Should You Go To Medical School or PA School? | Doctor VS Physician Associate 

You're welcome Bolaji! It's an interesting career option for sure.

Why not be a clinical/biomedical scientist

​@@smithereensloccomotives678it's not dealing with patients.I am a PA but would prefer to be a doctor since you've a more defined and broader scope of practice, authority and far better training post grad level.The reason I'm not a doctor?I only started medicine at 48 yo so I couldnt afford the fees and lack of income for 4 yrs .Otherwise,definitely doctor,GP specifically.

Well done on making such a hard decision - hopefully med school will give you what you want and good luck for September!

PA (physician assistant) in the USA can prescribe medication but under the name of MD/DO who he/she works under.

did you give an entrance exam for the Med school? and if so which one was it and how difficult would you say it was to quality?

wow good on you!

Good luck!!

Nice brathe kazi Safi also q clinician Mr Vic..chuo ni gani

W

For sure, that's a great idea! We talk about these things all the time but then never drill down into them - will add it to the series I'm shooting at the moment!

@@OllieBurtonMed sweet! looking forward to it ollie!

For me, I would just advise getting your head down and embedding the core anatomy and physiology, without worrying too much about research/shadowing/side hustles etc - worry about all the extra stuff later and get good at the core knowledge for the first couple of years.

in my country it's definitely Anatomy cause Physiology is easy to come by and mnemonics for Biochemistry.

Hi Iain, its an interesting question and it depends on how you define a couple of things - and what being the best doctor you can be means for you. In a clinical/academic sense, I'm in what is effectively the top job of its kind in the country for my specialty, for clin/academic development and very satisfied with it, although it's very, very hard work. I just finished a week of nights and am just now leaving work at 10pmish the following day, having stayed for research stuff. The further on you get (at least in my view) you realise how closely politics and medicine are intertwined in the UK, esp given our NHS structure. And so much of what affects patients is actually driven by politics rather than anything else. I'm genuinely not sure it's possible to remain apolitical or uninterested because we're just constantly treading water. Things need to change, and the way you get that is through politics.

@@AKMarch01 And USA

Doctors in a few yrs post grad earn much more than PAs and finish at triple the salary pr more as a consultant.

@@scarred10 I’m comparing salaries of UK doctors to US PAs. Are we on the same page here?

@@LorianandLothric so am I and doctors at senior level still get paid way more than US PAs.Its anout 200,000 sterling in UK at consultant level,more in private sector.The US PA gets about 80,000 sterling in dollars.

@@scarred10 Where are you getting your numbers? Google search reveals that it’s nowhere near 200K. The BMA reports senior consultants make about 100K pounds on average. Even the ones with 7-8 years of experience. The number for US PAs is off as well. BLS reports $126K and that’s from 2022.

I think it varies by centre but I'm not 100% sure - I believe PAs tend to do 38-40hr/week contracts with no nights or on calls but I'm very happy to be corrected if someone knows otherwise

I'm not honestly sure - anyone with a UK MBBS cannot either study as a PA or work as a PA. Unfortunately I don't know for IMGs with MBBS

Not in the UK. MBBS disqualifies you from even applying for PA school.

that is an extremely ignorant statement. it wasn't mentioned because it's not entirely true. it maybe the case for some PA students but you are generalising a bit much. there are PA students who rejected med school to go to PA school because there is a lot to life than having the title of a doctor and people have different priorities in life. sorry bro but doing nights, doing on-calls, rotating every few months and long arduous training is not everyone's cuppa tea. sorry no disrespect to doctors (you guys are amazing!) but it is what it is. you need to understand and accept that PHYSICIAN ASSOCIATE is a respectable profession in its own right, it has its own pros and cons and depending on your life priorities and what you want to get out of it you may or may not decide to go to PA school. its all depends on your priorities and what you value in life and not solely on your Alevel grades. and BTW a lot of people who really want to do medicine but didn't get the "A level" grades do go to other European countries to study medicine (and not PA school FYI) and come back home as DRs to practice medicine. so you need to stop judging and over generalising, and understand it's all about priorities. peace x bottom line: people go to PA school because they want to be PAs and like the perks of being a PA, A level grades is not the sole determining factor as you have ignorantly come to believe @sam smith

You need good grades for PA schooling as well, lol.

That is not true people do not do this for this reason. At the end of that day if u become a PA because u didn’t get the grades to be a doctor you will never be happy with your role, a lot of people have the grades however they prefer the work/life balance in being a PA

PA students were also 'A' level grade students. The average GPA to get into PA school is 3.6 in the U.S, and the acceptance rate is about 2%

There will absolutely be substantial overlap, especially for the core materials, but it's incredibly unlikely that the two are the same (as the two courses will have different curriculum requirements). The reason I deliberately avoid the term medical school for PAs (or use PA school instead) is that it can be confusing if said to patients, who need to understand exactly who they are seeing and why.

@@OllieBurtonMed thanks for the reply, I’m starting PA school in September as undergrad and see if I enjoy it, as it would be my first degree it’s four years of training in school. If I enjoy it I can go onto specialising into a particular field or I can apply for my second postgraduate degree into medicine.

@@h.s8265 No problem at all! And very best with the undergrad PA course, I know they're pretty uncommon so great job getting onto one. See what happens and enjoy the course - never know what doors may open!

That's highly ignorant, as well as disrespectful. Like many people have mentioned not everyone wants to be a doctor, and some of us genuinely want to be a PA, so get off your high horse maybe and educate yourself. Thank you.

Not everyone wants to be a doctor, a lot of people get the grades however prefer the work/ life balance as a PA

I dropped out of med school to be a PA

PA school is very competitive. In the US, the average GPA to get in to PA school is 3.6. The average for med schools is similar at 3.7. On top of that, you need 2,500 hours of patient care experience to be average when applying to PA school. Furthermore, the average acceptance rate is about 2%

@@fa9183 Hey FA! Which PA undergrad school in the UK did you transfer to?

Hey, I totally agree. But you forgot pharmacists, they're doctors too.

@@mohammedsiddiqui7872 pharmacists...in Australia are not called doctors unless they have a Phd or higher against their name...yet an optometrist is given that honorary title. Its all so illogical and stupid.

@@dombarton2483 Where I live, there's a programme called PharmD (Doctor of Pharmacy) and pharmacists too are given the honorary title.

@@mohammedsiddiqui7872 yes very true...it should only be given to those that have truly earned it

To be fair I think a lot of doctors in the UK think similarly. I absolutely wouldn't mind using the term physician instead of 'doctor', or the lack of the honorary doctor title. I equally don't think it makes a huge difference for patient care, and it's unlikely to change any time soon.