Why do we choose to become PAs?

First of all, welcome to the new JAAPA editorial board blog. Our hope is that you will jump in to discuss pertinent issues of importance to our profession and the individuals who comprise it.

The questions of who chooses to become a PA and why has always been of interest to me. In my many years as a PA educator, I have sat on the relaxed side of the applicant interview table and have asked this question of thousands of prospective PA students: “Tell me why you want to be a PA? What specifically draws you to want to join this profession?” While on the surface this appears to be a basic and, some might consider somewhat banal question, I've always believed that it to be a fundamentally enlightening interview question that sometimes provides me a brief glimpse into our profession's future.

Most applicants begin by describing how being a PA combines the rewards of service with the challenge of using scientific knowledge to solve problems and alleviate human suffering. I find this response a little too generic, however, as many health professions share those characteristics, so I typically will point this out and ask why choose PA rather than one of many other health profession. The typical response includes several components: that the PA profession is a great compromise of a relatively short educational process that leads to a rewarding career; that the PA profession includes some vague characteristic of “flexibility” that allows for a more balanced life (I'm not sure I entirely understand this one, most PAs I know work awfully hard); and that the relatively short training allows one to “get on with your life sooner” than the longer training process of many other healthcare professions.

Many applicants also make it clear that they are choosing the profession as a result of their personal experiences and observations, as many will describe knowing PAs or shadowing PAs who often report to them that they really like their careers. This is consistent with survey data that indicates PAs do indeed have very high career satisfaction.

Another consistent theme in this discussion is that most PA applicants are attracted to the profession because it allows the freedom to make substantial changes mid-career, typically referring to a PA's ability to change specialties and practice settings during their career. When I hear this, to me it sounds almost like applicants view this almost like having the freedom to reinvent oneself, a truly American quality. In fact, I can't think of another profession that allows mid-career reinvention of such magnitude without substantial re-training. Recent separate data sets analyzed by the NCCPA and AAPA show that a minority of PAs spend their career in only one specialty, and that the “average” PA makes 2-3 specialty changes over their career. Thus, what aspiring PAs are telling us in their admission interviews, that they value the profession's specialty mobility as one of the features that attracts them to the profession, is also a very common characteristic in the “typical” PA's career.

So, at a time when the profession is on a roll, what was it that attracted you to the PA profession and away from a career in something else? What do you think attracts our current students and applicants? How do you think these motivations for entering the profession impact the profession? Do these motivations and attitudes make PAs different from other healthcare professions? Do you see these reasons for wanting to be a PA changing in the future? JAAPA