PA to Physician?

iftikhad · Post by **iftikhad** » Sun Oct 23, 2011 5:29 pm

Would it be possible to work my way up to becoming a PA and then continue schooling to become a physician?
I'm thinking about how time consuming it might possibly be and at the same time I would want to start a family in my late 20s.
The path of a PA is 4 years college + 2 years PA school.
But after accomplishing that, can I still maintain that job while I pursue to become a Physician?
What are the pro's and con's of this?

Post by **PaulK** » Sun Oct 23, 2011 11:12 pm

All I can say is they are two different fields. If what you want is to become a physician,, you should NOT become a PA, because it\'s a huge mistake to think of being a PA as a stepping stone to becoming a physician. Two other important points:
1) if any PA program had the idea that you wanted a PA so that you could eventually become a physician, they would not admit you - period.
2) There has been talk of PA to MD programs for years, but they\'ve never materialized. Even if you get your PA, you still need to do everything any premed does to become a physician. Sorry - I understand this thinking, and I\'m pretty passionate about it. If you aren\'t sure which you want to do, you might watch Sundance\'s video on the blog\'s PA Student Interviews page to help sort it out.

Good luck.

ChristaJones · Post by **ChristaJones** » Tue Nov 29, 2011 1:48 am

Once you start your physician course, you will hardly get a spare time, leaving aside the time for doing a job. Studying for becoming a physician itself is a tough thing to do, and I think it would be very difficult to maintain a job and family also at the same time. Also doing a PA and then going for physician course would take a minimum of 2 years longer than the usual. So I would suggest you to give a second thought to it and proceed.

Post by **PaulK** » Thu Dec 01, 2011 12:35 am

I agree. PA is not a stepping stone to and MD - they are different career paths altogether.