PA student

[Worldmedic]

There is a pathway, accelerated BSN, 1 year in the ICU as a nurse—>CRNA school.

Good point. I suppose there is a pathway to anything if you are willing to spend enough time on it.

 

[TLDR20]

Good point. I suppose there is a pathway to anything if you are willing to spend enough time on it.

No shortcuts to being an expert.

 

[Worldmedic]

No shortcuts to being an expert.

Agreed. I should have clarified that I wish there was a way to branch out to career fields like anesthesiology without redoing classes. I think that nursing does a much better job with allowing this kind of "upward" mobility without having to redo things. My understanding is that you can go from a CNA to DNAP or DNP on a standardized path that builds upon prior knowledge and experience. Whereas for the EMS side of the house once you get to paramedic, if you want to increase your scope at all you need to start over in a different career path such as nursing, medical, or PA school. Going through PA school now I am needing to start back at square 1 learning things like how to take a blood pressure, start IVs, and basic pharmacology. Of course we can always be better at the basics and even though I have done thousands of IVs, I still learned some tricks when we went over it again in PA school so I am not too upset about it. Just an issue I see with the career path I've chosen. I have a short attention span so I have been enjoying the generalist training so far, and after I graduate I think I will appreciate the ability to change specialties.

 

[Devildoc]

Agreed. I should have clarified that I wish there was a way to branch out to career fields like anesthesiology without redoing classes. I think that nursing does a much better job with allowing this kind of "upward" mobility without having to redo things. My understanding is that you can go from a CNA to DNAP or DNP on a standardized path that builds upon prior knowledge and experience. Whereas for the EMS side of the house once you get to paramedic, if you want to increase your scope at all you need to start over in a different career path such as nursing, medical, or PA school. Going through PA school now I am needing to start back at square 1 learning things like how to take a blood pressure, start IVs, and basic pharmacology. Of course we can always be better at the basics and even though I have done thousands of IVs, I still learned some tricks when we went over it again in PA school so I am not too upset about it. Just an issue I see with the career path I've chosen. I have a short attention span so I have been enjoying the generalist training so far, and after I graduate I think I will appreciate the ability to change specialties.

There ARE exceptions, though few and far between. There is a university in North Carolina that has a EMTP-to-RN bridge in which medics can test out of certain classes, there are military medic-to-RN programs, etc. I never thought about PA to passing gas, but honestly, don't know why it could not happen.

 

[TLDR20]

There ARE exceptions, though few and far between. There is a university in North Carolina that has a EMTP-to-RN bridge in which medics can test out of certain classes, there are military medic-to-RN programs, etc. I never thought about PA to passing gas, but honestly, don't know why it could not happen.

Technically it can happen. There is a very small career field called Anesthesologist Assistants. They function as part of Anesthesia team. They are not independent in any sense. They do not provide anesthesia care in the military or on federal medical missions. The NBCRNA requires candidates for boards to be an RN with requisite experience. They also cannot practice in all 50 states.

 

[Devildoc]

Technically it can happen. There is a very small career field called Anesthesologist Assistants. They function as part of Anesthesia team. They are not independent in any sense. They do not provide anesthesia care in the military or on federal medical missions. The NBCRNA requires candidates for boards to be an RN with requisite experience. They also cannot practice in all 50 states.

Nursing did a great job of creating nurse anesthesia and owning it. PA doesn't have the benefit of longevity. But given how the APP roles have so much crossover I could see how that profession could create a role; however, not sure whatever organization oversees PAs would support it given the breadth of their profession now. Neither profession may have any interest, which is fine, too. That's the beauty of APP.

Anyhow, just thinking aloud.

 

[SOSTCRNA]

Hi! Thanks for reaching out. I decided to go with the Air Force HPSP and recently commissioned as a 2nd Lt. Did you ever work with PAs in SOST or JMAU? The only mention of PAs that I have been able to find with public information is "SOF trained" PAs in SOFME. CRNAs are awesome, I was really surprised the first time I was in a field hospital and learned that the person providing anesthesia was a completely independent CRNA with no MD Anesthesiologist even in the country. I wish that there was a pathway for people with ICU experience as a critical care flight paramedic or ICU PA to apply for CRNA school.

I worked with several SOFME PAs over the years and PAs are team leaders in JMU. But they all have specific background requirements to qualify for that job

 

[TLDR20]

Nursing did a great job of creating nurse anesthesia and owning it. PA doesn't have the benefit of longevity. But given how the APP roles have so much crossover I could see how that profession could create a role; however, not sure whatever organization oversees PAs would support it given the breadth of their profession now. Neither profession may have any interest, which is fine, too. That's the beauty of APP.

Anyhow, just thinking aloud.

It already exists. Anesthesiologist Assistants are a thing.

 

[Worldmedic]

I worked with several SOFME PAs over the years and PAs are team leaders in JMU. But they all have specific background requirements to qualify for that job

Are you be able to give me a general idea of what those background requirements are?