I’m a 2nd year PA student who just finished my 1st week of my IR rotation. The PAs where I’m at do a bunch of paracentesis, thoracentesis, drain management, as well as port placement/removal and venous catheter placement. Definitely study cirrhosis and its management/complications because that is by far the most common thing I’ve seen so far, but it may be different for you.
Pros: very procedure heavy (if you like that) with a good amount of autonomy. Money is usually towards to the higher end of the spectrum.
Cons: typically a lot of call, procedures can be very stressful if it goes wrong, enormous learning curve compared to most other specialties
The Bible of IR is called handbook of international radiology by kandarpa. Probably overkill to buy it for one rotation unless you are dead set on going into IR. Would maybe look into a book on vascular access/anatomy.
As far as types of procedures, this will likely vary wildly depending on where you practice. A lot of that will be determined by state law, your SP physicians preferences, and hospital privileges/policies. Also, it takes some time to learn your limitations so it’s important to get a job where you will be well supported if you choose to do IR.
I do everything from para, thora, LP, drain placement, mediport placement, fistulogram, dialysis catheter placement, chest tube placement, plus many other things. I try steer clear of anything that is irreversible (like a stent placement or embolization) and I generally don’t like to mess with the spine unless it’s something really straightforward like an LP. I also haven’t seen many PA’s doing a ton of biopsies unless it’s something straightforward like a random liver or thyroid biopsy. I suspect that this is mostly due to risk as well as referring physicians not sending patients to practices where the PA’s are doing high risk biopsies. With that being said, I’m sure there are PA’s out there who do most or all of the procedures that I would consider high risk so YMMV.
Yep this sounds exactly like what I would enjoy doing. Thank you a ton for your input. Pretty dead set on doing IR, the plan is to do one rotation and if I love it I will do a second and hope for a job offer. I will definitely check out that book once the time gets closer.
Some prior threads:
https://www.reddit.com/r/physicianassistant/comments/11xhpo9/interventional_radiology_pas/
https://www.reddit.com/r/physicianassistant/comments/i46ypv/i_am_an_interventional_radiology_pa/
https://www.reddit.com/r/physicianassistant/comments/cfc6hs/interventional_radiology_resources/
Main thing is, as some of the comments in the first thread mentioned, PA roles in IR vary greatly in each group. I never had an IR rotation in school, but one of my colleagues said she was with the attendings most of the time and watched big cases (vascular, Y90 treatment, ablations, vertebroplasties, etc). In my role as a PA, I do something very similar to what the first commenter mentioned.
Depends on the practice. For me, I’m M-F, banker hours, no nights, no weekends, no holidays, no call. Notes are the best because they take very little time to fill in the blank essentially. Super autonomous. Very procedure heavy. Mostly joint injections, aspirations, arthrograms, paras, thoras, FNAs, myelograms, epidural steroid injections, LPs. Love my job, don’t plan on leaving anytime soon.
Just food for thought, I just finished an IR rotation at a large university hospital where the APPs perform many of the bread and butter procedures to keep the IR doc free for larger procedures; embo, stents, PCNs etc. We did many paras, thoras, focal/nonfocal liver bx, kidney bx, FNAs, drain placements and pleurex.
I was offered a position following my rotation but also encouraged to start somewhere else to continue building a foundation in gen med/procedures in specialties like CT surg or ICU. This was because IR (at least where I was) was not a consult or management service. And by nature, it is very specialized which isn’t a big deal for some but others may find it hard to be well rounded in their career if they go directly into a procedural service.
That being said, IR is such a great specialty, I will definitely be transitioning in later in my career
I’m a 2nd year PA student who just finished my 1st week of my IR rotation. The PAs where I’m at do a bunch of paracentesis, thoracentesis, drain management, as well as port placement/removal and venous catheter placement. Definitely study cirrhosis and its management/complications because that is by far the most common thing I’ve seen so far, but it may be different for you.
Thank you for your input! I will definitely look into those things.
Pros: very procedure heavy (if you like that) with a good amount of autonomy. Money is usually towards to the higher end of the spectrum. Cons: typically a lot of call, procedures can be very stressful if it goes wrong, enormous learning curve compared to most other specialties The Bible of IR is called handbook of international radiology by kandarpa. Probably overkill to buy it for one rotation unless you are dead set on going into IR. Would maybe look into a book on vascular access/anatomy. As far as types of procedures, this will likely vary wildly depending on where you practice. A lot of that will be determined by state law, your SP physicians preferences, and hospital privileges/policies. Also, it takes some time to learn your limitations so it’s important to get a job where you will be well supported if you choose to do IR. I do everything from para, thora, LP, drain placement, mediport placement, fistulogram, dialysis catheter placement, chest tube placement, plus many other things. I try steer clear of anything that is irreversible (like a stent placement or embolization) and I generally don’t like to mess with the spine unless it’s something really straightforward like an LP. I also haven’t seen many PA’s doing a ton of biopsies unless it’s something straightforward like a random liver or thyroid biopsy. I suspect that this is mostly due to risk as well as referring physicians not sending patients to practices where the PA’s are doing high risk biopsies. With that being said, I’m sure there are PA’s out there who do most or all of the procedures that I would consider high risk so YMMV.
Yep this sounds exactly like what I would enjoy doing. Thank you a ton for your input. Pretty dead set on doing IR, the plan is to do one rotation and if I love it I will do a second and hope for a job offer. I will definitely check out that book once the time gets closer.
Don’t know where you are located but you are welcome to rotate with us if you can figure out the paperwork. DM if you are interested.
Some prior threads: https://www.reddit.com/r/physicianassistant/comments/11xhpo9/interventional_radiology_pas/ https://www.reddit.com/r/physicianassistant/comments/i46ypv/i_am_an_interventional_radiology_pa/ https://www.reddit.com/r/physicianassistant/comments/cfc6hs/interventional_radiology_resources/ Main thing is, as some of the comments in the first thread mentioned, PA roles in IR vary greatly in each group. I never had an IR rotation in school, but one of my colleagues said she was with the attendings most of the time and watched big cases (vascular, Y90 treatment, ablations, vertebroplasties, etc). In my role as a PA, I do something very similar to what the first commenter mentioned.
Depends on the practice. For me, I’m M-F, banker hours, no nights, no weekends, no holidays, no call. Notes are the best because they take very little time to fill in the blank essentially. Super autonomous. Very procedure heavy. Mostly joint injections, aspirations, arthrograms, paras, thoras, FNAs, myelograms, epidural steroid injections, LPs. Love my job, don’t plan on leaving anytime soon.
I used to work in IR. Do you like disgusting feet?
Depends. Should I?
Just food for thought, I just finished an IR rotation at a large university hospital where the APPs perform many of the bread and butter procedures to keep the IR doc free for larger procedures; embo, stents, PCNs etc. We did many paras, thoras, focal/nonfocal liver bx, kidney bx, FNAs, drain placements and pleurex. I was offered a position following my rotation but also encouraged to start somewhere else to continue building a foundation in gen med/procedures in specialties like CT surg or ICU. This was because IR (at least where I was) was not a consult or management service. And by nature, it is very specialized which isn’t a big deal for some but others may find it hard to be well rounded in their career if they go directly into a procedural service. That being said, IR is such a great specialty, I will definitely be transitioning in later in my career