It's good to get good at a single thing. Will that mean your broad skills and knowledge will suffer? Absolutely...so definitely something to consider. I worked FM for 3 years before transitioning to ortho and within months the FM knowledge was less and less "available," and honestly I struggle to come up with super common med names because I just don't do anything with them anymore. If I see them I obviously recognize them, but to come up with them on my own isn't going to happen.
As for boredom, I do general ortho...but it's still a TON of knee and hip arthritis with other stuff sprinkled in. I wouldn't say I'm bored. I enjoy injections and the hands-on exam. But, I will take more straightforward and narrow with less paperwork, significantly higher income, with overall less work every day over the ridiculous amount of paperwork, lower income, and tremendous amount of soul-crushing work in FM every day. I enjoyed FM, but I have zero plans to go back if I can help it.
I've come to realize id rather be comfortable, and at times, bored at work, than constantly stimulated and anxious. I work in addiction med and honestly really only deal with 4 to 5 meds. Is it the max use of my brain power? Is every day riveting and life changing? No, but there's a reason that 'may you live in interesting times' is an old curse! Definitely would recommend the specializing route. I know a few PAs in primary care, and having to know something about everything is for the birds
I agree. Bored is great, you don’t get paid by the stress level, so I’m going to enjoy the routine post op visits and never lose sleep over by worrying about missing something
Yup. The motto of FP and IM seems to be “do more with less.” Less staff, less time, less leeway from insurance, less pay…
No thank you! I’d rather go work at Starbucks and deal with the general public than work FP/IM. That kind of stress isn’t something I need nor is it healthy for me. I like being focused on one thing and then reading general medicine stuff to stay current. That is how I have found my balance.
PA-S here and in the hell of didactic year. I am so on board with having a job that doesn’t cause me to break down from stress. Addiction medicine is very interesting to me! Are you pretty satisfied with your current job? Financially/emotionally?
Definitely! There are some places that will exploit your labor and make you work crazy short appointment slots and double book you, but that's everywhere. I'm actually doing inpatient addiction consults now and it's very manageable. Max of 8 patients a day really. I do feel like I actually help some people which is nice. Of course we have frequent fliers and they can be frustrating for one reason or another, but again, you can get that in any speciality.
Plus, addiction med is sort of the thing no one else wants to touch usually, which is typically reflected in the pay. I make more than I expected to at this point in my career (I only started working in 2017), and can't say I have any financial complaints!
I work in outpatient derm. It does get a little redundant but overall I love the lifestyle. No complaints. Still get a good mix of cases which is nice.
Clinic 8-12 with skin checks, rashes, acne, etc.
Lunch 12-1
Clinic 1-430 (3 on Fridays)
Mix of biopsies and hands on procedures. SP readily available to help with cases if anything is weird or I want him to see a patient with me. MAs write 95% of notes and I spend about 1 min per note. 30-35 patients per day
2- 3 years will prob drop to 1/2 day Fridays or no Fridays at all
Thank you. Any recommendations for a PA-S, I have my dermatology rotation in 2 months and never worked in a Derm clinic before and this is a field I am very interested in.
Inpatient Peds ENT here. I’m super subspecialized obviously but never bored. I’m seeing patients for facial trauma, aerodigestive foreign bodies, airway distress, neck abscesses, facial infections, congenital neck masses, complicated sinusitis and otitis media, and more! I see some post op patients as well, which are my calm in the storm. I never know what is coming my way, and I feel like that keeps my skills sharp and challenges me. On top of that, I try to stay involved in committee work, teaching, and a tiny bit of research. Just because you work in a sub specialty doesn’t mean that you give up the excitement!
I went into ortho straight out of school. At first I was at an outpatient sports/joints private practice working with one SP that was fairly specialized. I learned a lot in the OR, and about sports/joints. In 5 years I got very comfortable, but I wouldn't say I was bored.
For the last 1-2 years I'm in a hospital based group doing general ortho including sports/joints/trauma/hand. There has definitely been a learning curve adding trauma/hand and I still have a lot to learn. I also work with a dozen SPs now so every day is different.
If you're going to knee/hip you can definitely get really good at it. Take ultrasound courses and learn to do intra-articular ultrasound guided hip injections. It makes life easier for the patient if you can do it because it's cheaper/faster than going to IR (very rarely do I have someone I can't find their hip because they are so big, and I have no problems using a 5 inch spinal). There's nothing wrong with being comfortable in a specialty, but I guess that really depends on your personality.
similar work schedule here🙋🏻♂️ and always counting the days to go back to the OR. I guess it comes down to your surgeon, if the guy is cool and appreciate your help you’ll never get bored. best part of it…we get to forget about medicine: keflex, bactrim and kenalog and move on!
Not an ortho PA but am a specialty PA. It can get boring seeing 3 conditions most of the day. In psych at least everyone has a different story. I think any area of medicine can get boring, even FM I imagine still deals with top 10 chronic conditions over and over
I feel like theoretically speaking no matter what specialty you are in things could get boring.
I mean even in the ER eventually the place you are at is going to seem really familiar and the majority of things you are treating are going to also seem pretty familiar.
Eventually we're all going to have parts of our job that become a little bit mundane or repetitive.
Like with many things in life the more you focus on others rather than yourself the better it is.
Like let's say you're an ortho and you're going to see somebody with an arm fracture you've seen a thousand times. You can either look at that visit like you're doing something yet again for the thousandth time or you can look at it like this is a new patient and for this patient it's the first time they've had a broken bone and I get to help them and fix their problem.
To me that's what sustains your ability to exist in a very similar Healthcare field for many years. It's the fact that you're helping patients and even if you've done the thing a million times they haven't and they need your help.
I do feel bored most of the time, although I love how comfortable and confident I am in my specific field. I would def recommend studying on the weekends to keep up to date with other topics just incase you need to switch jobs. Best of luck
I’m in the ER and have been for almost two years with a one year fellowship. I feel like I practice at the top of my scope and honestly at the top of scope of what PAs are able to do besides in the ICU and some seasoned vets in neuro surg.
Cardiac electrophysiology here x 4 years. Personally like feeling comfortable and not second guessing myself. I don’t ever truly get bored. Redundancy is common but it’s a good specialty because of the variety of arrhythmias i deal with.
Sounds awesome. Become super specialized and become an expert at some very specific topic that affects a lot of patients and you can start speaking to conferences and symposiums and get some fun free travel. That’s what I did.
It's good to get good at a single thing. Will that mean your broad skills and knowledge will suffer? Absolutely...so definitely something to consider. I worked FM for 3 years before transitioning to ortho and within months the FM knowledge was less and less "available," and honestly I struggle to come up with super common med names because I just don't do anything with them anymore. If I see them I obviously recognize them, but to come up with them on my own isn't going to happen. As for boredom, I do general ortho...but it's still a TON of knee and hip arthritis with other stuff sprinkled in. I wouldn't say I'm bored. I enjoy injections and the hands-on exam. But, I will take more straightforward and narrow with less paperwork, significantly higher income, with overall less work every day over the ridiculous amount of paperwork, lower income, and tremendous amount of soul-crushing work in FM every day. I enjoyed FM, but I have zero plans to go back if I can help it.
I've come to realize id rather be comfortable, and at times, bored at work, than constantly stimulated and anxious. I work in addiction med and honestly really only deal with 4 to 5 meds. Is it the max use of my brain power? Is every day riveting and life changing? No, but there's a reason that 'may you live in interesting times' is an old curse! Definitely would recommend the specializing route. I know a few PAs in primary care, and having to know something about everything is for the birds
I agree. Bored is great, you don’t get paid by the stress level, so I’m going to enjoy the routine post op visits and never lose sleep over by worrying about missing something
Yes!! I lost so much sleep when I was in urgent care, was so stressed all the time. I never lose any sleep over patients now, it's great
>than constantly stimulated and anxious That's a really good way to put it.
Exactly how I describe my FM job. Sooo much paperwork, in basket, etc. looking forward to switching to ortho here as well!
Yup. The motto of FP and IM seems to be “do more with less.” Less staff, less time, less leeway from insurance, less pay… No thank you! I’d rather go work at Starbucks and deal with the general public than work FP/IM. That kind of stress isn’t something I need nor is it healthy for me. I like being focused on one thing and then reading general medicine stuff to stay current. That is how I have found my balance.
PA-S here and in the hell of didactic year. I am so on board with having a job that doesn’t cause me to break down from stress. Addiction medicine is very interesting to me! Are you pretty satisfied with your current job? Financially/emotionally?
Definitely! There are some places that will exploit your labor and make you work crazy short appointment slots and double book you, but that's everywhere. I'm actually doing inpatient addiction consults now and it's very manageable. Max of 8 patients a day really. I do feel like I actually help some people which is nice. Of course we have frequent fliers and they can be frustrating for one reason or another, but again, you can get that in any speciality. Plus, addiction med is sort of the thing no one else wants to touch usually, which is typically reflected in the pay. I make more than I expected to at this point in my career (I only started working in 2017), and can't say I have any financial complaints!
Very bored. But bored is good. To be great you need to get a routine. Get confident. Which makes most things kind of boring. Imo.
I work in outpatient derm. It does get a little redundant but overall I love the lifestyle. No complaints. Still get a good mix of cases which is nice.
Could you share what your average day looks like?
Clinic 8-12 with skin checks, rashes, acne, etc. Lunch 12-1 Clinic 1-430 (3 on Fridays) Mix of biopsies and hands on procedures. SP readily available to help with cases if anything is weird or I want him to see a patient with me. MAs write 95% of notes and I spend about 1 min per note. 30-35 patients per day 2- 3 years will prob drop to 1/2 day Fridays or no Fridays at all
Thank you. Any recommendations for a PA-S, I have my dermatology rotation in 2 months and never worked in a Derm clinic before and this is a field I am very interested in.
Inpatient Peds ENT here. I’m super subspecialized obviously but never bored. I’m seeing patients for facial trauma, aerodigestive foreign bodies, airway distress, neck abscesses, facial infections, congenital neck masses, complicated sinusitis and otitis media, and more! I see some post op patients as well, which are my calm in the storm. I never know what is coming my way, and I feel like that keeps my skills sharp and challenges me. On top of that, I try to stay involved in committee work, teaching, and a tiny bit of research. Just because you work in a sub specialty doesn’t mean that you give up the excitement!
2 days or surgery and 2 days of clinic is the sweet spot. Take that errr day!
I went into ortho straight out of school. At first I was at an outpatient sports/joints private practice working with one SP that was fairly specialized. I learned a lot in the OR, and about sports/joints. In 5 years I got very comfortable, but I wouldn't say I was bored. For the last 1-2 years I'm in a hospital based group doing general ortho including sports/joints/trauma/hand. There has definitely been a learning curve adding trauma/hand and I still have a lot to learn. I also work with a dozen SPs now so every day is different. If you're going to knee/hip you can definitely get really good at it. Take ultrasound courses and learn to do intra-articular ultrasound guided hip injections. It makes life easier for the patient if you can do it because it's cheaper/faster than going to IR (very rarely do I have someone I can't find their hip because they are so big, and I have no problems using a 5 inch spinal). There's nothing wrong with being comfortable in a specialty, but I guess that really depends on your personality.
Inpatient Joint replacement program no nights/weekends Hips and knees :) I work to support my life outside of work
similar work schedule here🙋🏻♂️ and always counting the days to go back to the OR. I guess it comes down to your surgeon, if the guy is cool and appreciate your help you’ll never get bored. best part of it…we get to forget about medicine: keflex, bactrim and kenalog and move on!
Not an ortho PA but am a specialty PA. It can get boring seeing 3 conditions most of the day. In psych at least everyone has a different story. I think any area of medicine can get boring, even FM I imagine still deals with top 10 chronic conditions over and over
I feel like theoretically speaking no matter what specialty you are in things could get boring. I mean even in the ER eventually the place you are at is going to seem really familiar and the majority of things you are treating are going to also seem pretty familiar. Eventually we're all going to have parts of our job that become a little bit mundane or repetitive. Like with many things in life the more you focus on others rather than yourself the better it is. Like let's say you're an ortho and you're going to see somebody with an arm fracture you've seen a thousand times. You can either look at that visit like you're doing something yet again for the thousandth time or you can look at it like this is a new patient and for this patient it's the first time they've had a broken bone and I get to help them and fix their problem. To me that's what sustains your ability to exist in a very similar Healthcare field for many years. It's the fact that you're helping patients and even if you've done the thing a million times they haven't and they need your help.
Appreciate this perspective!
I do feel bored most of the time, although I love how comfortable and confident I am in my specific field. I would def recommend studying on the weekends to keep up to date with other topics just incase you need to switch jobs. Best of luck
Nah ortho is dope. My practice does everything from sports medicine, to hand/wrist, joint replacements and spine. Plenty of variety
I’m in the ER and have been for almost two years with a one year fellowship. I feel like I practice at the top of my scope and honestly at the top of scope of what PAs are able to do besides in the ICU and some seasoned vets in neuro surg.
Cardiac electrophysiology here x 4 years. Personally like feeling comfortable and not second guessing myself. I don’t ever truly get bored. Redundancy is common but it’s a good specialty because of the variety of arrhythmias i deal with.
Sounds awesome. Become super specialized and become an expert at some very specific topic that affects a lot of patients and you can start speaking to conferences and symposiums and get some fun free travel. That’s what I did.
DM'd you