Guest Missy Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 I'm going to be a junior in nursing school this coming year and I was just wondering if my clinical rotations in nursing school are going to be good enough experience? The clinical rotations start your sophomore year at my nursing school and include med-surge, OB, psych, community service, a medical mission trip, acute long term, and geriatrics. I plan on going to PA school right after I graduate so there wont be any time for working as a RN. Also, anyone who has gone or is going to Oklahoma University's PA program and has some advice, it would be greatly appreciated :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caldje Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Most PA programs do not count experience/rotations/clinicals while in school towards their experience requirements. Contact OU's PA program to ask them if they do. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted July 7, 2009 Moderator Share Posted July 7, 2009 Most PA programs do not count experience/rotations/clinicals while in school towards their experience requirements. Contact OU's PA program to ask them if they do. Chris it would however still be a great background and would get you into many pa programs. when you consider that many pa programs now will take folks with no significant medical training or experience a nursing school graduate would be way ahead of the game when compared with your typical 22 yr old candy stripper(;)) applicant.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfwpa Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 I graduated from OUs Program in 2001. 2 of my classmates were graduate RNs w/o any HCE other than what they got in nursing school and both did fine....as a matter of fact we were in the same study groups and they were both pretty sharp. As for advice.....OU's program, like many, is primary care and rural care centric. They're looking for folks interested in going into those fields. They're also looking for folks who've shadowed PAs and have been up to the program for a tour and gotten to meet some of the current students. Last I checked the interview committee consists of 3 PAs...probably faculty, but also some local PAs who precept students, possibly an MD in the fam med dept. They'll go through your transcripts like an IRS auditor who's got a personal score to settle, so be prepared to explain any blemishes....but don't be afraid to tell they why you deserve the spot that several hundred others are fighting for....be your own advocate and don't let them bully you. Lastly, I'd advise you to try and get some primary care experience, doesn't matter where, but if you're in OK, try and do it at a clinic that has a PA who graduated from OU's program. Dan McNeil is a tough, but fair program director, as are the other instructors. They do their best to work with students who face adversity but will fail you if you don't earn the grades. On a positive note, the program usually has a 99-100% first time pass rate on the PANCE. I thought the program did an excellent job educating and training me and the PANCE and PANRE were a breeze, IMHO. Best of luck to you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PADad Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 it would however still be a great background and would get you into many pa programs.when you consider that many pa programs now will take folks with no significant medical training or experience a nursing school graduate would be way ahead of the game when compared with your typical 22 yr old candy stripper(;)) applicant.... Agree very much. Your initial rotations may not count much. However, some nursing schools allow you work as a nursing assistant or nursing "intern" prior to graduation. This is also good experience. Hopefully your school will allow to actually touch real patients on rotations! I never understood some RN schools (often the "best'). I would have nursing students from three schools rotate through, sometimes on the same day. School #1 - students would mysteriously show up at some point in the morning, take the charts, then spend 2-5 hours "reviewing charts" in our staff resource room. I often knew they were their only because I could not find the chart! They never came out to see the real kids in our NICU and PICU. This was the "premiere" university nursing program where many were looking to become NPs and nurse managers. School #2 - RN students showed up early, sat on in the nurse shift-change and/or PA/MD rounds. They stayed another hour or two to see our exams of kids, any procedures at the time (which were usually later), and were gone well before lunch. This was a small BSN program. School #3 - Came through in the afternoon to ask about our current census, variety of conditions, and quickly looked at the chart and nursing documentation. They then came the next day to spend the entire 8 hour shift with the nurses at the bedside. They actually did vitals, exams, and helped with procedures! This was an associates/BSN program. They were the most interested, got the best experience, and where the ones we hired after graduation.:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tgmac Posted September 13, 2009 Share Posted September 13, 2009 if you're a nurse you'd be down right stupid to go to the pa route....get an np and save yourself the assualt and waste of time and money to recert every six...plus np's in some states can have stand alone practices and in many cases have more autonomy and priviledges.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemegroup Posted September 13, 2009 Share Posted September 13, 2009 if you're a nurse you'd be down right stupid to go to the pa route....get an np and save yourself the assualt and waste of time and money to recert every six...plus np's in some states can have stand alone practices and in many cases have more autonomy and priviledges.. Not so sure about that ... PAs generally make more money, and are trained in more specialties than NPs ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coloradopa Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 Not so sure about that ... PAs generally make more money, and are trained in more specialties than NPs ... PAs and NPs make roughly the same money anymore (at least comparing advance to the AAPA data). There is comparable autonomy and the same percentage of NPs as PAs own their own practice. The difference is in the training. We had three nurses in my class and they all went chose PA because they wanted a broad based medical training. So you can either get broad based medical training with a defined curriculum backed by an accreditation body that insists on some protection for students. Or not. David Carpenter, PA-C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contrarian Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 if you're a nurse you'd be down right stupid to go to the pa route....get an np and save yourself the assualt and waste of time and money to recert every six...plus np's in some states can have stand alone practices and in many cases have more autonomy and priviledges.. Really...:rolleyes: Are you even a PA-©...???:confused::confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToppDog Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 You might consider a dual program that gives you both PA & NP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thedude Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 I'm not a PA or nurse yet, but I think that it really depends on what you want to do. If you want to go a specialized primary care route, then NP might be the easiest way, since you already have your RN, or soon will. If you want to explore the field, and are not sure what you want, the PA route will give you the autonomy you need to be able to switch when you want. PA would also be good if you want more of a "hard science" mid-level education. Good Luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted September 14, 2009 Moderator Share Posted September 14, 2009 You might consider a dual program that gives you both PA & NP. the only one left is uc davis (calif) so being in state would certainly help at application time...I think this is a good idea as well. 2 certs for the price of 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Side Stev Posted September 15, 2009 Share Posted September 15, 2009 :D if you're a nurse you'd be down right stupid to go to the pa route....get an np and save yourself the assualt and waste of time and money to recert every six...plus np's in some states can have stand alone practices and in many cases have more autonomy and priviledges.. As a RN applying to PA school I would have to disagree. It depends on one's aspirations. I wanted to practice medicine, not nursing theory. I would like to think nursing experience would be he best form of HCE, so even the 3-6 months you work after graduation will be beneficial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbnsocal Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 :D As a RN applying to PA school I would have to disagree. It depends on one's aspirations. I wanted to practice medicine, not nursing theory. Couldn't agree more with this. Advanced practice nursing options for RNs are unfortunately moving away from the patient and focusing more on validating nursing as a 'real' profession. We've proved ourselves over and over again, it's time to move on. Case in point is that over a third of the course hours of the RN to MSN program for FNP consists of theory, nursing research, and role exploration. Since my interest is in patient care as opposed to administration or education, the RN to PA route makes much more sense for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator LT_Oneal_PAC Posted May 20, 2013 Moderator Share Posted May 20, 2013 [insert ten characters to post] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannydude57 Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 Agree very much. Your initial rotations may not count much. However, some nursing schools allow you work as a nursing assistant or nursing "intern" prior to graduation. This is also good experience. I did a couple of nurse "extern" positions with the V.A. between semesters. They were paid, I was able to augment my patient care skills, and it provided additional "out of school" patient care experience. There are only a handful these in the city I live in, but they are out there. You just have to look. If you cannot land one of these positions, then a C.N.A. position is a great alternative. As a R.N. for going P.A. rather than N.P., it's a personal choice. Looking at the curriculum offered by the local mid-level programs, the P.A. route appeared to be more clinically focused and offered to develop a stronger clinical base. But that is my opinion. I don't feel stupid with the choice I made. To each their own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
futurePAS Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 In terms of job outlook, is it generally easier for NPs to find jobs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted May 22, 2013 Moderator Share Posted May 22, 2013 In terms of job outlook, is it generally easier for NPs to find jobs? depends on location. some places like PAs, some like NPs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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