Grace McCrea

"I'm a medical assistant, I work for a Mohs surgeon, which is basically skin cancer removal, pretty much anywhere on the body of the three types of skin cancer, that being squamous, basal, and melanoma. I’ve been working at my dermatologist office for six months and this job has given me many opportunities to further not only my knowledge in the medical field a bit while also giving me a lot of experience. The job does have everything to do with my schooling though, I’m a senior at UNF with a major in biomedical science. I'm hoping to become a physician's assistant and in order to do that, you have to have around 2000 patient care hours. So this is a job but it's also a down payment, if you will on that PA school application. Growing up, I've always loved science, I was just naturally inclined to it middle school and in high school. I'm really passionate about helping people and being able to make a difference is someone’s life. I feel like medicine is the perfect paradox of knowledge and hospitality. As for becoming a physicians assistant, it started out as going to medical school and being a doctor, but I learned about the PA profession and how much of a better work life balance it provides and the lateral flexibility it also provides. So that's why I chose the PA route, it allows me to stay in medical while also having a family life when that time comes, having a stable work-life balance is important for me. Being a PA also allows me to work in all kinds of fields and specializations, when you become an MD or a doctor that you pick your specialty and you take certain Board Certification Exams  for whatever specialty. The catch with the PA profession is that you can change your specialty over time whenever you’d like, it just requires you to take another Board Certification Exam so that you can change and that's not offered to doctors. That lateral flexibility is great because it allows me to have so many options to choose from, all i would have to do is pass my exam. As for what I would like to specialize in at the time, I feel like it changes, probably month to month. Currently, I like I like dermatology right now, but tomorrow it could be pediatrics, the next day it could be OBGYN."