Hello, I am joining OPM again. I was in my late 20’s at the time when I thought about med school so I joined OPM forum but life got in the way, so I entered PA school and I am now Emergency Med PA in NYC.
Just recently I started questioning myself if I really should go back to med school and pursue my initial dream to become an osteopathic physician.
Now I’m 35, currently enjoy working as a PA (I would say 80% of the time), in the ED. Life is ok-good, but at times I am reluctant to give up on the thought of going back to medical school especially after learning about new PA-DO program at LECOM. Plus I find myself always hunger for more knowledge and I am afraid I may regret not going back to med school when I become 50.
Long story short, my academic background: I have
B.S. from Virginia Tech with Human Nutrition Exercise Science with 2.7 GPA.
post-bacc 2 semester in biology as part-time at George Mason with 3.4 GPA
Georgetown M.S. in Biotech with 3.5 GPA
Attended 1 semester in MPH program at GWU with 3.8 GPA. but left to enter PA program.
Received M.S. PA studies from Stony Brook with GPA of 3.7
So I have all the pre-req >10yrs ago
My work experience:
Almost 2years working as ER physician assistant (mostly working in Main, rarely fast track).
Faculty for annual PA conference in NYC (taught emergency toxicology)
EM Ultrasound Advisory Committee as a PA
2 years working as clinical tech
2 semester of Human A&P course teaching experience as Assistant professor at local community college
8 month of research at NIH with 1 publication as co-author in Journal of Biol Chem.
and other experience as tutoring/camp counselor/karate instructor…etc.
I took the MCAT once but did very poorly on it (esp verbal section) so I just gave up on applying med school, instead went to PA school after learning about this profession.
At the time, I think I was more concerned about getting a secure job right away and have a profession which allow me practice medicine without going through the hurdles of MCAT and grueling 8 years of medical training.
Also during that time I was struggling with so many personal issues which include being dependent on Rx med (Adderall) for years. I experienced a relapse during PA school but after taking a medical leave, I finally came clean indefinitely. Now I am mentally and physically healthier than ever.
Everyone says do what you love to do and do what your heart tells you to do. Well my heart wasn’t being a PA but I went for it because I wanted a quicker reward.
But please don’t get me wrong. I support this profession wholeheartedly and understand how much PAs play vital role in the health care. PAs are wonderful career and I see many PAs satisfied with their career. However, I’ve come to realize it may not be for me in the long run.
Nonetheless, I want to be practical here. I don’t have any debt right now but I don’t know if it still makes economic sense to go back to medical school putting my life (PA career) on hold for 8 years. If it happens I would shoot for class of 2017 or 2018. By the time I graduate I will be 42-43 and have school loans (prob ~100K).
My mind is wavering and I am having a little dilemma here. Any advice or input would be appreciated
Well, I think it’s great you are thinking about this now. It’s interesting that in the school where I got my MSN in nurse-midwifery, the majority of the students were labor and delivery nurses or OB-Gyn Nurse practitioners in their late 30’s, who had decided what they had pursued thus far wasn’t “close enough” to their dream. So perhaps you are right on schedule for reevaluation. Having started med school at 53, let me encourage you to start sooner if you are going to do it!
I am figuring $250,000 in debt (actually more the average med student debt). Can’t really say that medical school makes financial sense for many of us… For you, it well may as one may project your earnings out a bit further (I’m counting on practicing till I’m 80). But you might also consider whether it has to make financial sense. The basis upon which you make your decision may be whether makes sense from a job fulfillment point of view.
Kate
Unfortunately the only way to ever know whether medical school is the right decision for you is to prepare to work hard, abandon all reservations, go for it and find out for yourself.
I’m a nurse practitioner and thought NP school would satisfy my hunger for medical knowledge but two years into practice, I found myself asking the same questions you are. Will I regret not having gone to medical school? Is it worth going into a boatload of debt? Is it worth possibly even my sanity? For me, eventually I got sick of pondering the “what ifs” and made the decision to quit my job and start working on pre-reqs full time. Going from earning a good salary, having a flexible schedule, having zero debt… to becoming a full-time (undergraduate) student living off savings and federal loans is terrifying. But in my heart, I know this is the right decision for me. Now of course, there’s no guarantee I’ll even be accepted into a medical program. And if I do, no promise of me still feeling confident I went the right route. But I know the “what ifs” would have eaten me alive had I not decided to take the risk.
Have you researched medical programs? Shadowed physicians in the area you’re interested in? Communicated with any pre-med advisors to develop a potential plan of action, so to speak? Sometimes you can get a feel for whether it would be right for you by taking these first few steps.
I wish you luck in whatever you choose to do!
Thanks all for your input and advice. I will be shooting for the entering year 2014. will keep posted.
What about being a PA do you dislike? I ask because I’m deciding whether to pursue PA or med school. I’m 37.
Hi there, PA profession is a great career and has the best job prospect these days. It’s true if you look at a bigger scale. But individually, such positive view may be hinged upon or masked by which speciality you choose, where you work, who you work with, and what you want out of your life/career: money, raising kids, family, autonomy, work hours, scope of practice…etc.
I went to PA school because I was 30 at the time, and just did not want the commitment of putting my life on hold for 7-8yrs in medical school and plus having to prepare for MCAT again which I did very poorly on it. I was sick and tired of not having real “full-time job” my whole life with very unstable little income, so I had stronger desire for quicker reward and have stable job. With that said, my heart wasn’t in it but I thought that was best decision that I could make at the time.
In my case, working as a PA in the Emergency Dept means you will have at least 10 or more supervising physicians who have different personalities and slightly different way of managing patients. While most docs are super nice and pleasant to work with, sometimes there’s a hidden burden to adapt yourself to each supervising physicians. Also I feel that after over 20 years of experience in the ED, I know myself I would want to be part of more decision making process and not to present every case for approval of my decisions by much younger doctors who has much less experience in EM.
In the main ED where I usually work 80% of the time, (I know this depends on hospital to hospital and/or each supervising physician), there’s so much less autonomy compared to fast track as I am dealing with real life-threatening cases.
Since I realized that I do not enjoy most fast track cases more than cases run in Main or critical area in the ED (fast track/urgent care is mostly run by NPs and PAs), I think furthering my education by going to medical school would really give me more opportunities to understand and treat challenging cases and fulfill my initial goal and dream.
I’m relatively happy as a PA for now and do not regret a thing about going to PA school as this experience will be my unique route to success.
But I don’t see myself being a PA for more than 20 years as I will hunger for more knowledge and autonomy later on.
(In fact, I see many seasoned PAs going into faculty position to teach other PAs as they reached certain ceiling)
It’s also a personal choice. I don’t have debt for now. I’m saving as much money as I can for medical education so that I won’t have enormous debt after med school. I don’t have kids, will not have kids, nor create a family. Just a life partner, a dog and a fulfilling career. That’s it.
Good luck