Almost RRT wanting to go PA route

[RTtoPA?]

I’ve already got my BS in business - got into corporate world right out of high school and just ended up stuck there. I thought I would end up liking it after I got my bachelors degree and was making good money but it didn’t happen. I have absolutely hated it but needed to provide for my family. It may provide a good warm feeling for some people and that’s wonderful but I don’t like it. It's me, not the job, I guess.

I wanted to give my kids a better start in life than I had so I needed to stay the course till They got out of HS as they were in private school and tuition isn’t cheap. I’m 45 years old and wouldn’t change a thing up until now if it meant them not having the best opportunities to be successful.

Anyway, I’ve put off finishing and doing what I want long enough. I’m almost finished with my Associates degree in Respiratory Therapy. I started it a long time ago and have taken several breaks but I’ve currently got a 3.94 gpa and I love it. I’m in my clinical phase. I work full time at my day job and do clinicals after work and on weekends. Lately I’ve REALLY been pulled towards becoming a PA (nothing new, always wanted to but chose RT as it was a way to get into healthcare/medical and thought I couldn’t become a PA and support my family). I know Yale has a program which offers flexibility where I can stay in my current location (still have to work and support my family/pay for kid’s college). I can apply to that program now but want to finish my RT and get some PCE hours.

suggestions? Would NP be more difficult or offer more flexibility? I’m not afraid of academics. I’m speaking work/school/life balance. Would it take longer? Could I bridge from RT to BSN then NP? I can go straight to a PA program with a few pre-reqs. I’m not exactly 20 years old. I want to be in the medical field. I love Respiratory but I’m sure I’d love being a PA even more after spending some time at the hospital(s). I wish I’d gone straight to that after high school. I guess I thought it wasn’t an option once I got married and we started a family.

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[workaholic181]

Depends on what prereqs you'd still need to take and what the requirements are for accelerated BSN programs. There are programs that link BSN straight to CRNP but they're not as numerous as PA schools have become. Either would be fine in terms of work/life balance and tons of people your age go into either field.. I think it's mainly do you want to be a PA or an NP. From your post it seems like you have a lot of experience with PAs and like what they do. The NP route may be less direct as you may need to work as a nurse for a few years.. just something to keep in mind.

 

[762513]

I’ve already got my BS in business - got into corporate world right out of high school and just ended up stuck there. I thought I would end up liking it after I got my bachelors degree and was making good money but it didn’t happen. I have absolutely hated it but needed to provide for my family. It may provide a good warm feeling for some people and that’s wonderful but I don’t like it. It's me, not the job, I guess.

I wanted to give my kids a better start in life than I had so I needed to stay the course till They got out of HS as they were in private school and tuition isn’t cheap. I’m 45 years old and wouldn’t change a thing up until now if it meant them not having the best opportunities to be successful.

Anyway, I’ve put off finishing and doing what I want long enough. I’m almost finished with my Associates degree in Respiratory Therapy. I started it a long time ago and have taken several breaks but I’ve currently got a 3.94 gpa and I love it. I’m in my clinical phase. I work full time at my day job and do clinicals after work and on weekends. Lately I’ve REALLY been pulled towards becoming a PA (nothing new, always wanted to but chose RT as it was a way to get into healthcare/medical and thought I couldn’t become a PA and support my family). I know Yale has a program which offers flexibility where I can stay in my current location (still have to work and support my family/pay for kid’s college). I can apply to that program now but want to finish my RT and get some PCE hours.

suggestions? Would NP be more difficult or offer more flexibility? I’m not afraid of academics. I’m speaking work/school/life balance. Would it take longer? Could I bridge from RT to BSN then NP? I can go straight to a PA program with a few pre-reqs. I’m not exactly 20 years old. I want to be in the medical field. I love Respiratory but I’m sure I’d love being a PA even more after spending some time at the hospital(s). I wish I’d gone straight to that after high school. I guess I thought it wasn’t an option once I got married and we started a family.

Go PA:

1- You want to be a PA (that’s most important)

2- It’s faster. NP would require a direct entry masters (if you have one in your area) followed by RN licensure and then the NP program. The NP route will take you about 5 years. The PA route will take you 2. Go PA, and enjoy the ride!

 

[pamac]

You could do either a direct entry Np program (which would involve relocating your family), or you could do an accelerated bachelors RN program and have that in one year, and then go on and get your NP from a 2 year program to get the masters NP, which would make a total of 3 years. But that’s 3 years as the bird flies. It wouldn’t account for any delays that might arise from having to wait to get accepted to an accelerated RN program. And if there aren’t any accelerated programs nearby to you, you are looking at relocating as well for that. The expenses involved could end up easily matching what you’d pay to just go to PA school.

So PA school has the possibility of being a lot quicker. You may need to take some prereqs, but you can do that while you make money as an RRT, and live life. If you were in your 20s, I’d say you should look hard at keeping your career options open by becoming an NP, but you might be the kind of person that’s aiming for a good steady job where you work for a doctor and make decent cash, all while making a difference. For the most part, you’d hardly notice the difference between being an NP and a PA, and the PA education will be more familiar to you than the way nursing education rolls.

Frankly, nursing school is annoying as heck for 80% of it. They find a way to overcomplicate things when they could deliver information a lot more efficiently. You’d be forced to “think like a nurse”, which is shorthand for substituting ingrained common sense for the onerous nursing version that is targeted towards giving a stepwise (but elaborate) problem solving method to the novice learner. To illustrate this, I’m going to state something that might not be politically correct....
Being as nursing was traditionally female dominated due to women being denied entry into the physician boys club, it’s one of the few industries that has the fingerprints of women over all of its underpinnings. Then as nursing became a professional degree and they sought credibility by treating it as a science, we have been left with a field that has always felt a bit self conscious about where it stands. Overcompensation has been the hallmark. You see it in the academic setting and the workplace. Nursing embodies some of the insecurities of women and enshrines it into the atmosphere. Makes, and most women, come into this environment with a disadvantage due to having to rely on the older “sisters” knowledge to learn their jobs. This strengthens the hierarchy that pays homage to the women who want to maintain their status at the top of the heap who feel that nothing is impossible to achieve as long as you add more paperwork and checklists to the process.

That’s nursing, and to be an NP means having to dabble in that culture, if only for a few years while you train for your RN and work on your NP. If that sounds like how you want to spend your late 40’s, then have at it. In lieu of that adventure through frustration, confusion, and adaptation, I’d suggest pursuing PA school. You’ll have a lot of information thrown at you at a speed that is difficult to digest, and you will probably not look back. What you will miss out on is not having the possibility to ever be an independently licensed provider. The consequences of that might be negligable, except under the rarest of circumstances.

Long story short... I would not entertain the thought of changing gears to be a nurse when you are already familiar with a robust academic environment. PA school would resemble what you are used to in all the best ways. Nursing school wouldn’t respect what you’ve earned in the RRT realm, and would instead replace it.