<p>does anyone have any advice, positive or negative, regarding a current college jr. becoming a physician assistant? we live in georgia, if that matters. (there are only 3 PA programs here) thanks!</p>
<p>Find out if you need health care experience to admitted to those programs. Find out what undergrad classes are required. It’s pretty competitive, so you may have to apply to more schools.</p>
<p>thanks, toledo! it’s actually my son. he has looked at schools’ websites and found that at least 1,000 hours of shadowing/volunteering are needed prior to applying. currently trying to find a shadowing opportunity to know for sure if he wants to pursue this. specifically interested in peds. (volunteered at a 600-child orphanage his entire summer 2 years ago and he’s fluent in spanish)</p>
<p>If he’s interested in peds, he might want to consider a nurse practioner program. It seems like pediatric practices and ob/gyn practices seem to prefer nurse practioners. I have no idea why. Check your local job listings to see if this is true in your area.</p>
<p>It’s usually not 1000 hours of <em>shadowing</em>, btw. It’s typically 1000 hours of patient care, which is different. Most professional PAs were paramedics, nurses, CNAs, or EMTs first.</p>
<p>Georgia Health Sciences University says 100 hours of “health care experience or volunteer activities;” although they don’t specify, I’m betting they mean direct care experiences and not just shadowing a doctor or PA.</p>
<p>Emory’s program is extremely competitive and requires 2,000 hours of “direct hands-on patient care”, not shadowing, although they only require 1,000 hours when you apply. 1,000 hours in one year is an average of about 20 hours a week, which is like at least a part-time job in patient care. And that’s just the minimum; the average accepted applicant had 4,500 hours (per their website).</p>
<p>Mercer’s PA program also requires 1,000 hours of “direct patient care,” and has a list of accepted categories for experience. Some of the things are RN, LPN, medical assistant, hospice volunteer (but with direct patient care, not filing), x-ray technician, nursing assistant, physical therapy assistant, psychologist, dietician, and athletic trainer.</p>
<p>I was interested in this career as well, which is why I learned about it: I looked up several PA programs. On the MS level, they all require at least 1,000 hours of patient care experience. The reason is because they’re 2-year programs that basically allow you to practice medicine at the end. They want to be sure that you already have some experience working with people so that you can hit the ground running and just learn the technique and didactic stuff. (There are still some BS programs in PA, like City College and York College’s, both in CUNY.)</p>
<p>I agree with the above recommendation: if your son is interested in this career, he should consider nurse practitioner. It seems like at most hospitals and clinics, nurse practitioner and PA roles are somewhat interchangeable; a lot of hospitals don’t even advertise specifically for one or the other but instead advertise for “physician extenders” or “mid-level providers” and will accept either an NP or a PA. The NP position seems to be a bit more open and reachable, too.</p>
<p>The job will require a BSN and then an MSN in pediatric nurse practitioner (PNP). If he’s currently a junior, there are two ways to go about that: 1) acquire an accelerated BSN at a 1-year program, and then enter an MSN program in PNP, or 2) gain admission to a 3-year entry to practice program that gives you RN certification and the MSN all in one. Yale, Penn, and Columbia have programs like this as well as other schools. Some schools have more informal programs - they’re not described as entry to practice programs, but they more or less admit any successful BSN student who wants to directly into their MSN program.</p>
<p>Both tracks will take about the same amount of time (most MSN programs are now admitting BSN students into their NP programs with little to no nursing experience - it used to be the case that in order to become an NP, you needed at least 3 years of nursing experience before you could get into an MSN program, but things are changing). The best part is that he could choose to work as a nurse after his BSN and then return later, or he could do the ABSN and then go to an MSN program part-time while he works full-time, or whatever. NPs are in pretty high demand these days, especially at health clinics in urban and low-income areas. And since he speaks fluent Spanish, he won’t have a problem getting jobs - especially if he comes up here to NYC. New NPs in NYC can easily make $70-100K in their first job depending on specialty. Mount Sinai, for example, pays their NEW NPS, no experience, $96K right out of school.</p>
<p>wow! thank you so much to both of you for your advice! ^^^ great to have the clarification of shadowing vs patient care hours. he does have a shadowing opportunity scheduled just to get a view of exactly what a PA does and to help him make a decision. i learned that although he loves kids, he doesn’t feel that peds. would be what he’d have to specialize.</p>
<p>he is ahead in his college credits due to coming in with AP credit, so that will help if he decides to pursue a PA career. he’ll be able to take some additional pre-reqs. for PA school. he also has a full tuition academic scholarship and a $4,000 study-abroad stipend. again, if he decides to pursue, there are a couple of medical trips to costa rica. (for pre-med and pre-rn, but also spanish majors, which he is)</p>
<p>we’re in atlanta, so there would surely be many opportunities for spanish speaking patient care experience. anyways, lots to think about and thank you again to you both! :)</p>
<p>You can take two different routes to become a PA. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Go into a direct-entry program. You go into these programs straight out of high school and they last five or six years. You typically come out with a BS in health science and a MS in physician assistant studies (this is what I want to do. I’m a junior in HS.) </p></li>
<li><p>Get an undergraduate education and then apply to a graduate PA program. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Take a look at these colleges: [U.S</a>. Physician Assistant Programs](<a href=“http://www.healthguideusa.org/phyasst/physician_assistant_programs.htm]U.S”>U.S. Physician Assistant Programs - Health Guide USA)</p>
<p>OP is a current COLLEGE junior, so the easier, option 1 is not possible. </p>
<p>Here is a list of all the accredited programs:</p>
<p>[ARC-PA</a> / Accreditation Programs](<a href=“http://www.arc-pa.org/acc_programs/]ARC-PA”>http://www.arc-pa.org/acc_programs/)</p>
<p>thanks, bookworm, but toledo is correct. i really appreciate both inputs, however! thanks :)</p>
<p>Can we start a list of direct entry PA programs for High School seniors here? Any 5 or 6 year program in the US.</p>
<p>There’s a searchable (by state) database of all certified PA programs here:</p>
<p>[Physician</a> Assistant Education Association](<a href=“http://www.paeaonline.org/index.php]Physician”>Home | PAEA)</p>
<p>Type of program (BS/MS, MS-Only, Certificate -only) indicated as part of search results</p>
<p>WOWmom, that list is not accurate. I looked at the state of Pennsylvania and most of the combined programs were only listed as awarding a masters degree. It doesn’t give you the details, so my advice is to check the school website. It’s time consuming, but worth it. You can see how much experience they require, too. They don’t all require hundered of hours.</p>