D.C. Posted June 1, 2013 Share Posted June 1, 2013 Hi everyone, I'm currently working on completing prerequisites so I can eventually apply for P.A. school. My "Plan B" is to use those prerequisites towards a B.S. in Medical Lab Science. One of the options of the curriculum is a summer internship in the Biotech industry. If the internship is related to the medical field (i.e. vaccine research), would this look good on an application to a P.A. program? Or would I be better off using that time and energy taking more science classes or training programs such as EMT? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boulder Posted June 1, 2013 Share Posted June 1, 2013 I think it would look good on your application. However, if it is either that or an EMT class I think that is a no brainer. You need to get the EMT cert, but more importantly you need to get a job w/ that EMT cert and get some actual paid patient contact. Second to your GPA this is the most important thing you can do to land a spot in a PA program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.C. Posted June 2, 2013 Author Share Posted June 2, 2013 Just to be clear, I do have the CNA certification, so the EMT would be an additional training program that I've heard will qualify me to be an ER tech. I'll still have HCE without it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boulder Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 Just to be clear, I do have the CNA certification, so the EMT would be an additional training program that I've heard will qualify me to be an ER tech. I'll still have HCE without it. In that case, how many hours do you have working as a CNA? Many programs will categorize different types of HCE into a hierarchy, and I believe EMT is usually considered to be in a higher tier than CNA. Now, if you already have a few thousand hours as a CNA, it probably doesn't matter all that much and I say go w/ the internship. If however you still need to accrue your hours I would still recommend the EMT cert over the internship...but again, the cert isn't half as important as actually applying the cert and starting to log those paid patient contact hours. My 0.02 Also, an EMT cert will qualify you to work as an ER tech, which is a great stepping stone to PA, but without a few years of EMT experience or a significant "in" at a hospital they are next to impossible to land as a first gig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.C. Posted June 2, 2013 Author Share Posted June 2, 2013 I don't have a lot of hours accumulated, so that is something to factor in here. Thanks for the info and advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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