Good or bad idea: working at the university I want to attend.

[beavpa]

My dream school is OHSU in Portland, OR. I graduate this spring and will be able to move to the Portland area in the summer. I currently have my cna2, and with a bachelor's, it would increase my chance of being employed there. 

Do you think it's a good idea to do so? It'd be great experience working in a major hospital like OHSU. Has anyone been in a similar situation and had a negative experience when applying to schools? Or can you think of way this would negatively impact me getting into a PA program, specifically OHSU.

[Guest HopeToBePAC]

In general, I can't think of anyway it would impact you negatively; it could only *possibly* increase your chances when you apply for you to work in a hospital affiliated with the school. If you're asking specifically about OHSU I'm not sure. 

[Adubbs210]

I would highly recommend you work at OHSU. It will increase your knowledge of the system your dream school is apart of, leads to greater opportunities for shadowing, and allows for greater exposure to the hospital hierarchy while providing opportunities to experience higher levels of care than is present in long-term care settings or lower tiered hospitals. It will likely make you an attractive applicant to other programs as well. I would also look at the job description to discern what your responsibilities would be - vitals, blood sugar, ambulation, etc.

[hmtpnw]

This certainly won’t negatively impact your application.

As someone in the area who has known many people that have applied to OHSU’s PA and MD programs, I also don’t see it giving you much of a leg up. It seems that those with previous work experience at OHSU don’t have any greater chance than those without. 

OHSU does give preference to Oregon residents, so your app will get a boost from living in Oregon.