it takes a decent amount of committment to get 2000-3000 hrs of meaningfull medical experience while in college( 10-20 hrs/week). most people do it over several years after they graduate as in the illustration above. also a number of programs want prior professional experience( rn/lpn/paramedic/resp. therapist/navy corpman etc and will not accept a basic emt cert + a few volunteer shifts/month. look at the programs you are applying to. if they accept less than 2000 hrs of professional experience or allow shadowing/low level volunteering to count toward these hours they most likely are not a quality program. also most pa's work the same hours as the docs they work wiith, so it is not a 9-5 job unless the whole practice is structured that way. pa's still take night call from home too, etc.
from a local pa program website:
Applicants applying in 2003 must meet or exceed all of these prerequisites:
Clinical Experience:
Minimum of two (2) years of recent, full-time equivalent, hands-on experience in the direct delivery of medical care to patients (approximately 4,000 hours); examples might be LPN, RN, Paramedic, Corpsman, OR
Current professional credentials and at least two (2) years of recent full-time experience in an allied health field, such as medical technology, X-ray technology, pharmacy, etc.
Clinical experience can be calculated up to the November 15th application deadline date. You must have the minimum two years fulltime equivalent experience by that date to be eligible to apply in this admission cycle. Experience must be from paid position(s), not volunteer work, and clinical experience gained through a training program as a student does NOT count toward satisfying the 4,000 hour requirement.
