"Prospective PA Students: How lucky you are to have this book as a resource. How smart you are to make this one of the first things you read about being a PA. It is packed with the kind of insight which can only be obtained by spending quality time with a seasoned, savvy PA. That is exactly what you are doing when you read So You Want to Be a Physician Assistant. Written as if you and Beth were just hanging out. You learn firsthand what is in store for you as you begin your journey into a profession that Ms. Grivett has played a major role in shaping over the past 13 years. You won’t get access like this anywhere else. Beth has included insightful articles from PAs in several specialties. They each share a part of their world as a PA. Buy it. Read it. Learn from it and read it again the week before you do your PA program interviews!! You are on your way and it has to feel good to know that after reading this book you have the keys to unlock the doors to get you there.” Gaye Breyman, CAE, COO, California Academy of Physician Assistants
Chapter One - Why? A brief overview of medicine in America and questions which potential physician assistants need to ask themselves before embarking upon a career as a physician assistant.
Chapter Two - Back to School How to prepare to apply, finding the right school, what to expect, and where to go for help.
Chapter Three - Who’s the Boss? Family practice/primary care to subspecialty offices, hospital-based practice to outpatient clinic. Working part-time vs. full-time, call and moonlighting.
Chapter Four - The Dreaded Regulatory Stuff Keep out of trouble with the various powers that be by correctly setting up your practice, keeping proper records and playing by the rules right from the beginning.
Chapter Five - Your Physician Assistant Association Getting involved in moving the profession along is your responsibility from the beginning. Our young profession needs help to ensure we keep moving forward. Be a member, a member of a committee, a board member, a contributor.
Chapter Six - Get a Life! Medicine can be overwhelming. You won’t have a life outside of PA school, but you better get a life when you get out. Look at ways to avoid burnout!
Good move. You bought Beth’s book (or borrowed a friend’s copy). Either way, I suspect you’re reading this because you’ve been thinking long and hard about becoming a PA. Thousands of questions and as many doubts have crossed your mind. Keep reading. You’re about to see your troubled landscape much more clearly.
In So You Want To Be a Physician Assistant, Beth Grivett has skillfully articulated just about every reason to become a PA… and about every reason not to. Hers is a spot-on, thoughtful, honestly-stripped-of-the-window-dressing look at one of this country’s most sought after and fastest growing professions.
It’s true; thousands apply and few are chosen. But be comforted. You now have a leg up. As you navigate the chapters that follow, you will find safe footing and enlightenment, the product of Beth’s fourteen years not only as an exceptional family practice clinician but as a profession leader, prized and respected by her colleagues everywhere. Her first person narrative escorts you through the schooling, the job search, the specialties, the physician guided team model, and the mine fields of juggling life, love and work and coming out whole on the other end.
As I read Beth’s book, I couldn’t help thinking of the legendary Arthur Godfrey (or is everyone too young to remember him on radio?) In his broadcasts, Godfrey had the singular ability to make you feel like he was talking only to you. Beth’s writing style, laced with humor, is easy and personal; as if she were sitting in your living room helping you puzzle together all the pieces of information you’ll need to make a sound decision.
Among the gifts of my life, I count my friendship with Beth. She is both sunshine and safeguard to a man who more than occasionally leads with his feelings and requires a compassionate but firm course correction to reality. Beth calls me her “mentor” but, in truth, it is clearly so much the other way around; reading her book only confirms the sweep of her wisdom and intuition, sources of comfort I plan to draw from for as long as she’ll allow.
So You Want To Be a Physician Assistant? The decision is daunting. Make no mistake, it is one challenging prize; demanding and competitive but worth every torturous obstacle each of us has had to overcome to win it.
I wish you well in your deliberations. Your author, intent on honoring the promise each reader brings to the process, says it best:
“Once you are accepted in a program, you will work hard but you have made it there because you are supposed to be there.”
