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Hello Everyone!

I'm 41 years old and venturing into a career change in medicine. I love science and taking care of people has been my calling for a while. Right now I'm in human resources but I've always been drawn to medicine and clinical side of it. After a lot of thinking and talking to people in the field, I've decided to start my pursuit. 

I have a master's degree with no science background. I have no healthcare/patient care experience. 

What would be your recommendation of where to start? I've signed up to take some prerequisites soon but trying to juggle current work and family and the career change is making me a bit anxious. 

Anyone in my situation? Would love some advice and direction.

Thank you!

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Hello Everyone! I'm 41 years old and venturing into a career change in medicine. I love science and taking care of people has been my calling for a while. Right now I'm in human resources but I've always been drawn to medicine and clinical side of it. After a lot of thinking and talking to people in the field, I've decided to start my pursuit. 

I have a master's degree with no science background. I have no healthcare/patient care experience. 

What would be your recommendation of where to start? I've signed up to take some prerequisites soon but trying to juggle current work and family and the career change is making me a bit anxious. 

Anyone in my situation? Would love some advice and direction.

Thank you!

 

 

Lots of us have done that and, if it suits you, you could too.

 

First thing I would do is get some patient care training and experience. In my area, the option of becoming a volunteer EMT was practcal and doable at age 40. Then at least caring for people on what was definitely not their best day opens your eyes. There are other possible routes.

 

I took prereqs in night school at community college, so that’s an idea that might work for you and I didn’t quit my day job until a few weeks before PA school started.

 

To me, the important thing before a career change is that you see what the new world is really like to you. That takes more than asking questions and weighing options in your mind.

 

You’re on a journey, whether you decide to make the leap or not. Explore websites but take the time to actually experience new things.

 

Good luck!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

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Guest RDtwoPA

As you've signed up to take some prerequisites, I would highly recommend trying to get some shadowing experience so you can see and experience (to a certain extent) what PAs do. I am not much younger than you with a family and all the responsibilities that come with that. I am also a career changer although I am coming from a health care background. There are definitely PA students like us (parents, career changers, older). It can and has been done. I literally just watched a video of older PA students this morning that really helped motivate me, just google "Adanna the PA THE TRUE life of Older PA student" Good luck to you! 

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I strongly recommend what RDtwoPA said: shadow!  See if you like what the daily work of a PA is.  This will vary widely, based on the area of medicine.  It's a huge investment in time, energy, and money to pursue PA, especially if you are already established in a career - the lost income will probably exceed the out of pocket costs.  Before you go too far down this path, make sure you'll be happy with the end point.

Age is not a barrier.  I started PA school at age 53.  However, folks our age learn differently and can have a harder time vs younger students with the massive amount of memorization in the didactic portion of PA programs.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/2/2020 at 5:04 AM, PAtobe2023 said:

Hello Everyone!

I'm 41 years old and venturing into a career change in medicine. I love science and taking care of people has been my calling for a while. Right now I'm in human resources but I've always been drawn to medicine and clinical side of it. After a lot of thinking and talking to people in the field, I've decided to start my pursuit. 

I have a master's degree with no science background. I have no healthcare/patient care experience. 

What would be your recommendation of where to start? I've signed up to take some prerequisites soon but trying to juggle current work and family and the career change is making me a bit anxious. 

Anyone in my situation? Would love some advice and direction.

Thank you!

Be sure to get a good amount of patient care experience and ideally, find a mentor.  You may also consider online courses at a community college so that you do not have to spend time commuting.  (This is a major factor for those living in remote areas.)  

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