accelerated nursing first, then PA

[movingfwd]

I am currently 23 years old. I have a bachelor's degree in neuroscience and I am currently holding as admin coordinator at a local hospital. The current position I hold is not clinical at all.

 

I am currently applying to several accelerated (1-year) nursing programs. Since clinical hours are required to get into PA school, I thought it would be a great idea to become a nurse first. As soon as I finish nursing, I want to work as a nurse for a while. <br><br>Then, I will be applying to PA school. I really want to become a PA in the future and it is my dream to go to PA Program at Duke University. I hope to work as a PA to assist in surgery and I'm going to try really hard to get into PA surgical residency at Johns Hopkins University.

 

I want to ask current PA's for your opinions. Are there any PA's out there who did accelerated nursing track (or 2nd degree in nursing)? Do you think it's worthwhile to go into nursing first, and then go to PA route?

 

Any opinions and suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

[EMEDPA]

historically 1/3 of pa's were nurses first. that # is lower now but many nurses still do pa. nursing, paramedic and resp. thereapy are the 3 strongest backgrounds for pa school in my opinion.

a few other things to think about:

as an rn you can also do the dual pa/np program at uc davis. 2 yrs, 2 certs, best of both worlds.

consider a surgical pa program like cornell or alabama if your heart is set on surgery. a residency is also a great idea. there are many good surgical residencies. see all at http://www.appap.org

good luck.

[movingfwd]

@EMEDPA- thank you for your kind help.

 

Any other PA's out there who completed PA training after accelerated (2nd bachelor) 1-year nursing program?