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New to PA... need some tips


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Hello everyone. My name is Tianna Woods. I am currently a senior at San Diego State University and am now interested in the physician assistant profession. All my life I wanted to work in the medical field and I simply thought the only good professions were being a doctor or a nurse. At the beginning of college I decided I wanted to go to medical school before I knew what medical school even was. I felt pressure from family, mostly my father, to go to medical school. I realized on my journey however, due to personal reasons, medical school is not for me. Every year I would try to find something to do other than medical school but nothing seemed to work. I felt trapped. I then learned about physician assistant through one of me pre-medical meetings and decided to look into it and get as much information as I can about it. It seemed like it was made for me. I'm here because I need advise from all of you who are more informed about the PA profession than I, what made you decide the profession is right for you as well as the steps you took to begin getting ready for PA school. I am graduating May 2014 so I would need to get started soon. Thank you in advance. I really appreciate the help.

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Welcome aboard. Take a couple of hours and look around this forum - your questions get asked roughly 10 times a week and there are pages and pages of great info for a new person. Specific threads to look for: GRE requirements, Health Care Experience (HCE), competitiveness of PA school and who you're up against. By the way, you're a senior this year and not graduating until May of 2014?

 

Good luck! We've all been where you are now at some point :smile:

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Thank you very much for responding. And ye I have to take an extra year cause I switched my major and minor a few times. :;-): I was looking up the different schools and requirements and it says you have to have a lot of hours in patient care. I'm planning on getting my CNA next semester and working in a hospital for about a year or so before applying. I'm just really anxious because I want to do something like shadow a PA before but I don't know how to find one.

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Tianna, if I were young as I assume you are, I would look into those three year medical schools, podiatry school, and dental school, as well as PA programs. You might find that with an extra year or two of schooling you could be a doctor of some sort. There is a sticky thread "Do you really want to be a PA?" that has a discussion you might want to check out. Maybe PA is the way for you, but there are other choices besides doctor, nurse, and PA. Good luck!

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Hello Lemon Bars. I'm 22 and graduating when I'm 23. I have looked into podietry, dentistry, physical therapy, occupational therapy, vet, DO as well as MD. None of them were for me. I have volunteered at hospitals and met a couple of PAs (during the time I didn't think to shadow them because I was focusing on med) and they were telling me about the program and why they became PAs. And as Im doing my research I find I am really interested in learning more about it. I'll definitely check out the discussion. Thanks so much for your help.

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DO was actually more appealing than the rest I meant to say in the last post. However I am really interested in PA. I just read the post and me trying to find a PA to shadow is definitely not for a minimum requirement of any sort. I'm looking to shadow to see first hand what a PA does, their profession, their day to day life, to gain information from them. I could read all the posts and internet descriptions in the world but I learn by example not by reading descriptions. That is my purpose in wanting to shadow a PA. When I was interested in med I shadowed a few physicians, when I was interested in PT I shadowed PTs and volunteered in the clinic. Even though I loved the patients I did not feel PT was right. Now I am interested in PA. Also I do believe health care experience is a must in any profession. That is why I am working toward my CNA. I want to experience full hand caring for patients, that mere volunteer work does not, and has not given me. I do not believe in mediocrity when it comes to whatever I do. In other words, I don't believe in meeting minimum requirements. I believe in excelling not just getting there. Thank you for your help again.

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