Physician Associate

Thank you, it's just that i'm a bit worried because most physician associates that I've talked to and watched have done a biomedical degree. I find the nursing degree so interesting but i don't find the career as appealing hence the reason why i decided to become a physician associate also I'm still in college yet and my mind changes as fast as i change my lippy

Thank-you, I'm planning on studying at the Uni of Manchester and they do allow a nursing degree but other university's like Leeds don't allow it at all
I'm gonna get in contact with UoM to find out which undergraduate degree they prefer

Hi. Great to know you are thinking about this as a career. However I am interested to know, if you don't want to do nursing but want to do PA why don't you just do biomedical science or biological sciences or something?

It isn't a question of which course makes it more likely for you to get in. It's a question of what will prepare you more.

Physician Associate is a medical course. You will be studying a form of medicine for 2 years. Biomedical sciences will be much more useful to you than nursing for this.

I agree with the previous poster. Why do nursing if you know you won't want to be a nurse? In terms of preparation, I dont believe the nursing degree prepares you well for the PA course. PAs work in the medical model and even though you will have a lot of patient contact experience, which is useful, the science background will be lacking and you will be taught the nursing model which is not part of the PAs job role. I would definetly reconsider a biomed or perhaps another science degree that would be more useful.

Hey, thank-you for your response The reason why I wanted to do nursing was because I think the course is so interesting and I may want to work as a nurse for a few years to help the nurses who are trying so hard to keep going at times like these. Although i know that I won't magically help NHS and the nurses but I do believe that if I even help one of them in reducing their stress i'll be content However, I really do want to become a PA Regarding about the fact of doing a biomedical degree, I haven't really researched it but I'm going to. Have you done it? If you have how was it? Also does it have a lot of practical work as tbh i hate practical work

Ok firstly if you hate practical work I'm surprised that you thought of nursing. They spend the whole day on their feet being practical. Also as a nurse you don't work to relieve other people's stress, you work for yourself and for the patient. You will relieve plenty of stress when nurses use you as free space labour when you do your student nursing placements.

From what to have been saying it sounds like you don't actually know what you want to do which is expected, I certainly didn't at your age! But I think your way of thinking will only do badly for you in the long term.

It's a bad idea to pick a course at university just because it's interesting. A course should be picked on the basis of what career it will give you. It's a means to an end for the career you want. No one should be doing a course at a university unless it is for a specific purpose.

And I'm not being funny but it seems like you have a very warped view of the NHS and why people work in it. Reality is very different from the idealistic view shown on the news. The NHS is no different from any other company. People don't work for it out of idealistic devotion. They work for it because they want careers in healthcare and it is the primary major healthcare employer in the uk. Nurses like everyone else, don't pick nursing because they want to help the NHS. They pick it because it matches with what they want out of a career. Please, think of yourself and your career first. You will be spending most of your waking life working.

I don't mean for my bluntness to seem rude, but if these are the parameters by which people your age are choosing their careers they really won't do well.

Ok, but I'm sure the whole purpose of these professions is to think about others. And your right i'm not sure what I want to be doing, that's why i'm asking strangers for help No one from my close family ever went to uni or even done a levels, so I don't know what to expect when I go uni. When I said I hate practical work, I was talking about experiments and the sort of practical work we do in Biology and Chemistry a levels

Don't fall for the cliche of going into healthcare because you just want to help. Yes, people work in medicine because they feel an inclination to make a change through their work, but the reality of the daily life in a hospital will quickly crush the feeling of "being helpful" out of you. You should chose it as a career because you believe that it will fullfill yourself as a profession. Because you like the science aspect as much as the communication and human side of it. Have you done any shadowing or work experience in a health care enviroment?
Also, about the practical side, I know you mentioned laboratorial work (which I also find super boring) but there is a huge practical side of medicine that is not always the most exciting, specially in nursing. repetitive simple tasks can quickly feel as boring as lab work if you don't like that aspect of your job.

How much laboratory work do you do in a biomed degree

PAs work in the medical model and even though you will have a lot of patient contact experience, which is useful, the science background will be lacking and you will be taught the nursing model which is not part of the PAs job role.

What "medical model" are you referring to?

The medical model is the focus on the pathophysiology of the disease and the investgation through clinical and laboratorial assessement in order to formulate a diagnosis and plan or care/management.

Thats the model that PAs and Med students follow. Its different from the nursin model where there is a more holistic approach to the patient and the implications of the condition in their lives and throught the healing process

Hey, I want to do children's nursing for my undergraduate and then do physician associate 💕 Will I be at a disadvantage compared to someone who has done a biomedical degree 😳🙈❤

I feel like you're getting some very subjective advice so I'll try and be as impartial as I can for you.

It sounds like you would like to be a nurse but have the extra responsibility of a physician associate (PA), you can still acquire this as a nurse by becoming an advanced nurse practitioner (ANP). ANPs and PAs have a very similar role. Currently PAs cannot prescribe due to a lack of proper regulation, of course this may change in the future, but currently, only doctors and ANPs can (80% sure of the latter part of this statement, feel free to correct me). Admittedly it is likely a longer path to becoming an ANP than a PA.

If you're set on becoming a PA then I would do your research now to find out which courses allow nursing degrees, if you're at a disadvantage then I would recommend you consider another course such as biomedical science.

When you said that you dislike practicals I imagine you meant lab work, not practical work? Lab/practical work in biomedical sciences isn't like GCSE/A level practicals, they're actually fairly interesting (I read Pharmacology for my undergrad, a 1/3rd of which was biomed). As with everything you're obviously going to dislike some of it, but they're far more enjoyable than those at a level.

I'm unsure why the scientific background of nurses are being questioned, I would argue that you would be a better PA as an ex-nurse (having a more holistic approach to the patient is where medicine is headed). Everyone who attends a PA course is going to have to be retrained regardless of their past experiences/education, the biomedical student wouldn't be acquainted with the 'medical method' any more than a nurse would.

Ultimately the decision is up to you, as long as you're able to gain entry into a PA course with a nursing degree and you think nursing is a career you'd like to try then go for it. However, you should ask yourself if the extra year of training is worth it for a degree you're likely to use very little. The year or two you're likely to practice as a nurse wouldn't help the nursing situation very much, but it's nice you'd like to help.

Ok firstly if you hate practical work I'm surprised that you thought of nursing. They spend the whole day on their feet being practical. Also as a nurse you don't work to relieve other people's stress, you work for yourself and for the patient. You will relieve plenty of stress when nurses use you as free space labour when you do your student nursing placements.

From what to have been saying it sounds like you don't actually know what you want to do which is expected, I certainly didn't at your age! But I think your way of thinking will only do badly for you in the long term.

It's a bad idea to pick a course at university just because it's interesting. A course should be picked on the basis of what career it will give you. It's a means to an end for the career you want. No one should be doing a course at a university unless it is for a specific purpose.

And I'm not being funny but it seems like you have a very warped view of the NHS and why people work in it. Reality is very different from the idealistic view shown on the news. The NHS is no different from any other company. People don't work for it out of idealistic devotion. They work for it because they want careers in healthcare and it is the primary major healthcare employer in the uk. Nurses like everyone else, don't pick nursing because they want to help the NHS. They pick it because it matches with what they want out of a career. Please, think of yourself and your career first. You will be spending most of your waking life working.

I don't mean for my bluntness to seem rude, but if these are the parameters by which people your age are choosing their careers they really won't do well.