Page 2 | Can you apply to be a physician's assistant (PA) if you have studied medicine?

ChristmasLightsAllYear · 2025-01-14T19:59:21+00:00

My DD started a medical degree, completed one year and then decided to switch to biochemistry. She is very happy with this change. She is happy that she did one year of medicine, as she feels she would otherwise always regret not doing it - now she knows it is not the right path for her. She has been looking at the careers that a biochemistry degree can lead to, and one of them is a PA. I had an idea that if you had ever studied medicine you could not be a PA, but I cannot find details anywhere online. Does anyone know a bit more about this and whether she is excluded by virtue of having done one year of medicine? thanks very much

Original poster

ChristmasLightsAllYear · 16/01/2025 09:33

IBlameYourMother · 16/01/2025 07:30

I came to say this. I’d recommend looking in to it.

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I will get her to look into this thank you. I thought the uni would be telling them more, but I guess it doesnt work like that at her uni.

OP posts:

IBlameYourMother · 16/01/2025 09:50

ChristmasLightsAllYear · 16/01/2025 09:33

I will get her to look into this thank you. I thought the uni would be telling them more, but I guess it doesnt work like that at her uni.

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My Uni was awful with careers advice and helping to apply for jobs in my final year. Despite it being a “top” uni.

NoNotHimTheOtherOne · 16/01/2025 10:39

Now she is doing biochemisty she is thoroughly enjoying it, so it appears to be the right decision for her.

I fully accept what everyone's saying about university careers services: they are generally terribly underequipped and can't possibly have sufficient understanding of the full range of careers options.

It's easy to become excessively focused on options within the NHS, as it has such a good careers web site (https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/, which I think previous posters have linked to). However, there are lots of options for scientists in the industries that support developments in health & medicine, such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, bioengineering, etc. I would strongly recommend the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries web site (https://www.abpi.org.uk/careers/). Your daughter might want to look at some of the biochemistry/biomedical science case studies on the https://www.abpi.org.uk/careers/job-case-studies/ page (scroll down for categories: it doesn't explicitly list biochemistry but this overlaps with many of the fields listed).

Careers

Want to find out what it’s like to work in the industry? Looking for opportunities to get into the industry, or the options available to you? Trying to advise someone interested in entering the industry? This section is here to help.

https://www.abpi.org.uk/careers

Original poster

ChristmasLightsAllYear · 16/01/2025 12:25

NoNotHimTheOtherOne · 16/01/2025 10:39

Now she is doing biochemisty she is thoroughly enjoying it, so it appears to be the right decision for her.

I fully accept what everyone's saying about university careers services: they are generally terribly underequipped and can't possibly have sufficient understanding of the full range of careers options.

It's easy to become excessively focused on options within the NHS, as it has such a good careers web site (https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/, which I think previous posters have linked to). However, there are lots of options for scientists in the industries that support developments in health & medicine, such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, bioengineering, etc. I would strongly recommend the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries web site (https://www.abpi.org.uk/careers/). Your daughter might want to look at some of the biochemistry/biomedical science case studies on the https://www.abpi.org.uk/careers/job-case-studies/ page (scroll down for categories: it doesn't explicitly list biochemistry but this overlaps with many of the fields listed).

Edited

Thank you so much

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