Physician assistants feel rusty switching to urgent care

“I see a lot of posts on here about new grad urgent care jobs but none on switching to urgent care with experience… i have worked in hospital medicine for 3 years with a lot of the last year being locum work. Now I’m about to start an urgent care job and would love advice!! Has anyone else made this speciality switch specifically? What should I study and prepare for ahead of time for urgent care? Anything you wish you would’ve known? What will be my biggest adjustments coming from the hospital? I”

“I feel like I am losing my mind. I recently made the switch from corporate, major company UC in NYC, and switched to privately owned urgent care clinic. I was told volumes are way less than what I was seeing at my previous job. However, it seems that is just not the case. I'm solo covered, working 50+ hours a week, alternating weekends. I'm seeing 7-9 patients PER HOUR, 12 hour shifts. I am responsible for taking the history as well, I have no scribe. We have medical assistants, but they”

“I’ve worked in urgent care for years, and I’ve seen a lot of ER docs, PAs, and NPs come over thinking it’ll be a pretty easy transition. Thennnnn they realize it’s a different kind of medicine. You don’t have the same access to labs, imaging, consultants, or the ability to just watch someone for a few hours. You’re still expected to move quickly and figure out who’s safe to send home and who needs the ER. I recently made a video about some of the things that seem to catch ER clinicians off guard”

“Hello! I currently work in UC as an NP. I work 3 12’s a week. I do enjoy the 3 days a week. I’m considering going to family medicine. The main reason is that the clinic that has an opening (still within my organization) is much closer to home. I currently drive an hour and the family medicine gig is only a 20 min drive. I’ve never done family medicine so that of course causes some trepidation. Also, I don’t currently have to log in from home to address my inbasket on my days off. Does anyone wor”

“Looking for advice from people who worked in specialty medicine, got burnt out, and left for GP/urgent care. My specialty hospital is definitely great with the level of medicine we get to practice on a day to day basis, but the stress levels are DEFINITELY catching up to me. So, my question is to people who worked in a large hospital like this to a smaller clinic: were you able to transfer to a clinic like that and still feel fulfilled? Knowing you may not be practicing the same level of medicin”

“Before accepting a primary-care job, don't just ask about salary, visit numbers, or panel size. Ask exactly who covers every clinician's inbox during vacation, illness, parental leave, hospital weeks, and part-time days—and how often you personally will be expected to do it. Ask how much of your schedule will be patients from other clinicians' panels, whether that work counts toward your productivity and quality metrics, and what happens to your own workload when you're covering”

“Let me go ahead and apologize in advance if this question seems ridiculously elementary… I worked primary care from 2017-2022 before going to urgent care. Last year, I joined a new primary care practice. In the past, I didn’t have a ton of prior auths to deal with and when I did, my MA did them. Now I’m expected to help submit PAs and I literally have no idea what I’m doing- you mean the magic PA fairy doesn’t exist?!? Someone help me understand the process from step 1… we use EPIC and SureScrip”

“I keep reading experiences of PAs along the lines of “overworked and underpaid”. I’m thinking about pivoting to be a PA but hearing this was discouraging. Is this a speciality specific issue? Also how many of you work 3x12s? If so what specialty TYIA submitted by /u/Certain-Anything-160 [link] [comments]”

“I’m not sure if this is normal or not. I’ve worked the last 3 years as an urgent care physician assistant, and 2 before that in rural primary care. My current urgent care operates a little more like a hybrid urgent care/low trauma ER. Anyways, due to burn out I have been applying to different specialist positions and had an inpatient neurology interview today. It would actually be an internal transfer within my same hospital system. I was told that since I have 0 years of relevant experience, I’”

“I have 1.5 years of experience in primary care. I would be the only provider on site, which does concern me. I would get a 2 week training period, then I am on my own. There are on-call docs and a chat with all the other providers. Base salary $107,000 after negotiation BXMO bonus program to take my own x-rays due to shortage of x-ray staff (uses CME to get certified); $25 per patient if I take their x-ray. Was told I would also have to room some of my own patients due to being short-staffed. Pa”

“Hi, all! I recently interviewed with a local urgent care. I have 1.5 years of experience in primary care, but really didn't have much involvement with my SP and still feel like a new grad in some ways. This UC job would have me in clinic as the only provider on site. I have access to a group chat of all the providers in the clinic and there is always a doctor on call that I can reach out to if I need it. It's 13 shifts a month, about 3 12s a week. Pay and benefits are good. I feel like t”