So what you are saying flies in the face of the average numbers nationally for RNs. Again, this is consistent with your race to the bottom. I’d prefer to stick with the national average wages rather than hear you spin a tale of $20 an hour RNs while insisting that is the typical pay for most places. The average is around $30 and hour, and you want to argue otherwise? I know PAs that make under $85,000 (along with NPs), but I wouldn’t suggest that’s typical. Instead I used the national stats for BOTH PAs and RNs as a standard measure and you fire back with “well where I’m at RNs make almost nothing”. But nothing you are saying diminishes the fact that nurses make decent wages to live on.
One thing I can say with confidence is that residency trained PAs in psyche are rare. Psyche NPs also have residencies/fellowships as well....so whatever. I have more psyche than the typical PA working in psyche. I also have much more pertinent pre NP experience than any psyche PA out there unless they were a psyche nurse. Again, it’s your intellectually dishonest approach of comparing the best that a PA can optionally obtain to the bare minimum of what an NP can obtain. It undermines you every time you do it, but it’s fine with me if you keep taking that approach. People see that and can draw their own conclusions.
If you have 2,200 applicants for 60 spots, that’s cool. But overall, that reflects the fact that PA applicants apply to quite a few schools to get into one or two. If you apply to one PA school, your odds of getting in are 1 in 4. If you apply to 12, the odds are 1 in 2. Overall 1 out of 3 applicants to PA school get in. It’s pretty competitive, I’ll agree to that, but your statistic doesn’t say much about the overall competitiveness. Just makes you feel good, I guess. To me it suggests that your school makes $220,000 if it charges $100 per supplemental application, so it’s in its best interest to encourage more applicants.
I’m onboard with the idea that the PA career is a good career to pursue, but not at any cost. I know quite a few folks getting hosed right now because of their undergrad loans coupled with their grad school loans. Even nurses I know are terrible with their money, and that includes what they are taking out for grad school. I throw my numbers out there and folks can decide for themselves whether they stack up. If someone wants to know what nurses make, the fastest way to do that is ask a nurse in your area and they will tell you. If nurses there make $45,000 per year, then you are only out $90k by forgoing work as a nurse while in PA school instead of above $140,000 ish like I would have. Choose your own adventure.
