Some Support for a Physician Assistant-to-Physician Bridge Program

This seems to be the logical approach to me as our training already shadows that of doctors.  We re-test every 6 years to stay on top of current trends and medical issues even more frequently than MD's.  One of the doctors I work with reviewed the blueprint for the PANRE and commented that it looked like a review of med school to him. I think if you have experience practicing medicine and are in good standing with our professional societies,  additional medical training in the MD role seems logical.  My program used MD's from the med school to provide the majority of lectures for our program, and the MD's submitted the test questions and notes also.  The dean of students from the local med school commented during one lecture that his medical students receive 650 hours of lecture in two years, and we PA students were getting 610 hours of lecture in one year without breaks. He said he is giving the same lecture and the same test questions to us as he does his med students, and he would see us during rotations when we were expected to perform/compete with the med students and residents. At least if there is going to be a "clinical" doctorates, the training better be clinical like it was the first time not online Microbiology lab that others take.

As a student about to start my first year of the PA program at Midwestern University Downers Grove, IL - I would be very happy to see a bridge program for the PA profession. I was initially very torn between PA and MD, and still consider going into medical school sometime down the road to continue my education in the medical field. The problem there is that I would still have to go through ALL of medical school even though most of it would have been covered in my education as a PA. I truly hope such a bridge program becomes available in the near future and will express these wishes as much as possible to AAPA.

-Corey