Some genes are generation skipping 
S1–Business/Data Analytics Consultant
S2–BS/MS Math–Machine Learning Scientist
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This is exactly who she is vs my linear son. He did go to college for actuarial science for 10 minutes but ended up with Industrial and Operations Engineering.
My daughter went to a pre professional high school for musical theater and worked in LA on a movie as an Art Director and professionally in Chicago for costume during school. It was a BFA and missed her academics and why the switch but this is typically her. She took a gap year and went to South East Asia packing and during school (both schools) went to Indonesia and was fluent but worked on the arts with social justice there. She as you can see is not linear.
After she graduated was a preschool teacher and reading tutor specialist with nannying. Now she knows she can put this all together to go to the path she wants to take
Many different paths to take.
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I haven’t read this thread but becoming a PA and NP is very hot now. 2 years, make good money and great life style.
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Yes. I am hearing a lot about it in family circles.
She absolutely loves is, comes home every day and says it was great. She’s worked at PT centers at college and privately, so was a little nervous about not liking a hospital setting (first day she saw her first rune catheter failure, colostomy bag and old testicle) but can see herself in a hospital setting. Her days fly by (she gets up at 5, goes to the gym, gets ready, packs her lunch, walks the dog, and gets there 1/2 hour early). Broke but very happy.
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I agree, but one needs to be careful when attending direct entry NP with no prior nursing experience (combined BSN +NP). My daughter was in a direct entry DNP program (she left after a week) and the recent grads she spoke with had trouble finding work (they eventually did but it was a struggle) because they did not have enough BSN experience first. Ideally, it’s probably best to work for a year as a nurse before going for the NP. Also, many/some who go right into direct NP do not enjoy the BSN classes and actual work, which has to be completed first. That’s why my D left (she should have shadowed actual nurses first).
My D shadowed orthopedic surgeons and loved it, but she did not want to commit to so much schooling. She also spoke to the PAs who worked for the surgeons, and one told her he was unhappy with his role because he didn’t get enough responsibility (not sure what he wanted to do). He took the case history, did a physical exam.
No career is perfect, but health care does have different settings to find your niche. My D found a career that will allow her to talk about genetics all day, which she always loved.
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My daughter is at BU, I think it’s close tom$70,000 a year (not including housing). She got some merit so it came out cheaper than northeastern or NYU, however we have a medical school a 10 minute walk from our house, and another 15 minute drive away, still expensive but se would’ve saved a lot just in rent. She knows that there is a very good chance she will need to live home a few years to pay those loans (my older kids were able to pay loans pretty quickly thanks to Covid and working remotely).
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I don’t know about other women, but my kid said that she wants to go into that field because she find it really interesting, cool, and fun. She finds humanities topics to be “boring” and doesn’t want engineering or computer science to be “too hard” because of the 1.5-2 yr of physics + 1.5-2 yr of calculus required.
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Good points. I have two medical assistants (really pre med students) that just got accepted for PA. If they don’t like one field I am assuming they can switch also. Our area is wide open
Yes it seems with PAs (and other fields within healthcare) if you do not like one area there is always another.
I can work in schools or clinical settings, with babies or adults. My D can work in prenatal, pediatrics, cardiac, nephrology etc as well as industry and lab roles. Lots of flexibility.
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D24 wants (at least right now) PA instead of MD/DO because:
- 2 yr of grad school instead of 4
- lower total grad school debt
- shorter timeline to earning a decent living
- don’t have to do 2-7+ yr of residencies and/or fellowships after grad school in order to get extra MD/DO specialty training
- if you decide at some point that you’re tired of working in 1 specialty, there’s no restrictions from switching to working in a different specialty
- lower likelihood of having to be on call 24x7 with hardly any days off for 2-7+ years after grad school
- wants to get married and start a family at some point and doesn’t want to still be slaving away as a low-paid MD/DO resident when she’s 30-35 yr old
- fewer standardized tests to take in order to get professionally certified compared to an MD/DO
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I think many women (and now men) are attracted to various allied health professions because you can downshift when your kids are young and then upshift when you have fewer home responsibilities without losing a lot of ground.
Friend of mine was a surgical nurse; long shifts on her feet, very stressful work with zero flexibility (you can’t make a phone call to your kid’s school to discuss some problem during a shift- you are in the OR hyper-focused.) Then she shifted to per diem work (paid about the same with fewer hours, no benefits but her spouse had health insurance from his job), and then when the kids were teenagers (and she felt it was all hands on deck) she shifted to a management role at a nursing home (she’d done geriatric when they needed her when she was per diem). Very little hands-on patient care— lots of coordination and “desk work” which she found less stressful (and could handle a lot of her managerial stuff from home if the day got too long). She took per diem shifts when she felt like it, didn’t feel guilty when she didn’t, so basically crafted her own calendar.
Now she’s doing travel nursing-- making more money than any of her previous roles, and loves the flexibility now that the kids are grown and flown. She doesn’t think she could have ended up at the top of the salary scale in any other field after having taken a few downshifts/lighter loads when she needed to. There don’t seem to be penalties in nursing for not being “all in” professionally in the way there are in other kinds of jobs.
She has colleagues (our age, so close to retirement) who have shifted into case management at HMO’s, patient recruitment for clinical trials, etc. all of whom report a high degree of work life balance, good money, and lower stress than earlier in their career. Seems like a nice profession if you have the talent!!!
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D: BS Finance and Supply Chain Management. MBA. MBB consulting.
S: BS Finance and Accountancy with Technology and Management minor. CPA. Financial Consulting.
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I’m hearing this as well.
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I’ve been a PT for 35 years. I still wake up each day excited to go to work! One great aspect of our profession is that it is quite easy to explore different settings, patient populations and specialty areas. My primary focus has been with patients with neurological injury (stroke, spinal cord and brain injury) but I have worked in hospitals, residential and day centers, coordinated a large NIH funded research project and currently work in home health. There is nothing I find more rewarding than making a meaningful change in a patient’s mobility and life. To this day I shed a tear of joy when a patient meets a milestone…first time out of bed or first steps after a life changing event. And I am grateful to learn so much from my patients and their caregivers.
And I agree with @blossom regarding the importance of flexibility in a profession when raising a family. I think this is a factor with attracting more women to the PT field. Although my husband is a retired teacher and he had all kids on all school holidays and driving duties to all summer activities. 
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Why not? It requires a smart mind, dedication and most often pays a decent wage.
Seriously, why are you surprised at that?
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I find any gendered biases interesting. If they were good, as they seem to be, men and women should be applying in large numbers.
There are many reasons why people are attracted to different fields. My D wants a WL balance and a career that is rooted in her interests without spending 10+ years in school or 5 years of phd work.
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When my dad was in and out if the hospital he had quite a few male nurses. I know several male PAs as well.
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