welcome to beyond my crisis i'm your host run ross knight and i'm vivian gaspar one in four americans are still paying off their student loan debt their own and then of course it's to help their children if you do not have a clear cut direction and college as to what direction to go and that can cost you an immense amount of money for many many years to come we have an amazing guest with us today john philip festa has done so much to help people with what direction they really can take their career and john is a graduate of st john university physician assistant program he was voted new jersey's outstanding public education physician assistant his new book review of a physician assistant within comprises the techniques and skills he developed over the past six years from helping aspiring ph students get accepted to ph school john that is a mouthful but luckily because you love your career so much you've actually done something about it and how many people have you helped so far we've helped over one hundred students prepare for their peace corps interview and their application process the student loan crisis is in the news quite a bit what can you tell us about what's what's going on is this a problem well so the student loan is a very serious problem there are thing is that income based loans like you would i would say are based on income to debt ratio for example whereas student loans are not based on that because students don't have an income so it's based on potential but future but not measured really because for example the late one c's counterintuitively of five digits student loans like fifty thousand or seventy five thousand are actually higher mortgage crisis we say well but you're saying so for example the people who have the six digit student loans are doctors lawyers you know the system that's going to be people who have the better villainy to pay those loans back on an ongoing basis because obviously you're saying that it's worse then the mortgage crisis in a way because when someone does a bankruptcy student loans aren't exempt from bankruptcy they are exempt from bankruptcy there they're backed by the government but student loans are actually over ten percent student loans are in delinquency of over ninety days which is huge a huge amount of money and again that that growth in the amount of longs taken out one hundred fifty seven percent of those ten years is incredible as hundred fifty seven percent just think about those numbers and so i really think that from what you were explaining to know what the direction that you're going in life and to be especially a medical profession professional is a one of those great ways to curb that potential long standing problem sure yeah in fact u s news and world report bill the help professions as  basically whereas for ph school it's about one hundred thousand dollars physicians are average and this is nationally average and it's all special these include in general practice within the prices make about two hundred thousand dollars a year start  one hundred thousand dollars a year yeah school the student loans about one hundred thousand dollars so it's a one to one ratio and you see this is a trend that's going to be stronger stronger income earners for a physician assistant of the loans going to get more expensive for sixteen percent of work young working people are still living at home where the lane starting families are delaying buying a home are condo and all those consumer goods that go with that and services are also  and so it has a ripple effect throughout the economy is that a lot of people have said that if somebody can choose the right career path initially and sit changing majors that is also another way to reduce the overall student debt when you change a major it's as if you wasted all the monies that you intended for that major and now you're redoing it in a different direction and whatever you talk about career change and we come back right after this and we provide  welcome back to beyond my crisis and we're back with john philip fester and he actually brought with him a student of his is daniel hernandez and daniel we're very grateful that you were able to make it in because we'd time with one of the p t there and he knew john firsthand so he recommended me to visit the web site and and start application and when i looked at his website i like what i saw you know his statistics he's getting into p and sent in my application and we met i think you like me right because he let me in but you said you were an e m t did you always want to be a p a versus a nurse versus a doctor what made you choose to go to p a route so initially i started i was and i've been an e m t for three years now so not too long two thousand fifteen i didn't really know much about the p t route starting off i did my research and i just really like how the p a route has so much you know lateral mobility where when it comes to like specialties with an m d you know versus an m d where you have to kind of take your specialisation so laid away let's explain what do you mean by what you said the lateral the ability being able to jump into different specialties you're not really focused on one so i like the fact that you know i can get into you know emergency medicine and then a couple years down the line i like to you i would want to go into you know the family medicine or surgery also because a lot of credibility that's the the most important thing for me i think because i like to i have a personality where i like to learn about as much as i can basically so i don't want to just focus on one thing i want to be able to you know be well rounded in every aspect of medicine so did you consider being a doctor before this i did for not not for too long but i did yeah because i did start a little bit later so with the eye doctor i think that would have taken a lot more time and i i'm just very eager to you know it into the clinical work so has your experience of what you think of the program and johns to tillage the xcel program i  enjoy i think it's actually been very exciting for me the p a that he set me up with some of our she's she's excellent she's such a great teacher and having her you know like mentor me she's very positive with me and is telling me that i'm going to get into a piece cool she has me working with the patients and everything so what's been the biggest learning experience that you've had from being in the program what were you before and what did you  develop i think i'd like to say i developed my patient context skills and you know my my report with them great because as an e m t you know you see your patients like right away but when you see them you're you're seeing them at their worst almost right they call nine one one we get there we bring him to the hospital and you kind of say bye it was just a short interaction what the program helped me do now is see those people progress and i think that's like the whole thing about being a pos just you know maintaining that connection with your patient and watching them get better and better and so far in these five weeks i have actually had patients come into these facilities when they first get there and i've sat with them through their entire therapy and seen them discharge and go home and they've already been like you know it was really nice to meet you and i'm so glad you were here with me throughout this process to have money that make you feel that it does must be a great feeling it really was and i haven't had that feeling until this program because like i said it was such a short connection with your patients you say by wish you the best but now you actually get to sit there and watch them heal this program really gets you interactive with human beings this is not just  in the book like just reading it's not just you know learning and you sit in school and you learn about this thing and they tell you what you're going to encounter but this is actually like face the face this is this is what i expect they want to be a p a i have into coworkers that want to be doctors as well i'm not trying to convince them to you know switch or anything but the ones that want to b p a s i let them know about the program because they're the ones for the ones who want to be doctors or do you ever give them the other way you script you want to be a doctor but let me just tell you what it's why i'm choosing to be a peon here's the contrast and maybe they'll see that maybe it's a better choice for them that way it's actually been the other way around where my coworker who want to be a doctor told me why don't you be a doctor i don't it's not usually me telling i want to be a peer and he's like i honestly think you know you're smart enough to become a doctor and then he says well i'm not like no offense you know yeah if you straighten that out ye enlightened and take the same classes that the doctors did exactly it's a matter of ph you don't have to run a business where there's a physician you're running a practice you have to have worker's comp just worry about benefit in that staffing so when less cost and you're still on a six figure income track yeah i mean we we practice medicine that's what we do we have to worry about the business and it so just it's a big reason why a lot of students prefer to be a physician assistant you know he was a lateral movement that then he was talking about you know a physician once they've chosen their residency that's especially there and there's no changing it unless they're going to another residency whereas physician assistants are training every area of medicine and we actually can change practice  call did and then when you're my age i like you know this was great but i've had enough of this so i know i can transfer i can switch specialties and working cardiology which is a great transition for that but i can also go work and dermatology so when you're going to have a family you can change as your lifestyle changes the career will change for you do you have an option but to recap what over also for example your down the line you know looking to change what does of he a big say ten years down the line definitely not you know looking discouraged as well but the point is there is another option and we're clinicians i also hear that it's now more cost effective for clinics like med express to use revenue doctors because of the economics of how the insurance companies are paying their health institutions they're able to see a bigger profit by paying a ph versus having doctors is that why there's a larger demand for graduates i help people start their businesses or fine tune their businesses and i upgraded this business to one that i have don what why would someone come into the cork ship program or another program in deciding a new mid life career what's the what's what's what's the benefit of that while the physician assisted the profession is actually a great career for a career change i've had students from of course college age students and in fact the youngest has from seventeen years old mouth who was in a accelerated program to fifty four years old wow what a large can of yes and the reason why it's a great option for someone who's that the ball and again there is going to be increasing that with experience so that's the return on investment is the main reason of course you're doing something that's me that is i think one of the best reasons is that they're c at the expense and the duration of how long they have to be in school to get to the goal of then start practicing so can you please recap how long are they actually in school for being coming a p s a versus a medical doctor sure well as a twenty twenty all p a program is a master's level that virtually all are now so you need a bachelor's degree and then it's a two or three year program in the program you're going to do so if you already have a bachelor's degree and you've had the sciences or you can always add the sciences if you in mazing program and it's helped so many already and not to mention the trickle effect of how many patients will be helping during their careers so what have you done to evolve your business in the last few months alone ok well one of the things that i notice you know we always  listen to our students our applicants we do seminars we pay attention to their needs as well and we had some questions about students which are our students have financially basically under  only four months long so we usually would have payments during that four month period we've now extended that three one twelve months making it a lot more affordable and easier to end so it's accessible to any income class now yes it's only twelve months to pay  very fordable and also we've worked a partnership out with the physicians just a mentor association where they will offer a scholarship to students in the amount of five hundred dollars as a credit to the program to issue this so the only thing  led you to any philanthropic aspect of what you do sure well one of the things that we're doing is i'm compiling a series of books called the inspired and it is stories from ph students that help them achieve their dreams and basically assistants to go on to medical missions and pastor you know john and i see so much it's been such a pleasure i love that you're showing people alternatives and it's a very unique opportunity that you're providing people to really reach their dreams of being the middle cool industry by giving them a little bit more insight and a leg up i mean to go into something with is only a four and a half percent likelihood of acceptance to i think you had mentioned the you bring them up to a ninety seven to ninety nine percentage a tremendous i mean it's unbelievable i mean obviously you can't put a guarantee because you're not going to literally call inside their body and get them accepted but that's virtually what you're doing so thank you so much for making such a difference and it's been a pleasure