MPAS degree

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rom3o

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I came across a school (James madison university), that offers a MPAS degree. Masters in Physician Assistant Studies, will this suffice in the road to becoming a PA, i.e. being able to sit for the licensing exam? I believe it is usually a MA-PA degree, correct?

Ideally I would have liked the program at GW since it's 20 min from my house... but the tuition rate is around $50k for the first year (w/out room & board), this seems pretty high.

Does which PA school you attend really matter? i.e., the "name" of the school... I know this is a bit shallow but just curious
 
That tuition (if you read it accurately) is definitley on the high side of PA school tuitions. I do not know much about the PA school, but i know JMU has a pretty good reputation on a whole.

Does PA school reputation matter? for 90% of PA jobs I do not think it matters much. Previous experience and reviews are probably the biggest areas. However, if you want to leave clinical practice at some point and work in another area with your PA degree it could matter alot. Academics and business are two areas where I know it matters.
 
to answer your degree question- there is no specific degree required to sit for the boards, you just need to graduate from a pa program.
 
And name of the school doesn't matter when it comes to licensing by the medical board; only program completion. And its licensing that employers care about.
 
emedpa said:
to answer your degree question- there is no specific degree required to sit for the boards, you just need to graduate from a pa program.
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However, to be licensed, three states now require a Masters. Ohio and Mississippi require it be in a health related field (Mississippi also allows a Masters in science). Missouri requires the Masters to be from a PA program. This can be problematic since some non-masters programs arrange for their students to get a Masters from a local university in areas such as Medical Management or Clinical leadership. These would be acceptable in Mississippi and Ohio but not in Missouri. There are also a number of states that require a bachelors.

To the OP if I recall the MPAS is the most common masters granted by PA programs. I seem to remember that MMS (master of medical science) is the second most common. There was an article on this in PAEA some time back.

David Carpenter, PA-C
 
core0 said:
However, to be licensed, three states now require a Masters. Ohio and Mississippi require it be in a health related field (Mississippi also allows a Masters in science). Missouri requires the Masters to be from a PA program. This can be problematic since some non-masters programs arrange for their students to get a Masters from a local university in areas such as Medical Management or Clinical leadership. These would be acceptable in Mississippi and Ohio but not in Missouri. There are also a number of states that require a bachelors.

To the OP if I recall the MPAS is the most common masters granted by PA programs. I seem to remember that MMS (master of medical science) is the second most common. There was an article on this in PAEA some time back.

David Carpenter, PA-C
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The other confusing issue is whether or not you work at a federal facility. most federal positions require you to be licensed in A state but it doesn't have to be the one in which you are currently working so (correct me if I'm wrong here david) a pa working indian health service, prison, etc as a federal employee in ohio could have a washington license as long as they practiced 100% at that federal facility. this allows federal/military etc pa's to change job assignments quickly within the federal structure. also civilian places that contract out to federal positions( see http://www.passllc.com/opportunities.html lower left hand corner for example) only require any state license not a specific state license.
 
Thanks for the info everyone, my ultimate goal is to become a PA and then join the US Deparment of State has a health practitioner: http://careers.state.gov/specialist/opportunities/healthprac.html

I've still got a couple more years of undergrad to go. I currently work as a practitioner for an orthopedic company (for the past 3.5 years). Would it behoove me to look into something else? I wouldn't mind working as an EMT-B, I read that most PA's have had previous clinical experience as EMTs, RNs, paramedics, etc, does this put you above the rest when applying to PA school? I still have a lot more of this to look into but I appreciate all the responses.
 
rom3o said:
does this put you above the rest when applying to PA school? I still have a lot more of this to look into but I appreciate all the responses.
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PA program requirements vary significantly. while some programs require 4000+ hrs of high level paid medical experience(paramedic, rn, rt, etc) some will allow applicants with shadowing/volunteer experience or no experience of any kind. opinions vary on the quality of the various programs and their graduates....
look into the types of programs you think you might be interested in whether for geographic or other reasons and then reserarch their individual requirements.
 
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