Physician Assistant My Original Motivation

Physician Assistant

My original motivation for pursuing a medical career goes back to the unexpected loss of my mother in 1995. She was the victim of medical malpractice due to the errors of her physician. Prior to that, I had never realized how vulnerable ailing patients are to mistakes in the medical field. A few years later, I had a comprehensive annual medical checkup that was conducted by a physician assistant. During our conversation, I inquired into the nature of that occupation and into the specific requirements for qualification for employment in the field.

My physician assistant explained that in many ways the profession provides many of the same rewards as those associated with employment as a physician; on the other hand, it requires considerably less sacrifice of the grueling schedules and responsibilities that are typically the most difficult aspect of becoming a physician. Because the training is so much shorter than the training to become a physician, the path to becoming a licensed physician assistant is not as expensive and does not necessarily entail a substantial financial investment and all of the subsequent obligations with respect to paying for it over time. My understanding is that new physicians routinely take on debt greater than their first several years of salary just to finance their pre-requisite academic training.

In my case, some of the most important benefits of the opportunity to enter the medical field as a physician assistant include the shortening of the amount of time between the initial decision and my actual ability to contribute to the medical welfare of patients and other healthcare beneficiaries. In particular, I am extremely motivated to bring quality medical services to rural areas of the United States where high-quality medical services are comparatively unavailable to millions of people, especially in low- income communities. From my perspective as someone who hopes to enter the medical field to contribute directly to the health and welfare of patients and communities, the most important advantage of the physician assistant position is that it allows a much quicker transition into the field in ways that will allow me to begin making the contribution that motivated my vocational interest in the first place.