Direct Patient Care Hours

[perezn1]

I am a sophomore Biology major and am curious how best to get the patient care hours without having an certifications? How does one get all these hours while in school!

[mgriffiths]

I'm not sure how you would get patient care hours without actually having a job - which usually requires certifications.  As for how to get these while in school. you can work part time in school, work full time+ during the summer, take a year after finishing school to work full time+ and save up a bit to help with future student loans.

 

Shadowing hours sometimes count, but those can't be the only patient contact hours you have.  Historically the PA profession was not meant to be for students right out of college, but it is transitioning.  You just have to make the time or wait a bit to apply.

[MT2PA]

Find positions that don't require certs and will do on the job training.  Start job hunting.

[perezn1]

I plan to start working as close to full time as possible this summer and next. I thought I might try to get into a hospital setting as a patient transport aide and then pursue some type of medical aide opportunity. I just want to be sure I'm going after the proper job/experience so I don't waste time. 

[pastudentw]

I was hired as an EKG tech without any certifications, although nearly all my coworkers had a CNA, MA, EMT type certification.

I received on the job training and was required to take two EKG interpretation courses through the hospital so it did not give me any kind of recognized certification but was an awesome learning experience. I was even able to be clocked in for the time I spent in the class.

 

I would recommend getting one of the certifications listed above just because they will offer great learning experiences and it will be easier to get a patient care job. But there are a few situations where you can get hired doing direct patient care without a cert (medical assistant positions may not always require a certification). Just keep in mind the more responsibility you have at that position, the more valuable those patient hours will be on your application, but more importantly as a future PA.

 

I worked at least part time through my entire undergrad and there were always tons of opportunities to pick up extra hours during school breaks. When everyone wanted to take days for vacation, I would stay back and work. When I got to my senior year I had to attend classes Monday-Friday which greatly limited the times I could be scheduled at the hospital so I volunteered to work every Friday and Saturday twelve hour grave shifts so I could attend class all week and get my part time hours in over the weekend. Sundays were recharge days for the school week. It worked out so well! You may have to sacrifice your weekend social time but it was a perfect situation for me.

[Guest HanSolo]

I think pastudentw offers a very realistic solution for obtaining PCE. Definitely doable and a lot of people go this route.

 

I'll offer a counter advice: don't overwork yourself. You're young, eager, and anxious. I get it. I was there. I see a lot of college age folks around where I work doing the full-time classes with nearly full-time work schedules. If this is the only way to financially support yourself, then obviously you have to do what you have to do. However, let me just say you do have your whole life to work. I recommend taking advantage of your free time and obtaining balance. You'll likely never have that kind of free-time in the future. Enjoy it! No need to do everything right away. A lot of people take a year or more off after undergraduate before applying to PA school. Do what's best for you. 

[Jdabrowski]

Lots of bio professors would recommend becoming a scribe or PCA to get a start on patient care and medical terms.

[PA-C-to-be]

Well sometimes certifications don't require training, just a little money and passing a test. I'm in NC and have been a CNA for a few years, I know that here people can just study the skills and challenge the test without having taken any class/training and if they pass they can work and the cert is good for 2 years. However, I'd strongly discourage this route. I worked in an assisted living facility in my college town after graduating and most of my coworkers were students who'd done this and had never worked hands-on with patients and it was irritating when they'd ask me to help them give someone a shower because they didn't know what to do (and I'm talking about patients who weren't complicated at all but were extremely easy to work with and did not require 2 CNAs)! These kids were clueless and it was much harder for them to learn how to effectively care for people without having received that background training. Some of them were great but those were few and far between. The course I took had a month of clinicals which helped tremendously and while I complained about how long the whole class took, it was very much worth it.

 

Don't skimp on HCE, this is your practice time for working with patients and you don't want to be ill-prepared for the bigger roles you'll be assuming with patients as you move into the PA profession. Set a good base and you'll be come a much better PA. Cannot stress how important this is.

[mooredc]

As sketchy as it sounds, the medical assistant field is very easy to get in to. Historically, this was a job where you were trained in house. Because of this, there are no real laws that require you to be certified to be an MA. If you can find a privately owned family practice or urgent care, you could swoop right in. Where I work as a medical assistant, we take uncertified people all the time. However, if you want the cert, do as I did. 

 

I did US Career Institute's online MA program. IT is self paced and I finished in less than a month...I could have done this literally in a weekend if I just set my mind to it. After completing the course, you are eligible to sit for the Certified Clinical Medical Assistant Exam...its pretty basic. A month later POOF you're a CCMA. Anybody will take you with that cert. 

[LadyNichiavelli]

I worked as a part-time Physical Therapy Aide during my senior year of college and kept the job for about a year after graduating. I received on-the-job training and got my BLS/CPR certification through the hospital as well. Maybe you could find hospitals/clinics that would offer you the same opportunity.

[jlumsden]

Doing hands on care for people with developmental disabilities doesn't require certifications, can be done evenings and weekends, and is counted by some programs. Pay is terrible, however.

[Ollivander]

As sketchy as it sounds, the medical assistant field is very easy to get in to. Historically, this was a job where you were trained in house. Because of this, there are no real laws that require you to be certified to be an MA. If you can find a privately owned family practice or urgent care, you could swoop right in. Where I work as a medical assistant, we take uncertified people all the time. However, if you want the cert, do as I did. 

 

I did US Career Institute's online MA program. IT is self paced and I finished in less than a month...I could have done this literally in a weekend if I just set my mind to it. After completing the course, you are eligible to sit for the Certified Clinical Medical Assistant Exam...its pretty basic. A month later POOF you're a CCMA. Anybody will take you with that cert. 

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