Back to School for PA Pre-reqs

[thedrswife]

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Hi everyone! I'm a 25 year old IT professional seriously considering going back to school. I graduated with a B.S. in Psychology and immediately got a nice salaried job to support myself and my husband who is currently in his 4th year of medical school.

My husband is (hopefully) entering into an EM residency this summer and I've started to think about what I want to do when we can afford for me to go back to school. Quite frankly I hate the corporate IT career I'm in. It pays well but I really don't like the work and feel like I missed my calling in medicine. I took chem & bio in undergrad and really enjoyed those classes so I don't think going back for the pre-reqs would be too much of a stretch. My GPA in undergrad was 3.33 (brought down due to an unfortunate stint in music school but I got straight A's in all of my STEM classes), so if I go back and take the pre-req classes as a non-degree seeking student I think I could bring it up to a respectable level.

What kind of HME could I be doing while I take those pre-reqs? Is it more beneficial to do a job like medical scribe/medical assistant or would it look better to a potential PA program to log a bunch of shadowing hours?

 

[deleted6669]

working >>>> shadowing, although you need to meet the min shadow requirement of any job. for better pa related discussions see www.physicianassistantforum.com
there are fewer than a dozen pas at sdn and >20,000 at pa forum. that site has links to all programs and postgrad training, specialties, etc

 

[Salem916]

You're probably hoping for some advice but I am interested in how you got into the IT field with a psychology degree? I am currently a psych major and wanted to know how that worked out

 

[WalSlave]

Your GPA probably won't end up being a significant hurdle for you. I reckon your science GPA is pretty high since you aced all of your STEM classes, so just focus on acing your remaining pre-reqs and you'll be plenty competitive when it comes to GPA.

I think HCE should be your first priority. I think the shortest route would be to take a medical terminology class and go after a scribe job. Not all HCE jobs require months and months of licensing training ($$$). Scour job opening listings at your local hospitals and hit up any contacts you or your husband may have. Once you have a job nailed down, then work on getting some shadowing hours (plus a letter from a PA). FWIW, you can certainly get into school without shadowing a PA or a PA letter (I did), but it will definitely help you if you can pull it off. Working in a hospital/medical environment will give you access to a ton of PAs, so just start networking.