Caregiver considered patient care?

[PAonmyway]

I have been working as an in-home caregiver for the past six months through a nonprofit agency. I do a lot of direct interactions with my patients (disabled seniors, children with Autism, ADHD, cerebral palsy, etc) by assisting in bathing, meal preparation, medican reminders, transporting them to appointments and serving as a companion. I have looked into very few PA programs regarding the types of patient care experiences they approve and don't approve. So far, I have looked into 5 schools and only 1 does not consider the caregiving job as part of HCE and 2 schools listed it as acceptable. Would you guys consider the job of a caregiver to be appropriate for HCE?

[Just Steve]

I think being a diligent caregiver is a noble job. It is a role not everyone can do well. I have no doubt that your patients appreciate your efforts.

 

anytime you interact with patients you learn more about communication, bedside manner, anticipating the patient's needs. These are all good things. However...some schools may prefer a candidate who is performing medical assessments and making plan of care decisions on a more science/evidence based background. In addition, other medical occupations typically work in a team based model where the is two way communication up and down the "ranks"if you will. Ie: tech tells nurse about situation, nurse re evaluates tech's finding. Nurse tells MD/PA/DO about situation, the MD/PA/DO Gives orders in response, nurse and tech carry out orders..it is a constant communication loop. As a caregiver, I am not so sure how much evaluating/communication takes place. Schools may be looking for someone who has had face to face interaction with other providers.

 

That being said, being a caregiver is light years ahead of the PA students with no, or just shadowing, or hospital volunteer experience. If your grades are decent, and the other parts of your application are solid, I doubt being "just" a caregiver would be a negative factor.

[PAonmyway]

Thanks for the reply.

I really like being a caregiver and serving others. I only took this job because I am finishing up my pre-reqs and needed a job that is flexible with my school schedule. Sometimes, I do get extensive interactions with behavior therapists and with nurses whenever I get a chance of driving my patients to their appointments.

However, I have done two years of clinical research during my undergrad. As a clinical research student, I basically just took vitals of our patients and documented their medications. I also did 3 yrs of volunteering as a medical specialist for a non-profit organization where I was able to help the nurses and medical doctors by providing head-to-toe assessments and vitals every week. With the research and volunteer, I accumulated about 550 hours of direct patient care service. It is not a lot of hours compared to other PA applicants who have done 1000+ hours of HCE. I just hope that my short time as a caregiver won't seem a waste of time to PA schools.

[Just Steve]

Narrow down the list of schools that you want to apply to and research with them directly how your caregiving experience will be viewed. They are the only ones who can give you accurate feedback if your caregiving experience will count for their program. Right now is a lull in the application process, as many schools have selected for next year. Catch them now, while they have time to talk with you, before applications start rolling in again.

[mackjacks]

It's definitely not a waste of time, and can be a good stepping stone to get you some experience that will help to land a clinic or hospital job if you don't get into PA school with only caregiver experience. I worked in home care (if you get a nurse aide certificate you can list the position on CASPA as "certified nurse aide, home health care" which looks better) during college and that experienced helped me get a job in a hospital ER for the year I took off btwn undergrad and PA school.