Moderator EMEDPA Posted August 25, 2018 Moderator Share Posted August 25, 2018 Ok, time to air a pet peeve....A major hospital in my area, which I worked at for a long time and at which I still know many folks , will support (as in pay for) prereqs for nursing programs, but not for PA. A very good friend of mine had dinner with me last night. She is an excellent ER tech with many years of experience. She would make a great PA. we have discussed this many times. She would love to be a PA and would be good at it. The hospital will reimburse her for any pre-nurse or nursing school coursework, but not for pre-pa or pa. For this reason our profession will likely miss out on an excellent candidate. I am not upset with the nursing world for having their act together and supporting their future members, I am upset that hospital administration does not respect and support a desire of one of their current workers to become a PA. I have done the admin thing before and have no desire to do it again(at least outside of a disaster team setting), but there must be folks who enjoy this sort of work who could get themselves on to hospital boards, etc. It is a sad state of affairs that only 1 major hospital system in my area(a large metro area in the pacific nw) has a position of lead PA. In truth, he does not even work for the hospital, but for the major group which staffs all of this organization's facilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ral Posted August 25, 2018 Share Posted August 25, 2018 Debt bondage. Much easier to keep a nurse under thumb than a PA. Administrative types hate free thinkers, and have no interest in financing their education. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MT2PA Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 Not sure of that employers policy but the places I've worked that have paid for education (which did include PA actually) required you to maintain part time work status and commit to 2 years of employment with them after you completed your degree in your new position. I had no idea how any PA student would be able to take advantage (they didn't pay for pre-PA/pre-req type courses) considering most programs prohibit working (or limit it) and my job at the time could not reasonably accommodate me transitioning to part time- granted an ED tech may be able to make it happen. Nursing on the other hand, much easier to flex shifts, work 10s or 12s etc etc. Easier to stay part time while taking courses. Part of that was also a push by the hospital to get everyone BSN/RN certified (and do away with any of the less experienced nurse certs (LPN etc)). I'm not saying it's right. Would be nice if there weren't so many strings attached to tuition reimbursement in general (but I get why there are). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedicinePower Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 There is some overlap between RN pre-reqs and PA pre-reqs (A&P 1 and 2 with lab, microbiology with lab, some psych classes) so why not do those for free and then pay for the rest at a local inexpensive community college like the rest of us do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted August 26, 2018 Author Moderator Share Posted August 26, 2018 11 hours ago, MedicinePower said: There is some overlap between RN pre-reqs and PA pre-reqs (A&P 1 and 2 with lab, microbiology with lab, some psych classes) so why not do those for free and then pay for the rest at a local inexpensive community college like the rest of us do? Another friend of mine did just that and strung the hospital along for as long as possible taking "nursing prereqs" like english, math, etc, but when she got into more serious coursework that was obviously premed/pre-pa they stopped paying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajnelson Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 Would they pay if she said she was pre-med? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sas5814 Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 Probably not. Most of the times these funds are earmarked for a specific purpose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajnelson Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 I'm thankful that my current facility words their tuition reimbursement as classes that better our education and can provide benefit to our institution in the future. Pretty wide open...as long as it benefits them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted August 27, 2018 Author Moderator Share Posted August 27, 2018 2 hours ago, ajnelson said: Would they pay if she said she was pre-med? nope. pre-nurse or nurse only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmj11 Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 I think, since the days of Nightingale, that hospitals have been nurse-centric. I don't know how to change that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidpresentable Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 My hospital system reimburses similarly to the one @MT2PA mentioned: $2k/year for any courses with no commitment $3k/year for certain “hard to hire” position (rad tech, etc.) with a two-year post-grad commitment $5325/year to current nursing students with a two-year post-grad commitment Regardless of the track, the student-employee must work 24 hours/week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ravenspac Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 1 hour ago, kidpresentable said: My hospital system reimburses similarly to the one @MT2PA mentioned: $2k/year for any courses with no commitment $3k/year for certain “hard to hire” position (rad tech, etc.) with a two-year post-grad commitment $5325/year to current nursing students with a two-year post-grad commitment Regardless of the track, the student-employee must work 24 hours/week Rad Tech is hard to hire? our hospital has so many rad techs they dont even pay for full time employees, just a bunch of part time ppl willing to take what they can get Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizzyJ Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 A few years ago an NP colleague and I were both going back for doctorates....guess which one of us got tuition reimbursement? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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