Physician Assistant Work-Life Balance: Everything You Need To Know

If you talk to people who have decided to pursue a career as a physician’s assistant (PA), they will often tell you that they chose the profession because the work-life balance is fantastic. This may not always be the case; for some, it can deter them from moving forward with the demanding career choice.

Today we will look at some caveats you need to be aware of when choosing your career as a physician assistant and what you can expect.

So let’s dive in!

Are you looking to get into a career in Functional Medicine? Let MindBody Talent guide you in the right direction by pairing you with the perfect employer focused on the field of holistic healthcare. Visit our website today to talk to one of our specialists!

Benefits Of Being A Physician Assistant

1. Training is Much Shorter

To begin, even though a physician’s and a PA’s hours are similar, the physician assistant will have a much shorter training period than a physician. There have been a lot of regulations in the past ten years that have reduced the residency periods for physicians, which is a good thing.

For example, if you would like to be a doctor, your residency and medical schooling is going to be at least 4-5 years longer than a PA’s training. 

Opting for a physician assistant position then gives you the opportunity to start living a balanced life sooner than a doctor, and you can start enjoying the benefits of a good work-life balance earlier on in your life.

2. Geographic Flexibility

Most physicians and doctors will move where their residency is, and eventually, their job takes them. 

PAs might have to move to attend a physician assistant school, but the time commitment is much less than if you were a doctor relocating for residency.

Once certified by the NCCPA as a PA, you can look for job openings in the cities where you want to live. Typically there are several different cities looking for physician assistants at any given time, which allows you to find a city to live in first and then look for jobs after you get there.

Working with a skilled, qualified talent acquisition team can help you land the best jobs across the nation. 

Related Links: The Hero’s Journey Of Functional Medicine in 2022

3. Flexibility to Work In Different Specialty Areas

Choosing a career as a physician assistant also offers a lot of flexibility in working in different specialty areas of medicine. This flexibility lets you take your time and decide which specialty you want to pursue long term. 

Several other parts of the job are flexible, including switching from full-time to part-time work, working clinical shifts in a hospital versus regular business hours, and moving back and forth from a small practice to a larger medical practice.

Ultimately, you can find a schedule that works for you and brings you the work-life balance you want.

Related Links: Health and Wellness Branding Tips For Functional Medicine Practitioners

The Work-Life Balance of a Physician Assistant 

Flexibility is key to choosing a career as a physician assistant. With that flexibility comes the work-life balance that everyone dreams of having. After all, throughout the education process, you get taught to go into the specialty of your passion, work the hours you want, and live in a location that best suits your needs.

You will hear a lot about team-based healthcare methods and how they increase the effectiveness and efficiency of medical practices around the country. Physician assistants are educated in two or three different areas throughout their careers, making them highly versatile within their industry. 

Are you a Functional Medical practice looking for the ideal candidate with holistic medicine experience? Visit MindBody Talent to find the perfect match for your practice!

Provider Burnout

Every job is not without its downsides. As regulations continue to increase, the complexities of the physician assistant career do as well. As it evolves, the responsibilities, administrative duties, general tasks, and red tape can impose restrictions, add weight to your sense of freedom.

An early study shows physician assistants burning out at an alarming rate due to not having the ability to fully practice what their license allows, not achieving the work-life balance they wanted, and not being able to dedicate enough time to patient’s overall care. 

This burnout leads to depression, fatigue, productivity decreases, lack of interest in their work, social withdrawal, and increased use of drugs and alcohol.

While many studies are focused on physicians, more and more studies are being looked at among physician assistants and the burnout rate many are experiencing.  

Related Links: Embracing Lifestyle Health

Finding Balance

The key to enjoying a career as a Physician’s Assistant is ensuring you can find balance without burning out. It might take some time to test out different ideas, but getting ahead of the things that directly affect you inside and outside the practice – in and out of your home, and other things that surround you in your life will help tremendously.

For example, making sure to keep your job at the practice and not bring it home with you is a big way to segregate work from your home life and kids. Another good idea is to try and eat dinner together, not watch as much TV, and stay off the phone during peak family time. 

Taking time for yourself can also be greatly beneficial – find out the 8 Factors of Optimum Health and how you can apply these to your journey.

Simply leaving a job to find a new one is typically not an option for healthcare workers. This is why finding solutions to the stress you may be feeling as a PA is crucial for creating a fruitful, long-lasting career.

For more information on how MindBody Talent can help with your recruiting efforts for your holistic medicine practice, visit our website today!

Conclusion

Many physician assistants think they are going into a career that will be easier than most in the medical field but be cautious. Whether or not you’re on call, how many hours you work, and what shifts you take are influenced by the practice type you work as opposed to the type of provider you are.

No matter what specialty you choose, as a physician’s assistant, you will have the flexibility to choose the work-life balance that suits your lifestyle. 

For more information on how MindBody Talent can help with your recruiting efforts for your holistic medicine practice, visit our website today!

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Trusted Partners To Help You Leverage Practice Growth

At MindBody Talent, we see our holistic health and wellness clients as more than just customers — they’re mission-driven partners in healing. That’s why we’re highly selective when recommending any outside organization to complement our Talent Acquisition and Talent Performance services. Before introducing a new partner, we cast a wide net, research deeply, and apply what we call our “Trust Factor Test.” Few pass. But Stitch PEO has — and with flying colors. They’ve consistently demonstrated the integrity, capability, and strategic value that our clients deserve. As a trusted HR outsourcing resource, Stitch PEO offers the kind of leverage that can fuel real growth for healthcare practices. The article below, authored by their team, is a great example of why we trust them — and why we think you’ll benefit from knowing them too. Scaling a Healthcare Practice? Why HR Outsourcing Is Essential for Growth & Stability Expanding a healthcare practice takes more than medical expertise—it takes a strong operational foundation. As you add locations, hire new staff, and navigate evolving regulations, internal HR functions can quickly become a bottleneck. That’s why many healthcare leaders are turning to Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) for support. A PEO acts as a co-employer, taking on essential HR responsibilities such as payroll, benefits administration, and compliance. This partnership allows healthcare practices to scale with greater efficiency, lower risk, and improved financial predictability. Reclaim Time for What Matters Scaling means more decisions, more paperwork, and less time for patient care. Without a dedicated HR team, administrative tasks like onboarding, tax filings, and policy management often fall on practice leaders, distracting from their core priorities. By outsourcing HR functions to a PEO, your team can focus on strategic growth and care delivery. PEOs centralize these responsibilities, offering a streamlined, scalable solution that grows with your practice. Stitch PEO, for example, brings healthcare-specific experience that helps reduce the time spent on back-office tasks. Offer Competitive Benefits—Without the Overhead As your team grows, so do employee expectations. Competitive benefits play a major role in attracting and retaining top providers and support staff. But for smaller or independent practices, offering high-quality benefits can be complex and cost-prohibitive. PEOs pool multiple businesses together to access affordable, large-group benefits plans, like medical, dental, vision, and retirement. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, PEO-sponsored plans are often less expensive than those on the open market. Stitch PEO helps practices of all sizes offer benefit packages that rival those of larger health systems. Stay Ahead of Compliance Challenges Growth often comes with increased regulatory exposure. From managing multi-state payroll to staying up to date on employment laws and healthcare-specific mandates, compliance mistakes can be costly. A trusted PEO partner ensures that your practice remains compliant as it scales. Stitch PEO monitors changes in employment law, handles filings accurately, and helps reduce risk across your workforce, so you can expand with confidence. Build a Scalable Foundation Every new hire or new location shouldn’t require reinventing your internal systems. PEOs provide infrastructure that supports consistent onboarding, employee management, and HR support as your practice grows. Instead of juggling vendors and HR tools, you gain a single partner that adapts alongside your business. Stitch PEO’s model is designed to support fast-moving healthcare organizations with flexible, scalable services. The Bottom Line Growth should feel exciting, not overwhelming. Outsourcing HR through a healthcare-specialized PEO gives your practice the stability and support needed to scale with confidence. Let Stitch PEO handle the HR complexity so you can stay focused on delivering excellent care. Two Calls to Action

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Six Years. 1,000 Insights. One Big Truth

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We are consistently shocked to discover that the most well-known names in Functional and Integrative Medicine, who address and cure supposedly incurable diseases, and are the most sought-after speakers at conferences, can’t figure out how to run profitable practices. As with the majority of patient diseases and maladies, the health problems of health care practices are (at the root) self-inflicted. As with the majority of patient health challenges, these practice challenges are also fixable ills; but only when viewed honestly, humbly, and holistically. The Opportunity Thanks to decades of courageous voices and waves of miraculous health recoveries in the disciplines of Functional, Integrative, Personalized, and Regenerative Medicine, the messages are finally resonating and people are finally waking up. By “people”, that means patients, caregivers, health seekers of all kinds, and health care professionals who entered their professions with the best intentions — to get people well.  Unfortunately, over the last 70 plus years, the odds have been heavily stacked against their success, our success, and patient health. The network of industrial healthcare, led by the pharmaceutical business model of disease management, convinced all of those “people” that treating symptoms of illness with pharmaceutical chemicals was the right path to healing and health. That misguided, dangerous, and deadly emperor is finally being revealed to have no clothes.  Prominent voices that include (among many others): Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Casey Means and Calley Means, Dr. Frank Lipman, and the new U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are speaking broadly on podcasts, in media interviews, and to the U.S. Congress. They are loudly and strongly waving the flag about holistic health approaches that leverage the miraculous healing capabilities of the human body when those capabilities are not constrained, thwarted, and disabled by pharmaceutical drugs masking symptoms and creating often worse side effects. Those voices, combined with enhanced access to health knowledge provided by the internet and AI (as well as basic common sense) are creating an unstoppable wind in the sails of holistic health and holistic health care practitioners. A  major shift toward rethinking health and healthcare is underway. The cautionary last third of pharmaceutical commercials have become a laughable joke if the first two thirds weren’t so full of dangerous and deadly brainwashing. The pharmaceutical-dominant era is finally being put in its proper place. 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Within their practices, they somehow have to understand how to market their services and how to hire, manage, and run their practice operations as a business — on top of the complex process of caring for patients.  Those business and marketing skills are not the natural domains of health care practitioners. In fact, we have come to believe (with a six-year base of hard evidence) that physician brains and business brains are wired differently, making it virtually impossible for even the smartest physicians to successfully run a practice business. That is the root cause of why the majority of holistic health care practices struggle and fail, despite the unprecedented market demand for holistic health care services that continues to accelerate. The Truths Today is the 6th anniversary of the founding of MindBody Talent. 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In holistic healthcare, the right team can make or break a practice. Recruiting brilliant clinical and non-clinical professionals is essential—but it’s only the first step. Even the most highly skilled teams can struggle, stall, or even fail if the practice itself isn’t set up for success. At MindBody Talent, we’ve seen it all. Practices with world-class practitioners and staff still struggle because: ❌ Their mission isn’t clear—leading to misaligned patient attraction and a loss of purpose among the team.❌ Marketing efforts don’t match their mission—bringing in the wrong types of patients who don’t convert, don’t stay, or don’t value the care provided.❌ Internal operations are a bottleneck—creating inefficiencies, staff frustration, and patient churn.❌ Politics and drama infiltrate practice culture—sapping energy, driving away top talent, and creating toxic workplaces. The result? Even with the best doctors, providers, and staff, practices can find themselves in constant struggle mode—overworked, under-performing, and losing ground to competitors. But the best-run practices look much different. They have: ✅ A well-aligned team that shares a unified vision.✅ Seamless workflows that enhance efficiency rather than slow it down.✅ Consistent messaging from the front desk to the exam rooms and back, ensuring patients feel confident and cared for at every touchpoint. Enter Shane and Kelly—the experts in turning struggling practices into thriving ones. Beyond Recruitment: The Next Step in Practice Success For six years, MindBody Talent’s Talent Acquisition Services (TAS) has been the go-to resource for recruiting top-tier talent into Functional, Integrative, Personalized, Regenerative, and Aesthetic Medicine practices. Led by CEO Robin Stewart, MBT has led the market by helping practices across 22 states build high-performing teams. But hiring brilliant people isn’t enough. That’s why we’ve expanded our services to Talent Performance Services (TPS)—a division dedicated to ensuring those brilliant professionals and their practices operate even more brilliantly. Meet the Experts Powering Your Practice Success Kelly Coday, Practice Care Coordinator Think of Kelly as your Practice Care Navigator. Just as Patient Care Coordinators help patients navigate their health journeys, Kelly helps practices uncover hidden inefficiencies, fix operational misalignments, and implement strategies for long-term success. She’s here to provide an objective, expert perspective on your practice’s overall health. Shane Fedderman, VP of Practice Success Shane brings 20+ years of expertise in optimizing healthcare practices, with a proven track record of turning struggling or stagnant practices into high-performing, profitable organizations. He specializes in AI-driven efficiencies, patient acquisition strategies, operational excellence, and practice scalability. With deep expertise in Aesthetic Medicine, Shane also expands MBT’s ability to serve another rapidly growing sector of holistic healthcare. AI + Human Expertise: The Future of Holistic Healthcare Both Kelly and Shane also bring AI fluency to the table—helping practices integrate smart automation, predictive analytics, and patient engagement technology to maximize efficiency and profitability. As AI continues reshaping healthcare, practices that leverage it effectively will outperform and outlast those that don’t. Your Path to a More Brilliant Practice Starts Now With MBT Talent Acquisition Services bringing in the best talent and MBT Talent Performance Services ensuring that talent thrives, we don’t just help build great teams—we help build great practices. Is your practice set up to scale, grow, and thrive? Let’s start with a conversation.  Simply click here and book a discovery call with Kelly today. Let’s map out your path to a more brilliant 2025 and beyond. Talent Evolved. Healthcare Elevated.

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