Ok. So I can give some perspective given that I am a radiology resident going into Intervention Radiology (IR) and my wife is a PA working in the ER. We are both 30 years old and she took 2 years off working after undergrad before starting PA school. I started med school like 6 months after finishing undergrad.
My wife makes a healthy six figure salary working 11 shifts a month (full time), with each shift being 12 hours. When she is on, the days/nights are long and by the time she is done it may b 13-15 hours. With that said she still probably works only around 40 hours a week per month when you average it out. If she wanted to make more money she could work a couple of more shifts a month, but our family is comfortable and we have a child so it is worthwhile for her to be home more often. That is definitely a pro. She may even drop down a few more shifts and do maybe 8 a month to be part time and still make a decent salary. She is lucky because her school tuition and living was around 100K, paid off by her father. A lot of our friends are physicians, and extremely rarely she feels she should have gone to med school for the respect and pay factor. She feels less professional respect as a PA, and it bothers her sometimes but she accepts it as a given aspect of being a PA. When she sees all the hoops, exams, licensing BS I have to do she is glad she went the PA route. She is overall happy with her choice as it has been more lifestyle friendly especially in the age range of starting a family and having young children.
I on the other hand did the med school route and now I am in my fourth year of residency. After 4 years of med school I accumulated around 220K of debt. As a first year resident/intern I made 54 thousand, however I worked on average 50-55 hours a week. Then in radiology residency I probably average around the same number of hours as well. My base salary is close to 60K but I also moonlight by sitting on my butt watching Netflix or studying while "babysitting" a CT scanner after hours for up to 75 dollars an hour (as much as PA makes in many specialties while grinding hard for it). This year I will probably be making 90-100 K. So I disagree that you work 80 hours a week for 5 years for low pay. Pick the right residency. My lifestyle is pretty good, although IR fellowship and my months of IR during residency will be/are more like 60-90 hours a week. IR fellowship is a year. After that you do have a relatively busy lifestyle but the pay is very good (significantly more than what you guys quoted, as partners can make more than double an ER docs pay) and vacation of 10 to 12 weeks a year is not uncommon. In the end it is worth it to me because I enjoy it.
Congrats Doc, you're killing it!
I have no clue why I'm reading a PA thread (maybe just for the hell of it). I respect all health care professionals for what they do, PAs included. But I do think that PAs are somewhat overpaid for their amount of education and "training" compared to nurses and primary care physicians. But I have to concede that it is an amazing gig to earn 100k after only 2 years of extra schooling after college, so I definitely understand the appeal. Personally, I could never do it because I always wanted to be my own boss, run my own practice, and be at the top of my field. Though the MD route is definitely harder and longer, the potential reward is boundless. Most eye surgeons in my particular area make in the low-7 figure territory, so there is definite financial reward at the end of some M.D.-tunnels.
Maybe you are just coming across wrong here, but your post certainly doesn't sound like you "respect all health care professionals for what they do." Sorry you had to come here to the slums, but it's funny that you infer that you are going to make a 7 figure income while focusing all of your efforts onto one very small part of the body, yet slam PAs for being "overpaid for their amount of education and 'training' compared to nurses and primary care physicians."
Instead of just focusing on one small (albeit important) organ, I take the totally undifferentiated patient, determine whether they are sick or not sick, begin resuscitation, diagnose, and then send them to the right specialists. Here are a few I dealt with in a recent shift:
G3P2, 25 weeks along, high fever, tachy to 130s, moderately hypotensive, back pain, n/v, and contracting.
10 week old (+ preemie), unimmunized, febrile to 38.5, somnolent, persistent vomiting X 4 hours.
Young adult DKA with pH of 6.9
Severe asthmatic with hx of multiple intubations
Blast injury with multiple shrapnel wounds from propane tank being in fire pit.
This is including the many chest pains, belly pains, headaches, back pains, schizophrenic, orthopedic injuries, etc.
So while you are doing your 10th surgery of the day on the same organ, try to remember the last time you had to care for one of these types of people. Then come back and tell me that I'm overpaid at $200K a year. Oh, by the way, I'm single coverage in most of the places I work, and I'm a million miles away from tertiary care (well, it feels like it sometimes anyway).
Thank you for the insightful response. Are all rad residency 55 hours a week? Because that does change things. However, I still wouldn't do it. To get into a IR rad residency, you must have worked extremely hard during medical school which is hard enough by itself already.
I feel like this discussion has too centered around the financial aspects of PA vs sub specialty MD. My mother raised my brother and I on a 70k salary. I have nothing to complain about. How much money do I really need? Of course more money can't hurt, I get that.
The discussion has gone several directions (like normal for discussions), but what you and I have disagreed on was whether PA is a valid back-up plan for people trying to get into medical school. Maybe Dr. Badass can give his opinion if he thinks PA would have been a good choice for if he had been unable to get into med school.