Patient care hours

[areaz123]

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]

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]

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[areaz123]

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]

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]

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".

Edited December 3, 2019 by Diggy

[areaz123]

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!!