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How to earn patient care hours??


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Hi I just finished my freshman year of college and am completely lost about what PA programs mean by "patient care hours". How are we supposed to earn them? Are them from jobs or volunteering?

I've heard many stories on how people have taken up jobs as medical assistants or scribes or etc., but all these seem to require a degree or some form of training...Where would you get this training from? Are there different kinds for different positions?

(And if anyone could bless with a training program that doesn't take too long, that would be appreciated. I feel like I'm behind, especially with COVID..)

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Both volunteer and job can count as patient care hours if you are doing the right thing. I volunteer at ER, trauma center, fire department, and worked as an EMT. All of those experiences counted as my patient care hours for my PA school application. There are also a lot of PA programs that would specifically describe what they mean by "patient care hours" on their websites. You can take EMT classes at your college or some fire stations can send their volunteers to get certified as EMTs for free. If you can take an EMT crash course, I believe that you can get certified in less than 2 months.

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Welcome to the forum! Most schools want to see someone who has spent 500-1500+ Hours (depends on the school and this information is readily available) directly interacting with patients. This has been mostly covered in the thread but keep in mind the quality of your PCH. I have found this website helpful. 🙂 Best of luck your sophomore year! 

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