Pre-PTA as an Undergrad: What Should I Be Doing

[archermitch]

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Hello everyone.

I'm currently Pre-PA and in order to acquire my 3 years of clinical experience for PA school I'm planning on becoming a Physical Therapist's Assistant. In terms of academics, I believe that I have all of the educational requirements for PTA programs covered (I was originally pre-med and the paths are pretty similar as an undergrad).

So my question is, what should I be doing as an undergrad? Should I be doing research? Getting clinical experience? I've been looking into the latter but it's difficult to get any hands-on patient care when I'm just an undergrad. What kind of clinical experience should I be looking into, if at all?

Any help/info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guy!

 

[okramango]

I don't know what PTA programs require, but for PT programs you need to get PT observation hours in a variety of settings (inpatient, outpatient, SNF, cardiac rehab, etc). Perhaps you could try that? Another option is to try getting a job as a rehab aide/PT tech, which usually counts as observation hours for PT programs. Your best bet would be to contact some PTA programs to see what they require. Good luck!