Experience and PA School

Started by nikkivale
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nikkivale

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I need some advice to as if i should even attempt PA school. I decided I would love to get into the field of dermatology after interviewing and shadowing a nurse at a local dermatology office. I don't know yet if I would like to go the MD or PA
(with PA derm residency😕) route but the problem is that I don't have any clinical experience. I would like to attend East Carolina which doesn't require experience but will it make it harder to find a job?
 
do yourself a favor. if you want to be a pa take the time to get some experience so that you know medicine, and particularly the pa field, is right for you. students without prior clinical experience really strugle in school, especially clinicals.
 
Emedpa,

First of all, I really like everything you have to say (what I've read so far on ths forum, at least), and appreciate your continuous defense of the PA profession. How long have you been a PA? Where did youi go to school?

Now, to the point of this thread--What would you recommend as the best sort of experience prior to PA School?

I have both my CNA and Phlebotomy certifications, which I acquired recently for the sole purpose of accumulating hours of experience prior to PA School. I was hoping to work as an ER Tech, but haven't found any jobs in my area so I'm thinking I'll have to choose either CNA or Phlebotomist (at least for a while). CNAs are less technically skilled, but have more consistent hands-on care with patients throughout the workday and may have a better sense ofthe medical field as a whole; Phlebotomists are more skilled, but see fewer patients and spend a lto of time in the lab.

What would you recommend?
 
the best background for pa school in my experience has been paramedic, rn, or resp therapist. emt is also a good pathway.
check out www.physicianassistant.net for a better pa forum than this one.
 
ESellers, given what you say in your post, I might think about phlebotomy, but only if it works the way it does at my hospital.

I started out as a volunteer in my hospital's ED, and as I got more and more sure about changing careers, I got EMT-Basic certification, at which point the ER people already knew me and liked me, so I got hired. I saw some classmates later, who had managed to get jobs with one of the local med transport companies, and they were amazed because supposedly ER Tech jobs were hard to get. I just shrugged; I guess I had an "in."

Long story short, if your goal at the moment is an ER Tech position, then CNA might be the better way to go ... unless CNA is going to get you out of the hospital, and into home healthcare or something. I suspect that's likely, which is why I say phlebotomy for now.

If you're tooling around the hospital with your little bucket of supplies, it's a nice opportunity to get to know the units and the people in them. Maybe you'd be one of the first to hear about an opening in the ICU, for instance, if not actually in the ER.

Not to mention, there is hands-on patient care, and instead of scooping the poop, you're refining a clinical skill you'll use the rest of your career. It's pretty sweet to be in PA school, having done a few hundred sticks already. Someone with a year or so of phlebotomy experience would probably be able to hit stuff that none of their classmates could...
 
emedpa said:
do yourself a favor. if you want to be a pa take the time to get some experience so that you know medicine, and particularly the pa field, is right for you. students without prior clinical experience really strugle in school, especially clinicals.
Click to expand...

Thank you,
I've have been looking over some of the past threads about experience and think that gaining experience would be a much better idea.
Do you personally think that becoming a CNA would be a good way to gain experience? I see many ppl on the board are former EMT's.
 
nikkivale said:
Thank you,
I've have been looking over some of the past threads about experience and think that gaining experience would be a much better idea.
Do you personally think that becoming a CNA would be a good way to gain experience? I see many ppl on the board are former EMT's.
Click to expand...

cna is better than nothing but emt or medical asst. is much better experience.
cna is basically feeding, changing diapers, bathing and moving pts around. important certainly but not very relevant to practicing medicine.
 
emedpa said:
cna is better than nothing but emt or medical asst. is much better experience.
cna is basically feeding, changing diapers, bathing and moving pts around. important certainly but not very relevant to practicing medicine.
Click to expand...

OR tech is another good way to go. With the amount of Surgical PAs out there this would give you a big head start as a new grad. The training is about a year part time.

David Carpenter, PA-C
 
core0 said:
OR tech is another good way to go. With the amount of Surgical PAs out there this would give you a big head start as a new grad. The training is about a year part time.

David Carpenter, PA-C
Click to expand...

I started out as an OR tech and am now a surgical PA and it was invaluable training.

As far as time commitment mine was full-time for a year and most of the programs that I know about are the same.

I did work while going to scrub school and it was a rough year, but well worth it.

-Mike
 
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