Feds to help fast track medics to PAs
According to Stars & Stripes, the part of the WHite House plans to get veterans hired is to help military medics and corpsmen to get on the fast track for certification as physicians’ assistants;
The government has dedicated $45 million to support accelerated physician assistant training programs, and will now give priority for that money to universities that offer expedited programs for veterans with military medical training and that offer recruiting, retention and mentoring services aimed specifically at veterans.
I have more confidence in a medical professional who has military experience than some yo-yo off the block, so you medics out there, take advantage of this program…we need you. Well, I need you.
Category: Veterans Issues
“Well, I need you.”
They said physician’s assistants, not psychologists, Lilyea.
You think I can re-up? Lessee…age 47, prior service 5…er, 42 effectively and I have a bachelors…age waiver? Damn…do it medics…
I however do not trust docs, no offense. Maybe my experience is different but I don’t think motrin, water and change your socks will pass on the outside. lol
Funny that instead of recruiting more medics to be MDs, the government is going for a much lower bar. The problem with a PA is the same as with an LPN: scope of practice – a legal definition. Why can’t these a$$clowns go for the Gold instead of the Silver?
I smell fish. This has got to have something to do with obamaCare. It just has to. There is no way he would do something to help anyone but himself and his buds. Something is afoot.
2-17AirCav:
You’re close. America has been hemorrhaging MDs for quite a while now. Med school goes for around US$ 150,000. Add to that the Medicare/Medicaid rules for money, weakening economy, and especially the liability insurance and suddenly being a doctor means living like a pauper.
Obamacare policies accelerate the decline. PA is MD-lite, and folks who vote Dem won’t know the difference.
On the face of it this seems like a damned good idea….Medics better jump on board before they figure out a way to fuck this up!
This sounds like you Doc Bailey!
I have said for a long time now that the reason we have not seen more casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan is not because of the level of violence, but because of the medics there. They have made remarkable improvements that have saved lives. Thirty or forty years ago many more of our injured soldiers would have been dead.
This is great news. These new PA’s won’t faint or freak out the first time they see a patient with a gunshot wound.
dammit. I wish they’d done this three years ago!
This isn’t new, at least in rural areas. In 1972 all I had to do was pass the written exam and resusitate Annie and I became an EMT.
@6 – Being a doctor in America is hardly living like a Pauper. It is an expensive profession to obtain and maintain with all the school cost and insurance fees you have to pay, but to paint a picture of doctors suffering financially is unrealistic. I have 5 friends who have their coats and each of them got at least 3 job offers each, and one had 6 cause he is a genius when it comes to cardiology. They have a lot of debt sure, but they will be fine and knew the risks when they started down their path.
Being a lawyer on the other hand, I have 2 friends who are just now starting their careers there and the only way they make money is if they pull 80 hours a week. I feel bad for them as the money is not nearly what it was a few years ago before everyone and their mom went back to law school when the economy imploded.
The government is doing something I like? I must be missing something. 🙂
I think they are doing the medic to PA rather than MD as a timing thing. With a BA/BS and medic experience, you are talking about 18 months to 2 years of training I think. An MD requires a 4 year education and at least two of VERY low paid internship and residency.
Yup. PA is a lot faster and more than one physician has told me that if the did it again they would have done a pa instead. At 8 years after you start school you are about $350,000 ahead of of a physician who started school on the same day. And PAs don’t have to deal with a lot of the bad part of medicine.
I think that there is the issue of providing for their families. For me I am looking into being a LPN. I have looked into the M6 option but I am leaning more into using the GI Bill(and Hazelwood Act for Texas) to pay for it.
14 Susan – true, unless they go the Uniformed Health Service route.
any guidance as to any of the schools, or programs besides IPAP?
@ Sporkmaster, There is nothing wrong with being an LPN but I as an RN I would recomend going the extra year to be a Regestered Nurse. You will have alot more doors open to you. The GI Bill payed for most of my education and helped with the living expensise for my family and I also used a program called WIA Workforce Investment Act that the state of NC has. It paid my tuition, books, and reemberced me for the cost of testing and licensure. Afterwards most Hospitals will help you with further education. I am working towards a Nurse Practitioners License with the Help of the Hospital I work at.
What’s the difference between RN and BSN, both in education and compensation? Friend of mine is already an RN looking to get her BSN.
There is no difference in an RN and a BSN when it comes to practice. A BSN is an RN with a 4 year degree, a BSN is required for most gov. jobs, and for manegment. As an example a BSN is required to be an Army Nurse, unless you went to one of a very few two year schools but then you are still limited to what rank you can achieve before you have to have a BSN.
As for as comensation thats relative to the Hospital you work at, my hospital only gives you an extra .50 cent an hour because again there is no difference in what a BSN can do and what an RN can do. However eventually a BSN will make more money because they can go into Manegment or Administration.