Senior in high school! QUESTIONS. Please help!

[emilyyx]

Hello! I am going to be a senior this year in high school, and Iv'e suddenly become very interested in this career. I've been researching about PA programs, and realized you need a ton of health-care experience to be considered. Is it a good idea for me to get a CNA license sometime this school year/summer 2014 and start working my freshman year of college? I'm not sure when exactly I should start gather my HCE hours.

 

Please leave your advice below!

Thanks. :)

[Andreasmo]

Yes, start as soon as possible and try to get as many types of experiences as you can in.

[emilyyx]

Thanks for the reply.

 

May I ask what kind of HCE experience you did in your undergrad years & when you actually started working for them? Also, do you think it's possible to find weekend jobs as a CNA?

[rev ronin]

If you're in high school, and want to practice medicine, go to medical school.

[emilyyx]

Why do you suggest that? What's wrong with a high school student wanting to pursue a PA career?

[True Anomaly]

Why do you suggest that? What's wrong with a high school student wanting to pursue a PA career?

 

Why do you want to be a PA over a physician?

[emilyyx]

Why do you want to be a PA over a physician?

Mainly because of the length of schooling required. I don't want to spend 12 years after high school and finally become an MD. Also, with a PA, I can choose a specialty in anything without spending residency years in that field. I have the freedom to change that specialty along the road as well. Most importantly, aren't most MDs more bus than PAs? I want to have a family and get married in the next 8-10 years and not be worried about balancing being a mother/wife/med student. From the research I've done about PAs recently, those are probably the main reasons I want to pursue PA over MD.

[marktheshark89]

You should apply for direct entry programs if you are really interested in doing PA (i.e. 5 year programs that result in a bachelors and masters). That being said, please do not have the misconception that PAs are less busy than physicians. The training is shorter, but the hours worked are roughly equal once physicians complete their residency. You will be very busy in either career. Lateral mobility in the PA field is a plus, but will likely become more difficult in the future. You should really shadow some PAs and get some experience in medicine before making any final decision IMO (not trying to discourage the PA route, but I would definitely become more well-informed before deciding).

[JasonD]

If you are an excellent student and truly driven, do as marktheshark says and do a 5 year BS+MS program. There are 20 or so programs (mostly in the northeast) that accept students out of high school. My daughter is in one.

 

Search is your friend...

 

BTW, if you think you may want to be an MD, there are several med schools (Brown and GW come to mind) that also offer direct entry into their programs for exceptional students right out of high school.

[emilyyx]

I did look into the 5 year programs, but couldn't find any in Texas-- I want to stay in state! I would rather go to a pa program after university.

[EMEDPA]

Thanks for the reply.

 

May I ask what kind of HCE experience you did in your undergrad years & when you actually started working for them?

I did an emt program the last semester of senior year in high school and worked as an er tech 26 hrs/week during the school year and 60 hrs/week summers during college. 1 mo after college graduation I went to paramedic school, then worked as a paramedic for 5 years before becoming a pa.

[emilyyx]

I did an emt program the last semester of senior year in high school and worked as an er tech 26 hrs/week during the school year and 60 hrs/week summers during college. 1 mo after college graduation I went to paramedic school, then worked as a paramedic for 5 years before becoming a pa.

 

Thanks for your input! Do you think it's a good idea to follow what you did, except instead of being ER tech, I should do CNA? How come you didn't go to PA school immediately after undergrad?

[EMEDPA]

when I applied to pa school 21 years ago emt /cna/etc was not considered high enough level experience for admission. I was told to become a paramedic/rn/rt first and do that for several years before applying.

cna is very low tier expoerience. it's adequate, but not great. medical assistant or lpn are both better options.

[mbalaban]

If you wanna know what it's like to be a PA, become a medic. The professions have many similarities.

[EMEDPA]

If you wanna know what it's like to be a PA, become a medic. The professions have many similarities.

yup. delegated practice, high level of autonomy, good scope of practice, etc.

if I wasn't doing this I would still be doing that.

[emilyyx]

yup. delegated practice, high level of autonomy, good scope of practice, etc.

if I wasn't doing this I would still be doing that.

 

Lol. I don't understand why PA/PA students are discouraging other people from pursuing this career?

[Just Steve]

Lol. I don't understand why PA/PA students are discouraging other people from pursuing this career?

Because they care about the quality of the applicant into this career.

 

The PA profession was built on the backs of PAs who worked for many years as military medics/corpsman, paramedics, and other advanced allied health providers who learned in what amounts to apprenticeships who were then given the final tune up in PA school. This was not a profession that was meant to be filled with idealistic high school students and unseasoned fresh college grads with no experience.

 

Colleges have perversed the system by opening their doors to everyone, creating programs more designed to gather tuition than educate providers. We see the fall out of this transformation with the increasing demands of residencies and CAQ exams by the supervising physicians.

 

The reasons you gave for PA are trite and sound well rehearsed but not accurate of the process. Lots of med students get married and have kids while in training,get a more thorough education, gain years of supervised mentorship/education through residency. You speak of 12 years of the med school process where as PA for you right now is at least 6 years IF you get accepted right away. In 8 years you could be earning 50K/yr as a resident working hours set by policy so as not to crush your soul, well on your way to increasing your salary by 500% by the end of those 12 years.

 

But you are either a troll out kicking up old, tired topics or a headstrong high schooler who is going to do what they want regardless of what others may say.

 

To answer your question,I served 10 years as a Navy Corpsman and then another 12 years as a paramedic. You can Wiki navy corpsman to get an idea of what they do and the training they receive. So I think being a CNA is a great step in being a nurse. If you are so bent on being some sort of medical provider as fast as you can so you can have your family and all that, AND you are set on being a CNA, look into being a NP.

[mbalaban]

I'm sorry if you thought I was trying to dissuade you from being a PA. I don't think anyone here is actually trying to dissuade you. I think what people here, mostly the "old guard" PA's and the ones that have been in practice a while are saying is to be sure of what you want. The ones that have been around a while have a good grasp of the healthcare field and what roles and such people play in it. They understand the sacrifices required for PA school and have seen med students going thru too. Some of the older ones look back and kick themselves in the butt for not pursuing MD/DO when they were young, LIKE YOU. Others see and lived thru some of the "growing pains" this profession has been having. The PA profession was designed and "built" for bridging over people with lots of experience, like military medics, into more of a full provider role and not set up to take people straight out of HS or with minimal experience, but things seem to be changing on that front. Being a PA is not glamorous by any stretch of the imagination. You will ALWAYS be second, sometimes even considered 3rd tier. Doctors are supposed to be available at all times. Guess who is going to have to take call during the night? Not the physician but you. You will ALWAYS have to answer to someone, maybe not micromanaged but chart reviews or watching over your shoulder. You will never perform a full surgery, you can assist, but not preform. This is why I said become a medic to see if you wanna be a PA. Medics are essentially "limited scope" PA's. We interview patients, form a working diagnosis and treat patients with either drugs or other "toys" (like IO's or intubation or crich's and chest decompression)

As an older adult, I wish I would have been #1 focused and #2 mature enough to know what I wanted and to listen to others that have been where I was so that I would have done "more" with my life. Do I regret the path I've taken? No. Would I change it and do it again if I could go back in time? Yep.

And my impression is that that's how most of the "old guard" around here are. You're young, reach for the stars!

[daysgoby]

I am both an EMT and a CNA. I've personally found my EMT experience to be undeniably more beneficial than my CNA experience. As a CNA, you do basic tasks such as bathing and feeding patients. But as an EMT, you can bandage, splint, perform CPR, backboard, set up EKGs, etc.