My Medical Career As An Ears, Nose, And Throat Physician Assistant

Did you know the speed of sound travels at 770 miles per hour? Hello my name is Landen and this essay is about me becoming an Ears, Nose, and Throat Physician assistant. PA’s treat approximately 9.1 million patients each week (“10 Facts About Physician Assistants in Celebration of PA Week 2019 | Medicus Healthcare Solutions.”). Which is around 3% of our entire country’s population a week. In just 33 and three-tenths weeks the entire population would be seen by a Physician Assistant and there is only 52.1 weeks in a year. Definitely not a dying practice of medicine. I’m going to go over my choice of career, my career statement, and some additional facts. And this is going to decide if I want to be an ENT physician assistant or not.

My choice in the medical career is to be an ENT physician assistant. What an ENT physician does is “medical, surgical management, and treatment of patients with diseases and disorders of the ear, nose, and throat” (“What Is ENT? What Do Otolaryngologists Treat?”). The reason I’m interested in being an ENT physician assistant because I’ve always had problems with being affected by my ears and throat. So much that I just had an operation to remove my tonsils. What an ENT Physician assistant does commonly is treat balance disorder, voice, swallowing, breathing, taste problems, sinuses, hearing, sleeping disorders, etc (“What Is ENT? What Do Otolaryngologists Treat?”). Since I know what it feels like the patients may be more comfortable with trusting my diagnosis. I want to become a dr even more because of my own health problems.

My Career statement is to become a knowledgeable and practical professional in the medical field to better help all of my patients. The reason being I’ve always had Drs that have cared for me and made it easier to do everything that I loved to do. By care I mean they had lost sleep trying to find out what was wrong with me. The licensing I need to complete my goal is “along with all other physicians in the United States, otolaryngologists must pass the United States Medical Licensing Exam. Additionally, board certification in otolaryngology by the American Board of Medical Specialties is expected although not always required” (“Becoming an Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor (ENT/Otolaryngologist)” ). Most of the medical students pass the test the lowest percentage of passing belongs to the international students (“USMLE Failure Rates – And How You Can Beat Them.” ). Knowing my work habits I know I can pass the test to become an ENT physician assistant.

Some background info I found is otolaryngology is derived from Greek. The Education required is 4 years of medical school and 3-5 years of an ENT residency program but begins with a bachelor’s degree in an accredited college or university (“How to Become an ENT Specialist.”). For just four years of medical college it is over 300,000$ (“The Average Cost of Medical School.”). The average that an ENT physician assistant nationwide is 98,069$ (“Physician Assistant (PA).”) and in Oregon they make 101,962$ a year (“Physician Assistant Salary in Oregon | PA Salary in OR.”). When paying 50,000$ a year and the rest for expenses it would take around 7 years to pay my college debt. These professionals are usually found in a clinic specializing in otolaryngology or a hospital that has every specialist on site. This field is growing tremendously 31% from 2018 to 2028. Some other things I found are the work schedule is Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM (“A Day in the Life of an ENT PA: Ngan Lam, PA-C.”), which I found important because people need time off especially on the weekend since that’s when everyone else gets off like friends and family. “The top five states ranked by the number of certified PAs are New York, California, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Florida” (“10 Facts About Physician Assistants in Celebration of PA Week 2019 | Medicus Healthcare Solutions.”) the trend I found was that the bigger states had better incomes and an increase in job opportunities. Considering this I would be able to work as an ENT Physician assistant and make a living off it as well.

At this point I do believe I want to be an Ears, Nose, and Throat physicians assistant. I know I can handle this job since I don’t have to make any serious life altering decisions like making mistakes during surgery. Knowing that I would be passing the torch that my previous Drs have given me by saving my life and increasing my longevity. With my working habits college and the USMLE shouldn’t be that tough if I keep working for it. Then with the money I would make would go straight towards expenses and my debt from schooling and I would still be making a living. And with the job outlook growing it will be easier to find a job with a good schedule for me. With knowing all of this, it’s not only an option but one of the best for me.