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Hello everyone! Long time lurker, but having a problem. I am currently finishing up my Associates and going to be working on my BS soon and I was looking for a low to medium stress PCE job to get hours while I go to school. So I thought Phlebotomy would be perfect as I could get the hours while doing my Bachelors and use it to volunteer at bloodbanks/red cross/etc.. However, lately I have been seeing that it is considered 'low quality' PCE and I want my application to be as good as possible. I am 29 years old, decided to finally go to school because I was tired of minimum wage and have my heart set on PA. Is Phlebotomy going to look bad on my application? Is there any other low to medium stress options that I can work at part-time while in school? My GPA is somewhat of my focus (Currently sitting at a 3.85 and hope to keep it around there!) Once I get my BS in Kinesiology I will be able to work as an Exercise Physiologist, but if possible I would like to not gap year so I will be applying ASAP. The other ones I am currently considering are: EKG Tech, and MA. Any advice?

Planning to apply to Baylor, UT-San Antonio, and UTMB-Galveston by September. While I do not have direct patient care experience yet, I hope to be hired on for a position soon so I can put on the app that experience will be acquired before enrolled in PA school. I have two positions that I'm interviewing for next week: phlebotomist (3 months paid training included) or tissue recovery technician, which involves removing tissue from donors for transplantation. The hours for the technician position are ideal for my situation right now (nanny). Being a phlebotomist means I will have to drop everything I have going on. Will the technician position be considered novel in any way? Or even be considered direct patient care (this will be mostly with cadavers)? Or should I just go with the safe bet and throw away any semblance of a life I have before PA school?

Hi all, I'm starting PA school this May, however, my phlebotomy license is up for renewal this June. I know it's never good to let a license expire because I would have to go through all the training again if I ever wanted to practice phlebotomy in the future. BUT it does cost money to renew and I technically wouldn't need it as a physician assistant. Do PA students and working physician assistants typically keep renewing their professional licenses if they don't ever use it? Note that I am referring to phlebotomy, MA, etc NOT PA-C license. Thank you!

Right now I am working as a scribe but I can't afford to live in Dallas on scribe wages so I am getting ready to move home. I'm having a hard time finding a scribe job in my hometown.... I am trained as a MLT (Lab person) and this includes phlebotomy, which pays better than scribe but less contact with Drs and staff. I ran into a Dr. that I used to shadow who told me that her office needs an MA. Same thing, makes more than a scribe but it seems like they don't get the same type of experience out of the patient encounters as the scribes do.... Lastly, I was offered a job as a Clinical Allergy Specialist, which means that I would be performing allergy tests (skin tests) directly on the patients, interpreting the results and explaining them to the patients, and also lots of office work including dealing with insurance companies. This seems like the most well-rounded experience, but I'm afraid the schools won't know what it is, which means that I would have to rely on the right essay questions being asked where I could include information about that job. I don't want to waste a year doing something that's not gonna help me get in. Any thoughts?

Hello! I will be applying to PA school this coming cycle and I am trying to finish organizing my experiences. I had a couple of questions and would appreciate any advice you have. 1. I am currently enrolled in a phlebotomy course to receive my national certification. I will be mentioning this briefly in my statement, but was wondering if there was a way to add this into experiences. (we do have a given number of clinical hours we must meet). 2. I have heard different individuals say that for the experiences section it's best to include any and every experience that you can, but I have also heard it is better to limit what you include to the experiences that make an applicant more favorable. Thank you!

About 2 months away from finishing my undergraduate degree last December, I kind of switched directions from thinking I wanted to do medical research, to now pursuing a career as a PA. Because of my late decision though, I'm a little behind on the prerequisites and I'm concerned about my chances of getting into a program. I double majored in Biology and Chemistry with an overall GPA of 3.61 and a science GPA of 3.51. During one of my summers off school I worked as a phlebotomist (about 500 hours), so I figured that I could just continue phlebotomy as my HCE and make sure I get at least 2000 hours before I apply..however as I'm researching a little more, I haven't found anyone who has said they've gotten into PA school with phlebotomy as their HCE. I don't have a great GRE score: 149 verbal, 150 quant, and 4.0 writing. I also have not yet taken anatomy and physiology, but I would definitely make sure I have completed those before applying. I have 68 shadowing hours and have just started volunteering at my local hospital. I also have a total of 1 year experience in undergraduate medical research if that means anything. I know I don't have the greatest GRE or HCE, but I was hoping that the fact that I maintained a good GPA while obtaining a double major from a science and engineering school (SD School of Mines) and while competing in a Division II sport, it would set me apart and kind of make up for my other lacking areas. Do you think I still have a chance to get in? I'd be open to retaking the GRE, but it would be difficult for me to get a different form of HCE since just about everything requires certificate which can take quite a while to obtain.

Hello, I hope this finds everyone well. I am now 38 and decided on a career change and thus have been taking prerequisites at a pretty decent community college in NYC, which I am almost done with. I have several issue at the moment: 1. Every time I look at the program of my choice website, a new prerequisite appears; last year they were different than this year so there are always classes I am missing and can not apply 2. I want to work with patients already and a phlebotomy program is opening up and thinking of registering but it is not cheap and do I really need it? 3. I have about 65 hrs of shadowing and the doctor trained me as a medical assistant: cleaning the room, taking temp, BP, simple eye chart exam, this is pediatrics 4. Feeling inert and stuck, just want to move forward already, still taking 2 chem classes 5. my gpa is 3.909 for about 60 creds (mostly pre-reqs, science + others ) but my bachelors in art gpa is only 3.3 Should I proceed and register for the phlebotomy course? I need something to happen. Getting a little depressed waiting for 3 years already with the fall semester still to go. Any advice? I feel that although my gp is high, the schools are so competitive and need to have some extra skills. So tired of waiting, getting old here:(

Hi everyone - I'm new to the forum, so I apologize if this topic has already been covered. I filtered through the search and didn't find what I was looking for, so hopefully I can get some advice here :) I am deciding what the best route for healthcare experience is. At this time, I am choosing between EKG Technician and Phlebotomist. Does anyone have any input one way or the other? Any pros/cons/suggestions are appreciated!!