Jump to content

Which one is better? HCE or PCE?


Recommended Posts

Hello everyone! I'm a pre-PA student at UNT applying this upcoming cycle. I am curious of how to split my hours between HCE and PCE. I have a total of 900 hours as a scribe in the ED and would like to put most of it towards PCE, however, I see that a lot of schools require 500 HCE hours and I would like to apply to as many schools as possible! Please let me know what you would recommend!

My current application statistics: (I have this semester left which will bring my GPA above a 3.6)

Overall GPA: 3.59 

Volunteer hours: 150

Leadership experience: President of a Minority Pre-Health Organization for 1.5 years. Part of the pre-PA org for 2 years

GRE: TBD

Shadowing: 50 hours

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

PCE is better than HCE and more desired by schools because it is direct patient contact, whereas HCE is typically described as work within a healthcare setting but where you are not directly responsible for patient care. I think if you are positive all of your schools accepting scribing as PCE, then you can label it PCE on CASPA. But if some of your programs view it as HCE, then I would put it as HCE on your application. That way it is  up to the program to recategorize it how they like, and it wont look like you were trying to pass off HCE hours as PCE hours to a school that does not agree in scribing as PCE.

Though of course, if scribing is your only experience, then I'd personally only apply to schools that accept it as PCE. Save yourself that hassle and better your chances of getting in 🙂 Hope this helps!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...

PCE is always better. I just got out of one information session where they stated they would review EVERYTHING you submitted. I don't know about the other schools but since they all have different requirements about what is considered PCE vs HCE I would help they would take both (and all of your experience) into consideration. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Welcome to the Physician Assistant Forum! This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn More