Pre-PA Experience Hours

[pikeda]

Hello there!

   I am actively applying to PA school and I currently have 300 hours of experience in cardiopulmonary rehabilitation and 2000+ hours as a medical scribe in upper extremity orthopedics and sports medicine. I was wondering, mainly, if this would be acceptable to most PA schools as experience?

 

Additionally, I was just curious, would PA school count a medical tool sales representative as acceptable hours, such as working as a hardware sales rep for Stryker?

[DiggySRNA]

Scribe hours are acceptable to some programs. You're going to have to scope out those schools by looking at each of their websites.

 

No, medical tools sales rep does not count. You're in no way shape or form responsible for someone's medical care.

[pikeda]

What about autopsy assisting? I know someone who has been doing that in hopes of it counting towards experience hours.

[DiggySRNA]

When deciding which direct patient care experience to pursue, try to answer these questions;

• Will you be touching patients?
• Are you triaging, monitoring, and stabilizing?
• Are you assessing and documenting?
• Are you "treating"?
• Are you communicating with other providers?

 

But autopsy assistant sounds really cool!

[Lola]

Most programs have a list of accepted HCE. Check them out individually. If what you're looking for is not there, email the contact for the school directly. It's the only way to get an official answer. But remember, even though they might accept some of your hours, a different applicant with the same amount of hours as you but better quality (more patient contact, care, etc.) might still be preferred. Do your best to get good quality hours in.

 

Good Luck!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ONE40pt6]

When deciding which direct patient care experience to pursue, try to answer these questions;

• Will you be touching patients?
• Are you triaging, monitoring, and stabilizing?
• Are you assessing and documenting?
• Are you "treating"?
• Are you communicating with other providers?

But autopsy assistant sounds really cool!

This.

 

Also, it seams to me that if someone is not sure if a certain experience counts as HCE, it won't (or shouldn't).

 

I know a lot of people who listed all of their firefighter/paramedic time as PCE, I listed what I thought to be an average of PCE hours each week, then all the remaining full time employment hours as HCE.