<p>My D is in college & I would like to gather some info on how to get into a PA Program. What kind of job experiences / volunteer exp. / hospital exp. etc are needed ? Any advise or info on schools are greatly appreciated. Thank you!</p>
<p>PA programs are typically master’s programs. The biggest experience requirement for PA programs are the clinical/direct patient care hours. Generally PA programs require applicants to have, at minimum, between 1,000 and 2,000 direct patient care/clinical hours. For the record, 1,000 hours is about 20 hours per week for a year; 2,000 hours is about 40 hours per week for a year, or a full-time job. The definition of direct patient care is pretty narrow, and most hospital volunteering experiences don’t fit the bill. For that reason, most PAs are former nurses, EMTs, paramedics, and other allied health professionals who have provided direct patient care in the course of their jobs.</p>
<p>PA programs are also very competitive, so while 1K-2K hours may be the minimum requirement, it may be more common for accepted applicants to have far more. For example, Emory’s minimum requirement is 2,000 hours. However, they used to have a class profile up and their accepted applicants averaged 4,000 hours (which is about 2 years of full-time work as a direct patient care provider).</p>
<p>The vast majority of programs have these requirements. However, a few don’t - like Weill Cornell’s PA program doesn’t have a minimum and doesn’t require the experience to be direct patient care, although they encourage it.</p>
<p>The American Academy of Physician Assistants (<a href=“http://www.aapa.org/”>Home - AAPA) is the professional organization for PAs. The AAPA says that most students have a bachelor’s degree and about 3 years of professional health care experience before becoming a PA. ARC-PA (<a href=“http://www.arc-pa.org/”>http://www.arc-pa.org/</a>) is the agency that accredits PA programs; you must attend an accredited PA program to become nationally certified. The 181 programs are listed here: <a href=“http://www.arc-pa.org/acc_programs/”>http://www.arc-pa.org/acc_programs/</a></p>
<p>PAs average around $90,000 per year. When I was snooping around for PA jobs, most in average CoL areas were offering $70-80K to start out. In higher CoL areas, PAs can actually start out at $80-90K (here in New York I think that’s not an uncommon starting salary). So the combined debt load a potential PA would want to have should probably be less than around $80-90K. The caveat is, of course, that a PA would be eligible for income-based repayment programs (as long as all loans are federal) and potentially public service loan forgiveness. However, because of that I would recommend going to a good in-state public school if possible.</p>
<p>I think a good strategy for a potential PA is getting licensed to be some kind of allied health care provider - a paramedic, an EMT, a CNA, a nurse, etc. A bachelor’s degree holder can get a nursing license in a year to a year and a half through accelerated program; paramedic and/or EMT training can usually be completed in a couple of months. Then she can get a full-time job in either of those fields for 2-3 years. Volunteering part-time seems like it would take many more years. I think doing a one-year accelerated nursing program is probably the best way to go; the prerequisites to PA and nursing programs are pretty similar AND when she has the RN license, she has the option of either getting the master’s in PA or becoming a nurse practitioner (very similar role). She could move to a state that has a lot of good public universities with a few PA programs and maybe some MSN/NP programs, work there for 2-3 years while establishing residency, and apply. New York has a few. (The problem is that most of these PA programs are at private colleges.)</p>
<p>There’s also scouring that list to look at the PA programs with lower hourly requirements or the absence of one at all. I think I may have seen a program or two that only required around 500 hours (which can be done part-time).</p>
<p>Another more option are the few BS programs in PA left over. If your D is already in college, she can transfer to this program after her sophomore year in college provided she have the prerequisites. These programs usually don’t have the hourly requirements, because they expect their students to be largely college students (although you can also do the program as a second bachelor’s). BS-level physicians assistants are licensed just like MS-level ones. However, many (probably most) hospitals may be hesitant to hire BS-level PAs, so I would investigate before choosing this option.</p>
<p>I think there may only be two of these programs left: there’s one at City College of New York (<a href=“http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/sophiedavis/pa-program-requirements.cfm”>http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/sophiedavis/pa-program-requirements.cfm</a>) and one at York College (<a href=“Physician Assistant (MSPAS)”>https://www.york.cuny.edu/academics/departments/health-professions/physician-assistant</a>). But York College is transitioning their program to a graduate-level one, so by the time your D graduates this BS option may no longer be around.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for sharing all these info with us. I appreciate this. I will read this over & over again.</p>
<p>My D planned to do the PA route but during her undergrad in public health she changed her mind to the Nurse Practitioner route. A lot of the prerequisites are the same for both types of grad program. The NP programs seem a bit less competitive to get into than the PA programs but still difficult with a lot of hefty undergrad prerequisites such as chemistry and microbiology. Make sure that your D is aware of these prereqs while doing her undergrad. Even with all of my D’s planning, she found herself having to take classes during the summer and winter breaks to fulfill all of the requirements for applying to NP programs. Happy to report that she is presently deciding between two wonderful programs to attend.
Another tip: every university has a pre-med advisor to help the pre-med students to make sure that they have all their ducks in a row for applying to medical school. These same advisors can be utilized by PA and NP hopefuls. Your D’s regular advisor should be able to set that up for her.</p>
<p>Thank You so much @EPTR</p>
<p>did she apply right after undergrad school or did she work for a while before she applied for the NP program? I heard that lots of NP are not PhD programs & many also required 1-2 yrs of work experiences. Thanks so much again for your info!</p>