Rehabilitation aide for neurologic chiropractic office as PCE? Opinions?

[hmtpnw]

Hey guys! I am hoping for some insight on an opportunity for patient care experience. 

I have an interview that seems really promising next week for a position as a neurological rehabilitation aide. Description is as follows:

• Performing neurodiagnostic testing
• Managing patient records
• Helping with neurological rehabilitative exercises and application of therapeutic modalities

All seems great, right? Only issue is it’s at a functional Neurology clinic where all Dr.’s are chiropractors. I personally have no issue with this, but I know that some have strong feelings about chiropractors and I don’t know how the experience will be looked at by admissions committees. The work I would be doing seems focused around those with chronic pain and head injuries, seems that the cases would be challenging and complex and the duties themselves seem like great PCE... but I’m stuck on the chiropractor thing.

Currently I work 3 days a week as a PT aide and 2 days a week as a scribe in cardiology. Both jobs pay $5 an hour less than the rehab aide position. All the programs I’m applying to accept scribing although it’s certainly lower tier experience.

 

Anyone have any thoughts or advice here? Would love to hear from some veteran PAs on this one...

[JD2012]

Is it only chiros? No PA's?  

Thats a tough one because it is 5 bucks extra per hour, that's $200/wk.  You are still getting PCE hours though.  Don't quote me but I believe people have used their hours working for a chiro before with success.

How many hours do you have right now?  Also when do you plan on applying?  These things would help me in my decision.

EDIT - i know one of the advantages in a healthcare setting in my current job as PT Aide was having interactions with the PA's at work and it was something I used in my personal statement as well as when asked during interviews if I know what a PA does.

[hmtpnw]

Only chiros. No PAs or MDs. The money would be great, but I am more interested in pursuing the experience that would be looked at positively by adcoms. I have been working for this for so long and I don't want to make the wrong move in the home stretch   Although it's all chiros I feel drawn to it as it's full time - if it counts as PCE it would help me grow my PCE over the next couple of months as scribing is only considered HCE. 

I fortunately have worked on my personal statement quite a bit and am really close to a final draft. While scribing in the ED I worked for PAs directly and I talk about that in my personal statement. I feel confident that I understand the profession and could articulate good answers. 

More background information:

• Applying this cycle

• 26 yr old female, first generation college student

• Neuroscience major + psychology minor, lots of upper level neuro and biopsych classes, student of the year award for graduation year, etc.

• cGPA: 3.8+ with strong upward trend (3.98 over the last 3.5 academic years)

• sGPA: 3.95+ (A- in physics II and ochem  :|, all As besides that)

• Currently studying for the GRE but practice exams put me in the 305 - 315 range with still a month of studying to go

• PCE: 300ish hours as a PT aide, this position also includes providing therapeutic massage to patients - in a rural community

• HCE: 1500ish hours scribing in ED including main ED, peds ED, ACU and urgent care - large metropolitan city, trauma center, suburban community and rural community. Just took the cards position and am scheduled to start in a week, will be scribing for a provider two days a week. 

• LORs: MD and neuro professor (confident both of these letters will be VERY strong as they know me well and stated that they could write very solid letters for me), also a PT. Possibly a PA letter, working on that.

• About 100+ hours of research in an auditory neuro lab using optogenetics - received small grant for this

[hmtpnw]

Bumping this as I would really love some feedback!

[mooredc]

Obviously nobody can say for sure for every program, but I have seen multiple programs list chiropractors as valid PCE so I would just assume working in that setting would count as well. That could be very naieve of me.

[JD2012]

This is definitely a tough one.  

According to UF, hours as a chiro assistant count as half compared to a PT Aide.  So this sentiment may be shared by other programs.

Do you keep getting hours you know are fully accepted by programs, or do you make that extra $5/hr?  If one of your current jobs exposes you to PA's and you're able to get an LOR from a PA through that, that's worth it alone.

[KPayne]

My opinion- you'll be fine. You have a great GPA, both science and cumulative, and although your PCE is on the lower side, you would be actively pursuing a full-time position getting more PCE hours. Granted, it would be more ideal to be working alongside PAs, but not everyone can do that. Do well on your GRE and you will definitely get interviews, given your PS and LORs are good. Rock the interview and you'll be set. There is not one sure-fire PCE that will win you into PA school. I know people who got in doing all sorts of things, some working with chiropractors too. I would accept the job and apply early!! Goodluck girl!

[hmtpnw]

Thanks everyone for the feedback! In case someone has the same question in the future I figure I will post what I found.

I reached out to all of the schools I am applying to and found that each of them accepts this experience. They said depending on specific duties it may be considered HCE or PCE. I was told by the majority of the programs that rehab aide/chiropractic assistant would be considered on par with scribe and PT aide experience and that all are considered an allied health career. 

I decided to move forward with the rehab job as the neuro cases are a lot more complex and interesting than the current cases I am working in PT. The pay is also significantly better with the possibility of continued upward mobility!

[JD2012]

Thats great!

Stash that extra cash for PA school.