GPA in Nutrition and then worked as a medical assistant for 2 years while taking additional pre-requisite courses for PA school. I attended a decent PA program and earned a 3.7 GPA while also being very involved in school activities, student government and community outreach programs. I was also a student tutor for the 1st year students.
My original goal for my career was to teach, participate in research, mentor students and see my own patients under the general supervision of a physician with similar values as mine. I now feel that I naively forgot about the part where you have to rely on a physician to hire you in order to do all these things. I feel my current role as PA only limits my ability to make an impact and I have mostly decided to apply to medical school. I’m still working out the timing and logistics.
However, the recent negativity from the AMA towards PA and NP’s has me already concerned regarding the application process. I’m not sure how to word this career change in a positive manner. Rather than saying “I’m bored and need to be a doctor” or “I admit I’ve made a mistake in being a PA”. How do I express that PA’s are great and I will probably hire them once I’m a physician, I just decided this was not the place for me?
