areaz123 Posted November 12, 2019 I am a nurse who’s been working full time for 7 months now. That adds up to 1200 direct patient care hours. Is this competitive enough for PA schools (in general.) Looking at HCE alone, I want to know if this is competitive. I know nursing is probably one of the best types of HCE, but my hours are kind of low. I am asking because I want to quit my job in January so I can take the three courses I need to for PA school while studying for the GRE so I can apply this spring. However, I need to be pretty confident I can get into a program this application cycle or else I’m screwing myself over by full blown quitting my job. I live in Chicago, so I would love to get into the Chicago schools. Most of them require 1,000 hours of HCE, but the class profile averages to be like 3-5,000. I know none of you really know, but based on your experience and what you’ve seen/heard, do you think I have a good shot with 1200 nursing hours? I also know there are way many other factors that go into admissions, but my HCE needs to be my strong suit, so that’s why I am only asking about this. thanks!!
akerria29 Posted November 12, 2019 I am a nurse who’s been working full time for 7 months now. That adds up to 1200 direct patient care hours. Is this competitive enough for PA schools (in general.) Looking at HCE alone, I want to know if this is competitive. I know nursing is probably one of the best types of HCE, but my hours are kind of low. I am asking because I want to quit my job in January so I can take the three courses I need to for PA school while studying for the GRE so I can apply this spring. However, I need to be pretty confident I can get into a program this application cycle or else I’m screwing myself over by full blown quitting my job. I live in Chicago, so I would love to get into the Chicago schools. Most of them require 1,000 hours of HCE, but the class profile averages to be like 3-5,000. I know none of you really know, but based on your experience and what you’ve seen/heard, do you think I have a good shot with 1200 nursing hours? I also know there are way many other factors that go into admissions, but my HCE needs to be my strong suit, so that’s why I am only asking about this. thanks!!I think a good rule to go by if you want to be competitive in a specific category is to shoot for way above the average. I applied with a GPA around 3.4 and I was really banking on my PCE to make up for it, and I think it's a big reason I got interviews. I had over 10,000 hours as a PCA/ED tech when I applied. Nurse is great experience and very competitive, but I think if you're aiming to have it make up for other areas I would accrue a couple thousand more hours to be on the safer side. Also if you can swing it, I think it would super beneficial to keep working until you apply - even just PRN. Not only does it allow you to keep racking up hours, but I think it looks better to programs to see you actively passionate about working in healthcare, otherwise to them it might look like something you did for a minute just to check off a box, you know?Sorry this ran a little long, hopefully it makes sense and/or is helpful [emoji846]Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk
areaz123 Posted November 12, 2019 Author 9 minutes ago, akerria29 said: I think a good rule to go by if you want to be competitive in a specific category is to shoot for way above the average. I applied with a GPA around 3.4 and I was really banking on my PCE to make up for it, and I think it's a big reason I got interviews. I had over 10,000 hours as a PCA/ED tech when I applied. Nurse is great experience and very competitive, but I think if you're aiming to have it make up for other areas I would accrue a couple thousand more hours to be on the safer side. Also if you can swing it, I think it would super beneficial to keep working until you apply - even just PRN. Not only does it allow you to keep racking up hours, but I think it looks better to programs to see you actively passionate about working in healthcare, otherwise to them it might look like something you did for a minute just to check off a box, you know? Sorry this ran a little long, hopefully it makes sense and/or is helpful Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk Wow, 10,000 hours is a lot!! I definitely want to keep working while I start taking classes and apply to schools. I even asked my boss if I could go PRN for these reasons and she said no:/ I work nights which is super disruptive to my schedule and life, so I’m trying now to get a day shift position so I can handle taking classes on top of working. Hopefully that will make things better. Thanks for your advice!! I appreciate it a lot:) I’ll apply this time around and hopefully I’ll get lucky with something! I would LOVE to get in this cycle, but we’ll see.
akerria29 Posted December 3, 2019 On 11/12/2019 at 1:52 PM, areaz123 said: Wow, 10,000 hours is a lot!! I definitely want to keep working while I start taking classes and apply to schools. I even asked my boss if I could go PRN for these reasons and she said no:/ I work nights which is super disruptive to my schedule and life, so I’m trying now to get a day shift position so I can handle taking classes on top of working. Hopefully that will make things better. Thanks for your advice!! I appreciate it a lot:) I’ll apply this time around and hopefully I’ll get lucky with something! I would LOVE to get in this cycle, but we’ll see. No problem! I hope everything works out and best of luck with your applications!
DiggySRNA Posted December 3, 2019 1.2K hours is on the lower end tbh although RN experience is at the top of the totem pole. See if you can hang on for a year because most places don't allow anyone to go from FT to PRN unless they have 1 year of experience. I also encourage you not to quit unless you have an actual ACCEPTANCE letter in hand. Because you'll be quitting a good paying job for a "what-if".
areaz123 Posted December 5, 2019 Author On 12/3/2019 at 4:53 PM, Diggy said: 1.2K hours is on the lower end tbh although RN experience is at the top of the totem pole. See if you can hang on for a year because most places don't allow anyone to go from FT to PRN unless they have 1 year of experience. I also encourage you not to quit unless you have an actual ACCEPTANCE letter in hand. Because you'll be quitting a good paying job for a "what-if". Yeah you’re right, my boss said 1 year until you can go PRN. In reality, I know quitting is not an option haha but I just got a new job:) I think I’ll really like it so I’ll wait another application cycle if I do so that I can apply with more hours. thanks!!
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