Advice on healthcare route (PA or RN to NP)

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

PA route or RN to NP route!

  • PA

    Votes: 1 20.0%
  • NP

    Votes: 4 80.0%

  • Total voters
    5

EconGuy

New Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2015
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Hi, I am about to graduate with a degree in economics. Not exactly what you were expecting to here. I have been taking the prerequisites for PA school and have the basic ones done. The problem is my grades are not the best and I don't think I could make it into PA school at the moment. So if I decide to pursue PA school, I would need to take probably another year of college, completing courses like O-chemistry, Biochemistry, genetics, etc.. to boost my GPA. I am taking an EMT class this semester, so this would be my health experience once I get a job. On the other hand, the bit more safer but longer route, I am thinking about an accelerated nursing program, in which I would then purse a NP after. I would prefer to do the PA route because its shorter, I and more inclined to the medical-model of teaching, rather than the patient-centered model, and I think I would like to do some surgery.

My GPA is about a 3.4. My science GPA is even less than that, I have trouble calculating it because I am not sure whether to include classes took for credit in high school ( Bio 1, Physics 1). Here are my recent classes.
Chem 2 W { }
Organismic C { Freshman year}
Microbiology B
Chem 1 B
Human body A (8 hour anatomy and physiology)
Chem 2 A

The only other pertinent classes I am in not are parasitology, cadaver practicum, and medical terminology, medical ethics and I unfortunately am borderline in my parasitology class.

So a couple concerns I have are:
Will my classes I took at community college during high school effect my GPA?
Realistically, how many science classes do I have to ace in order to be competitve?
I really would love to go to PA school, but I don't want to pursue something that I might not ever attain or it will take me like 5 years, should I continue to pursue this route, or is a nursing route more suitable for me?

Members don't see this ad.
 
I'll throw this out there because it looks like you can see the writing on the wall... You seem to have a clear sense that for you to get into PA school will take a long time. I agree with you. Facing reality will be healthy for a few reasons. For one, people tend to get excited about PA school for a lot of the wrong reasons, which I will mention. Potential PA applicants get excited thinking that because some schools have very few prereqs that they can easily transition from what they are doing to apply for pA school and manage to get in. Many applicants are excited about the relatively short duration of school, others are draw by the cash or think that they will work when they want to and have holidays and weekends off. They think that they can command respect. They think they will get more time with patients than physicians, and that they will be able to effortlessly jump around to different specialties. Reality is much, much more nuanced.
 
Everyone I know that got in to Pas school really wanted to go badly, and having it take several years was fine for most of them. There are easier says to make PA sized wages. If you don't have enough passion to be in it for the long haul then you won't make the cut, because the way things are for you, I don't see this happening for you without at least 2 years of effort, and probably more.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I might give yourself a little time as an EMT (and maybe an ER tech if you get the opportunity, as well), as you will likely need at least a year's experience to accrue the requisite hours for a PA program, anyway. If you had strong GRE scores and good recommendations, that could help offset your weaker grades. Can you retake Organismic? (To be honest, I have never heard of that course).
 
I can retake it, its an awful class with no relevance to what I am remotely interested in, but my advisor said since it was freshman year and schools don't look at it as important, that I should not worry about it. But a 5 credit hour C sure does hurt. I really do not know much about ER technicians but it does sound really interesting and fun experience. I need to take ace 12 hours of science courses to get a cumulative 3.5 science GPA. I believe this is doable for me, since just last semester I got a 4.0 with 12 hours of science classes. Does anyone know if my cadaver practicum, labeled as BIO 365, would count toward science GPA?
 
Top