Pre- PA school

[Laith]

hello everyone,

I have been considering PA school for the longest time, I am far from being a qualified applicant, I don't even have my bachelors degree yet, however i do not want to go on the wrong path. so maybe you can all help me take the most efficient route to PA school. for the longest time I thought the best way to do it is to get a BSN, work as an RN and then a few years later apply to PA school, but I've been observing what nurses do, and i don't think I want to do that anymore. my logic behind the initial idea was that, if I become a nurse, I will make good money, get great experience, and have a backup career to rely on in case I do not get accepted into PA school. but it doesn't seem like nursing would be a smart choice for Pre-PA. I've considered another possible choice for a bachelors degree. medical laboratory science. the topics that are covered in this degree sound very interesting to me, and I feel that they would help me become a better PA, considering how much this degree digs into the underlying biochemical processes that are going on in the body. on the other hand it seems like nursing would only give me experience in the hands on stuff like administering IVS, checking glucose levels. and many other skills that just sound extremely boring to me. let me know what you guys think, if you were in this scenario what path would you take. 

 

thanks 

[prepakathyp]

Absolutely choose a major that you LIKE, because that will ensure you will do well. For example: if you prefer a social science, do a social science while concurrently taking pre-reqs for PA school.

May I ask, what you didn't like about the job of a nurse? Important to know also, for you to decide if healthcare in general is right for you.

[Lauramarie87]

Here what matters to get into PA school. Pre-reqs and clinical hours. 

Nursing school won't necessarily get you all the pre-reqs that you need to get into PA school. Some schools require Ochem, Biochem, molecular biology, microbiology, etc. And there are some schools that want these requirements to come from upper-level biology courses rather than nursing or kinesiology courses. So my advice would be to research the schools that you want to go to and make sure that your courses match their requirements. 

A nursing career will undoubtedly get you the clinical experiences that will set you apart. PA schools look for applicants that have different experiences than the herd. Nurses almost always are some of the most valuable assets you can find in a hospital. 

As long as you do it right, going into nursing will give you a leg up on other candidates (most people that go the RN route go for their NP). The road may be longer but, if you're up to it, it will be very beneficial for your chances. 

[Laith]

On 7/29/2019 at 6:10 PM, prepakathyp said:

Absolutely choose a major that you LIKE, because that will ensure you will do well. For example: if you prefer a social science, do a social science while concurrently taking pre-reqs for PA school.

May I ask, what you didn't like about the job of a nurse? Important to know also, for you to decide if healthcare in general is right for you.

I work as a CNA in a Skilled Nursing facility at the moment, I see what the nurse's are doing and it seems like their primary duties are passing out medications, assessing G tubes and IVs, documenting changes, Bowel movements, fluid, food, etc. most of the nurse's here are LVNs, some are RN's but they don't seem to be doing anything different than the LVNs. so looking from the outside in, it appears that both professionals are performing the same duties. now my biggest issue with this type of work is that it is extremely boring. I decided to go into healthcare not necessarily because I love helping helping, sure it's rewarding when you do something for someone to make their day better but the primary reason I decided to do it is because I am fascinated with subjects such as human physiology, biology, chemistry, biochemistry. I loved learning the about the physiology, biochemical processes, hormones, enzymes etc that associated with the human body. I want to be able to look at a problem and be forced to think about these types of physiological/biochemical functions and the pathology associated with the complaints of the patients. the nurses do a great job assessing the patient and without them many of these patients certainly would not be alive. their job is extremely important. but I am realizing more and more that maybe nursing is more about caring for the patient than it is about investigating physiological problems. 

[canyon]

On 8/6/2019 at 6:46 PM, Laith said:

I am realizing more and more that maybe nursing is more about caring for the patient than it is about investigating physiological problems. 

I used to be a CNA on a med/surg floor and am currently in nursing school. This is definitely true. You assess the psychosocial/comfort/wellness/disease prevention problems, their labs, their chart, and develop a care plan for the patient based off that instead. It's very different from PA/MD, but it does translate to really good PCE, because there is a surprising amount of critical thinking and planning involved. You also take a handful of science heavy prereqs- anatomy, physiology, bio, chem- to get in, PLUS you'll take a semester or two, each, of pharmacology as well as advanced physiology/pathophysiology.  So you'll learn more than just glucose sticks (which is usually part of the CNA's role, anyway) and IVs. 

I think if you're going to take a gap year or two before PA school, a BSN would be a pretty good idea. There's some overlap for the prereqs, so whatever you have left to do you could do part-time while working as an RN, or try to squeeze it in before you start the nursing half of your BSN. You'll get good perspective on the healthcare system and excellent PCE. A hospital might also be willing to take you on and train you as a patient care tech/CNA while you're in school, so you could get some additional PCE there. CASPA also includes all nursing courses in its sGPA calculation. Like you said, it's also a good back-up plan if you for sure want to work in healthcare but for some reason are unable to get in to or decide you no longer want to go to PA school. 

Edited August 12, 2019 by epeter