Hey there! I’m a senior in high school and I have been set on becoming a PA for quite some time now. I have been accepted to the University of Pennsylvania, and that is where I am going for the fall of 2021. My intended major is Health & Societies with a concentration in public health. I am very curious about the process and the application timeline.
Is it possible to jump right into PA school right after graduating from undergrad? And should I?
Any tips on how to get a job as an uncertified medical assistant? I have a high school background in dynamics of healthcare, anatomy&physiology 1+2 with medical terminology. Any flexible healthcare jobs that you know of for full-time college students? I am trying to steer away from CNA. So far my options are: medical assistant, ER tech, EMT, EKG tech.
I currently live about 1.5 hours away from UPenn. I wanted to get a healthcare job (medical assistant, EMT) during my fall and spring semesters of my sophomore, junior, and senior year. I would be going home during fall, winter, and summer break (probably finding a job close to home). How would employers view this? Would they allow me to work while I am at school and then a break for when I am not in school? For example:
Freshman Year:
Fall 2021 - the transition from high school to college (clubs, extracurriculars)
Spring 2022 - PENNMERT
Summer 2022 (medical mission trip 200 hours/job 300 hours) = 500 hours
Sophomore year:
Fall 2022 - a part-time healthcare job in Philly (225-250 hours)
Spring 2023 - a part-time healthcare job in Philly (225-250 hours)
Summer 2023 - (find a healthcare job close to home, study for GRE, and take it once in Mid-August or during fall break, internship, research) = 500 hours
Junior Year:
Fall 2023 - a part-time job in Philly (225-250 hours)
Spring 2024 - a part-time job in Philly, start applying to PA school in April (usually deadline is early September, so submit your application by the latest May-June (for schools with rolling admissions))
Summer 2024 - healthcare job close to home (500 hours)
Senior Year:
Fall 2024 - continue working
Spring 2025 - continue working
I’m not sure if employers will hire me if I am only working for the fall and spring semesters. What are your opinions? How should I go about this?
I know that it’s early to start thinking about all of this, but I have set my goals on becoming a PA for over a year now.
It’s possible but difficult due to the number of patient care hours required for admission. (There is range of required hours–anywhere from 500 to over 2000, depending on the program.)
Pennsylvania requires ALL MAs to be certified. Hiring a uncertified MA can results in fines and other censure for employers. It’s unlikely that you will find a MA job in Philadelphia unless you take the training classes and hold PA state certification.
Here is a list of the jobs that potential PA students typically do:
Medical assistant
Emergency medical technician (EMT)
Paramedic
Medic or medical corpsman
Peace Corps volunteer
Lab assistant/phlebotomist
Registered nurse
Emergency room technician
Surgical tech
Certified nursing assistant (CNA)
Most of the tech positions–ER tech, EKG tech, surgical tech require at EMT-B certificate as the basic qualification. Some hospitals requires techs to have earned a separate several month to 2 year tech specialty certificate. You really need to check PA state licensure requirements for those positions.
A bit about EMT-B. Each state certifies and licenses its own EMT-Bs. The scope of practice varies slightly from state to state. State will not necessarily recognize or accept EMTs who trained OOS even if they are on the national registry. Most will require a re-training class first.
Whether your employer will hold your job open for you while you go home for the holidays is dependent on the specific employer. I wouldn’t count on it happening. There are plenty of willing workers for those jobs and finding a temp replacement or assigning other employees to work extra hours because one wants to to go on vacation is inherently unfair to everyone else and it’s a logistical PITA. Hospitals & medical offices don’t close up just because you’re on school breaks.
How should you handle this?
Be honest and upfront when you’re applying for the position. Tell them you can work during the school year (or during the summer). and leave it up to the employer to make the decision about the acceptability of those conditions.
Realistically, you will probably need to make arrangements to stay in Philadelphia during breaks so you can keep your job.
RE: summer medical mission trips. If these are volunteer service trips, be aware that those hour won’t count toward your required hours for PA school. Hours must be PAID employment. Volunteer hours aren’t counted. Also hours worked outside the US aren’t considered by PA schools as fulfilling work hour requirements.
Taking vitals is not something that’s critical to learn for a PA student. Just about anyone can be trained in less than an hour how to take vitals. With an automated blood pressure cuff and fingertip oximeter, the process is entirely automated. I take my own vitals using those 2 pieces of equipment before I speak with my PCP during a tele-visit.
CNA positions often have HUGE flexibility built in which is why they are so popular while you are in undergrad. You can be a regular, full time employee in a facility (too many hours for a full time student IMHO), you can be part-time with regular shifts (Sat or Sunday, one evening?), you can be “flex”- they call you when one of the full-timers calls in sick, family emergency, etc., you can sign on with an agency for the specific hours a week you want to work and they match you up. You can supplement with working either private duty or in a facility when you are home on vacations, or you can use the vacation time to study, decompress, sleep, etc.
So just a thought for you- there’s a reason why certain tracks are more popular than others and the flexibility factor for sure is one of them!
Check Penn. Some colleges have EMS services and if that is the case, your school schedule would be considered but as noted, you need to do the training.
what if you get laid off from one of your jobs or there are no pa related jobs available? You will need to find fallback routes.
You could also work with kids. This is not pre-med direct, but it shows that you are taking initiative towards helping others.