Health Care Career Switch - Physician's Assistant

Physician's assistant is a possible pathway to a career switch if you have a science undergraduate degree. Kettering is one example of a school offering a career switch path:

http://www.kcma.edu/academics/pa/index.html

"Whether you’re a high school student exploring your health care career options, or you’re a college graduate seeking a career change, Kettering College’s PA program can work for you. Through Kettering College’s bachelor’s degree in human biology, non-degree holders can take the necessary prerequisite courses both to earn an undergraduate degree and to advance seamlessly into KCMA’s Master of Physician Assistant Studies. Students already possessing a bachelor’s degree in any basic science or any health care-related field can jump right in to the master’s program, provided they have the appropriate prerequisites."

This link gives a real-life case study:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/06/04/pf/career_switch.moneymag/index.htm

And for those of you who, like I was, were wondering just what the final difference between a PA and a nurse practitioner is, these links may or may not help you. From the viewpoint of someone who has encountered them both as a patient, it doesn't seem like much, but they reach similar roles through different educational pathways with different cultures - a NP starts out with a BSN in nursing and gets more training; a PA typically goes straight to PA school for a bachelor's or master's degree.

It's interesting that health care has such stovepiped, parallel, mutually hostile pedagogical pathways for being licensed to work on patients.

I didn't even try to get at some of the other credentialed terms like paramedic, EMT, etc. - those are probably different yet again.

https://career.berkeley.edu/Article/070209a-jv.stm

http://medinfo.ufl.edu/pa/program/faq.htm

http://www.ultimatenurse.com/forum/f14/physician-assistant-nurse-practitioner-1190/ [some gut reactions from the field, not written by college deans selling their programs]

http://www.wapa.org/pdfs/np-pa_chart.pdf

Pros and cons questions:
-Would this be a $100000 credential for a $50000 job? (It seems like an MD or OD degree is a $1m credential for a $10m job.) Of course, money isn't everything. I don't think PA studies can be a part-time pursuit and it sounds like real work. Full-time school can be very expensive for midcareer people, both with school costs and with foregone income.

-After all this, you're forever professionally defined as an "assistant" to someone. Of course, we all have bosses, superiors, etc. But it seems like having it in the credential's name would rankle. No way a physician will ever consider you as an equal on any level - professional or social - I would think. Doctors and nurses have had generations to work out their respective roles and mixture of deference and dominance, like officers and enlisted persons in the Army - and even then, there's friction. This is newer and the respective roles are even less clear.

-Also, how will near-peers like the nurses - and NP's - regard you?

-Helping heal people - wonderful!

-Regular hours - if you get them.

-Not the same legal liability as a physician (though anyone anywhere can be sued - I would carry professional liability insurance if I were in this field).

-Also not the same money as a physician.