<p>OHMom,
My daughter didn’t express interest in this field until the summer before her junior year. I will give you a couple of suggestions that would have benefited my D if she had known as early as sophomore year that she was interested in a PA program.</p>
<p>Have her start looking NOW for opportunities to check out clinical settings. She can volunteer in a hospital, shadow a doctor or PA, get trained as a nurses aid (unless their is an age minimum. I don’t know. In our state you don’t need a HS diploma to get that license).</p>
<p>There are some schools that offer programs that are undergrad entry PA programs. For example Quinnipiac in Ct. It is a 6 year program and if you get in, you start the undergrad program and roll right into the grad program with licensure at the end. My D applied but didn’t get in because one of their requirements is a minimum amount of hours shadowing a PA. Because my D decided so late to apply, she didn’t get a chance to fit that in. She did shadow her dermatologist for a few days and loved it (yuck). </p>
<p>At the very least, the experience will help her decide if she wants to go that route even if she takes a more traditional route to the grad program.</p>
<p>Thanks much. Our hospital won’t allow volunteers under 16 so that’s that until next fall. Shadowing she might be able to do…we have a friend whose daughter is just finishing a grad PA program who I can ask.</p>
<p>Yes. Use contacts if you can. I recently found out that the local hospital near us has an administrator who manages JUST the PAs. Fortunately, I have a contact who is going to put my D in touch with him to see about setting up some shadowing opportunities for her. My D was 18 at the time that she first shadowed her dermatologist. Some of the procedures that she watched would curl your hair but she only felt queazy once. God love her.</p>
<p>At 16 I guess you would want to be cognizant of her getting turned OFF it is too much for her. She has time. Maybe even see if she wants to offer to volunteer at a pediatrician’s office doing less clinical tasks, just to get used to the environment. Good luck! If you want more info for your daughter, as mine goes through this process, let me know. My D is a Junior now so decisions will be coming up in the near future.</p>
<p>My kid is in her 5th year of the PA program and absolutely loves her clinical rotations. </p>
<p>PA certification requires that the PA be proficient in almost all areas of medicine, so it is very easy to switch specialities. It makes for a very difficult licensing exam, but makes career choices very open. Get tired of family practice and want to try plastic surgery instead? No problem!</p>
<p>For the last several years, every graduating student at her school has been employed before graduation day - even before getting a chance to take the certification exam that takes place six weeks after graduation. Two of the supervisors for her rotations have told her to contact them if she decides to stay in that specialty, as they are thinking of taking on a PA. Our primary doc has indicated that she is interested in hiring her as well. It’s a great time to be graduating!</p>
<p>It is a combined program. My son is is also in his 5th, and final year, of a combined program. I echo what KKmama says. There are several 5 year programs that offer guaranteed admission to freshmen and many don’t require a lot of shadowing/experience. My son only needed 30 hours, an ACT score of at least 23, and B’s in his hs science/math classes. He’s doing a neurosurgery rotation at Cleveland Clinic right now.</p>
<p>PA = Physician’s Assistant, literally what it says. Although the work is largely independent, it requires the provider to work under the “direct supervision” of a state licensed physician. In some cases such as rural health, the definition of “direct supervision” gets stretched pretty thin. Liability is held by the physician.</p>
<p>NP = Nurse Practitioner, independently licensed in most states, may or may not require a physician’s agreement. Usually requires a BSRN to be admitted to the graduate program. A few states allow NP owned independent clinics, though insurance companies (with the help of state politicians) are trying to force them out of business by reducing payments. There was a bitter fight in Oregon last year and early this year, financed by insurance company dollars. Family practice physicians are also lobbying against independent practice.</p>
<p>Also, be mindful of the NP program guidelines and whether starting in a program gives a guarantee that she will be finishing. A friend of ours was kicked out of Seattle U’s NP program and enrolled into their MSN program after paying for the first 3 semesters. The reason, according to the dean, was that they did not have enough NP preceptors for the clinical practicum, even though this student had hers already lined up. She had a 3.7 GPA and had spent $75,000 on her schooling. She was forced to start over at a different school.</p>
<p>Yes, there are some Physician’s Assistant programs that are a total of 5 years long, with direct entry from high school. One is at DeSales University, about an hour north of Philadelphia.</p>
<p>In reference to a comment above, my understanding is that some national organizations have been pushing to require a doctorate for a new nurse practioner. However, most states are not showing much interest in that requirement. Some universities have moved ahead to change their nurse practioner into a doctorate program, but right now that is more of a guideline than a national requirement. (The people who already have a credential will often try to make it harder for new people to enter into their field).</p>
<p>So would a NP be “above” a PA in the clinical pecking order? I always thought they were pretty much the same thing, just went a different route to get to the same place, not true??</p>
<p>I don’t know. I think one of the things that is attractive to my D about the PA thing is the fact that you are answering to a Dr. and that the Dr. has the ultimate liability. </p>
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<p>That may be tchnically true but I would encourage any high schooler who wants to apply to a combined program to do all of the required clinical (and maybe more) before applying so that it is on the application. The reason being the highly competitive nature of the programs. If the schools have two applicants with equal stats and one has ten hours clinical and the other has 50, well…</p>
<p>One thing that I will say about the combined programs. Once a student is admitted, it is great as long as the student doesn’t have a change of heart. When my D applied to Quinnipiac, she got into the college but not into the PA program. She was actually a little relieved because she would have felt pressured to stick it out if she had a change of heart. She also wasn’t thrilled with the college itself but would have gone had she gotten into the PA program. The route she has taken has worked out well for her. She is at a college she loves, in a major she loves and has the freedom to pursue grad school in whatever field she decides she wants. It may be a PA program or may be something else but I thinks she’s happier going at it this way.</p>
<p>The combined programs are a great choice for some and are probably more time and money ecomical. There are lots of different ways to get there!</p>
<p>Just for the record, it is Physician Assistant; there is no " 's ".</p>
<p>My kid did the 5 year program after carefully researching the graduate programs. She needed 200 hours of direct patient contact, which she accumulated by shadowing and by working as a home health care aide with pediatric clients. Those hours had to be completed by the start of the graduate phase, which is the beginning of her “senior” year of college. Spent three summers with the home health care agency, so that was definitely not a problem.</p>
<p>It is extremely difficult to get accepted into the grad program, especially for people who have not been employed in health professions, and she knew she wanted to be a PA (since she could not afford med school, and joining the military to help pay for it meant postponing motherhood - or her view of motherhood - too long) so she went the expedient route.</p>
<p>There were some students who could not make it through the undergrad program, but the profs were open with those students and encouraged them to switch majors early on so that they could obtain a more valuable BS other than “health sciences”. Only one hung on until the bitter end. A few more failed the first semester of the grad program, when anything below 80% proficiency was considered failing.</p>
<p>Her program requires 6 clinical rotations. The only one she has not liked was psychiatry.</p>
<p>Feeling the need to chime in here. My daughter , who is a strong, dedicated student who will receive her undergrad degree as a health science major in May got rejected from every PA school she applied to. Talk about crushed !
She has changed and arranged her entire life in the last 4 yrs in order to achieve this goal. She has been on the deans list every semester but one , got one C in a science course ( which she took over and brought the grade up to a B )
It was humiliating to her to see her classmates getting interviewed while she waited only to receive rejection letters.</p>
<p>But here is the kicker…all of the students who were planning to attend medical schools have changed their minds and applied to PA instead. Another twist…none of THEM have been accepted either…</p>
<p>Not even to safeties.</p>
<p>I was told by admissions at one of the schools that the application pool is extremely competitive and not nearly enough spots to come close to the demands. Also, few schools are taking applicants straight out with undergrad without working years in the field as CNAs , EMTs or applicants who have significant time spent volunteering in third world countries.
My daughter thought she had it wrapped up, with her two co-ops and simultaneous volunteering in hospitals.</p>
<p>Plan B is nurse practitioner route which she is currently applying to now. She has some good connections with professors and still an impressive resume , so hopefully this will work out for her.</p>
<p>If there is such a huge demand for PAs , nurses an NPs , why the heck are the programs so small ?</p>