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From Teacher to PA - next steps?


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Hi there,

 
I’m a 2015 Yale graduate in my second-year of the two-year Teach For America program, teaching bilingual chemistry and physics at the high school level. I teach in a historically underserved community where 75% students are low-income, 54% are English Learner, and the majority are Latin@ and/or undocumented. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but the most rewarding thing I've ever done. Since starting teaching, I’ve realized that the way I truly want to impact historically underserved people is through affordable healthcare as a mid-level practioner, i.e. PA. I was in the pre-med mindset for a while in college, but can't do that now as I'm supporting mom and siblings.
 
At Yale, I majored in art history and minored in integrated science. My overall G.P.A. is 3.47 and science G.P.A. is a little above 3.0. In terms of healthcare experience, I worked as an Emergency Medical Technician for 2 years and 2 months with Yale New Haven Hospital as an undergraduate. I also worked with patients, collecting their medical histories and NSAID drug usage as a Clinical Epidemiology Research Assistant at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for 10 months. And I also served as an AED inspector for 8 months.
 
Here’s my golden question: would I still need more healthcare experience to apply to most PA schools? I want to teach for maybe another 1-2 years to take all the science pre-reqs again at a local community college (in summer/at night) and ace them to improve my science G.P.A. In fact, chemistry and physics were total losses and that's why I chose to teach them with Teach For America. But if I need more healthcare experience, I’d probably have to retest and become an EMT again but I can’t afford the pay cut because I’m already stretching my teacher salary to support a family of five. What would you do if you were me?
 
Thanks in advance!
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Sounds like you've almost got everything you need to apply and you should meet requirements for HCE at most schools. Some schools only "recommend" HCE, so it may not even matter if you're not currently getting more hours. You could easily explain your situation in your application, but if you still have reservations it may help to show a continued interest/involvement in medicine by perhaps finding medical volunteer opportunities as it may be a simpler way to demonstate that without having to re-certify. For example, I volunteered with hospice and all it required at my site was about 24 hours of self-study training, a PPD skin test, and some paperwork and then I was allowed to visit with patients and this counted for HCE at some schools as well!

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