DHSC? Or something else?

[Hope2Heal]

Hi,

I'm not a PA (please forgive me). My two undergrads are in Psychology, and I have an MBA. I live in New York State and my dream is to independently practice IASTM and Exercise Physiology. Now here is my dilemma:

Over the years, I've completed courses in the following (I'll try my best to remember them all): Anatomy and Physiology, Microbiology, Pharmacology, Medical Terminology, First Aid, AED, CPR, ACLS,  Kinesiology, Pathology, Disease Processes, Clinical Skills, Clinical Education, Exercise Physiology, Motor Control/ Therapeutic Exercise, Neuroscience, Neurophysiology, Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging, Neurorehabilitation, and I am a CPT through the American College of Sports Medicine.

With regard to the mentioned courses, many of you are likely familiar with them as being common to Physical Therapy programs and programs that prep one for Exercise Physiology, and that's exactly what a few admissions departments pointed out to me as well, so I thought, "great, I'm a shoe-in!"

Well, not so fast for me...

The programs that will allow to me to apply to become certified do not accept my current degrees for licensure, and because I took those courses outside of a degree program that led to a title the schools accept, I'm considered ineligible  , I'm not interested in earning another undergrad or Master's degree since my next and last degree goal is Doctorate. A few programs told me my best bet at this point would be to complete a Doctorate in a subject like Health Science or some other Health-focused program as they will accept that degree and take my prior coursework into consideration as well under that condition. I have no problem doing that because I was planning to go for a Doctorate anyway, but I'm not sure where to go.

I like Eastern Virginia Medical School's DHSc program because it focuses on administrative work and it won't be redundant and overlap my already completed coursework in physical medicine and I'm told the research and facilities access students can get from EVMS is fantastic. However, I'm not too giddy about 3 years and over $40K.

Some other programs I looked at were cheaper, but focused on specialties I'm not at all interested in.

The least expensive one I took a look at was from Huntington University of Health Sciences and what was attractive about it was the ability to craft your own specialty focus, however, while the school is legitimately accredited it isn't very well known and I question the types of connections I would be able make through that program. Also, because it's Nationally accredited rather than regionally accredited I would probably be stonewalled from any future positions in education if I ever chose that route.

Any suggestions?

[rev ronin]

I'm not sure I understand the question.

- What on earth makes you think any of this would be easier than squaring away what you need to get into PT school?
- Do you have any idea what scope of practice a DHSc even allows?
- National accreditation is no accreditation at all.  Regional accreditation is the only thing that matters at an institutional level.

[Hope2Heal]

First, I want to thank you for replying. It's going to be tough to get many perspectives on DHSc programs in the pre-PA section given that a pre-PA would be highly unlikely to have encountered a DHsc program which is why I posted in the PA section...

What on earth makes you think any of this would be easier than squaring away what you need to get into PT school?

I don't quite understand the question. "Easier" was never a goal...

Do you have any idea what scope of practice a DHSc even allows?

Yes, every idea, actually. I've spoken in-depth with administrators for each of the two DHSc programs I mentioned (I believe HUHS has discontinued the DHSc designation and now offer the same program under a different designation). Each of the DHSc program admins I spoke with told me my prior education would make me eligible for their programs, but of course eligibility and acceptance are two different things since these seats are competitive.

My dilemma isn't centered on scope of practice, a health-related Doctorate will not grant me a special scope I wouldn't otherwise have, at least not directly anyway. It will simply make me eligible to become certified by the boards I'm trying to get licensed with.

For the two modalities I discussed, EP more specifically, the institutions I spoke with told me my prior work would make me eligible to study for certification if my grad degree were Health/Medical related, and then in that case they would consider the other coursework I listed, but my grad degree is not Health/Medical related. They will accept Bachelor's degrees for eligibility but they have to be in something like Exercise Science or Kinesiology, etc. which none of my undergrads are so because of that they won't even look at my other coursework.

Since I'm already graduate-level it doesn't make sense to spend years getting another undergrad degree and spend more money than it would cost to complete a Doctoral program when I planned to complete a Doctoral program anyway. 

National accreditation is no accreditation at all.  Regional accreditation is the only thing that matters at an institutional level.

Hmmmm... well, I've spent about 13 years on the Degree Info forums so I know where that idea comes from and why and have witnessed and participated in many debates on that subject. There is some credence for people to believe that given that there are schools like EVMS who are very specific about only accepting regionally accredited degrees for entrance and even some state boards of some disciplines that do the same. However, the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Government and Military, and many (more than people think) regionally accredited schools that accept NA credits (including Purdue which accepted one of my NA undergrad degrees in transfer) would have an entirely different take on the notion of national accreditation having no relevance at all, and by different take I mean disagreement. But that has no bearing on my situation one way or the other since my MBA is from a regionally accredited institution.

[MT2PA]

Regardless of where this is posted, PA or pre-PA, you're not likely to find any helpful answers here - very few PAs get a DHSc (and certainly not all of them use this forum) and your question is so specific (and not PA related in the least) that I can't imagine anyone has any valuable information to contribute to your situation.

I understand WHY you posted here, but I think ultimately you won't find what you're looking for here.

[Hope2Heal]

My question really is just: "Which DHSc program is a good one to consider?" I saw a number of discussions about it in that forum through searching, so from that there appeared to be a decent level of familiarity with it here.

The rest is just backstory/issues explaining why I'm seeking it. I thought it may be of interest to someone.

[MT2PA]

11 hours ago, Hope2Heal said:

My question really is just: "Which DHSc program is a good one to consider?" I saw a number of discussions about it in that forum through searching, so from that there appeared to be a decent level of familiarity with it here.

The rest is just backstory/issues explaining why I'm seeking it. I thought it may be of interest to someone.

Well if there are already discussions.....seems you already have the info....

I assure you, it's not a top 10 topic around here.