Hands on experience-- ideas?

[RockDoc28]

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Hey guys,

I'm in between college and med school, I am waitlisted at one medical school and still waiting on a few more DO schools. I am considering looking at PA schools, and plan on applying to both DO schools and PA schools next cycle. I will be taking A+P, biochem and Microbio during this next school year to boost my GPA and to fulfill PA requirements. I am working as a physician's scribe in an ER right now, but once the school year starts I'm wanting to do a more hands on experience to fulfill PA requirements.

Since I will only (hopefully) be doing this for one year before I get accepted into PA/ Medical school I am looking for an experience that does not take a long time to get trained in-- EMT would be cool but all the programs that I've heard of take a full semester of classes. Right now I am planning on getting my CNA in three weeks then working as an ER tech, but I was hoping you guys had any other ideas on working in other departments of the hospital or in a clinic or something so that I can get a change in scenery. I've done a bunch of research and can't find anything that I can start doing in less than three weeks like the CNA to ER Tech route.

Thanks guys!

 

[BB8730]

I've done a bunch of research and can't find anything that I can start doing in less than three weeks like the CNA to ER Tech route.

I don't believe there is anything else. CNA is probably the fastest/easiest hands-on patient care certification that you can get, followed by EMT. There are things like phlebotomy and EKG tech that can take less than a year to get certified in, but those are more involved.

If you're interested in EMT, look for a summer class at a local community college. It's usually only a 6 credit class and you can complete it from June-August. My EMT class only met twice a week from 6pm-10pm on Tues/Thurs. The only downside is that it will probably be hard to find a job that won't interfere with your school schedule.

My recommendation for you would be to take the CNA -> ED tech route. You already have experience in the ED so you'll look good on job applications and you'll train in quickly. I worked as an ED CNA for 3 years and it was the best patient care experience I've had so far. I can sympathize that you want a change of scenery, but honestly the ED is one of the best areas to get hands-on patient care experience because of the quick cycling of patients and all the specialties that come to the ED.

Good luck!

 

[maybemed2013]

If you want you can do EKG or Phlebotomy.

If you live in S. Fla check out fastcna.com you can do CNA class in 3 days, you can do Phleb /or EKG or Patient Care Tech in 5 days.