Expert: Christine Fader - 3/21/2010

Question
hey there,
I'm currently a high school senior and i've been thinking about my future career. I've been looking at becoming a Physician Assistant (PA) and i noticed that clinical experience in some sort of medical field is highly recommended. here is the link that mentioned that:

http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/fnppa/req-clinical-exper.html

To enter PA graduate school, you need to get your bachelor's degree first. This coming up part is the part i'm confused on. Since getting into PA graduate school is not easy, i believe having 2 years of hands on experience is required- in order to make sure your entrance into PA graduate school. ON that same link, it showed some options of medical fields to do hands-on work for 2 years. How can you do for example, RN, for two years hands-on work if you only graduated with a bachelor's degree?

For medical assistant, i looked it up on

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos164.htm#training

in the education/ training section and it said that medical assistant does not require any formal training but then states that some people do 1-2 years program for medical assistant. Why would the hospital hire someone who has no 1-2 years training to become a medical assistant than a person who does have 2 years of training? according to my thinking, 2 years of training to become a medical assistant is required then. If everything i'm saying is right, in order to become a PA, you need to get a bachelors degree, complete 1-2 years training for medical assistant, do the 2 years of "highly recommended" clinical experience, and finally do the 2 years of PA graduate school. that's 10 years of studying/working in order to become a PA! that cannot be right. Is this really the path to become a PA? because if it is, becoming a PA is not worth it.

Please help me clarify my confusion. thanks

Answer
Hello,

I'm limited in what I can really answer to this question but I will give it a start and when it gets beyond my expertise, I will recommend other resources.

I suspect that a Physician Assistant and a Medical Assistant may actually be two different jobs.  In Canada, we are only just starting to see these roles so I am in the very early stages of knowing any details about them.  However, if they are different roles, as I suspect, then it may explain the discrepancies in the requirements to get in that you read about.

One thing you may want to do is go to a library and ask a librarian for the national directory of occupations which lists all the currently classified jobs in your country.  Then you can look up the differences between Physician Assistant and Medical Assistant and also see what education is typically required.

Re the two years experience recommended for the PA role.  Similar to an MBA application, many schools want you to graduate from a bachelor's degree, then get 2 years experience before you apply to graduate school.  If you graduated from a bachelor of science in nursing, then it would be possible to be an RN and then work for two years (to answer your question about how that was possible) with "only" a bachelor's degree.

However, my best advice is THIS:

You should contact an admissions person at the programs/schools that offer these programs and ask them your detailed questions.  This is the best way to ensure that you're getting the most accurate, current information about the program you're considering.  Anyone else (including me!) is a third-hand source and is really only guessing.

Good luck!

Christine
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Christine Fader
Career Counsellor
www.careercupid.com
Author, "Career Cupid:  Your Guide to Landing and Loving Your Dream Job"
Follow my blog at:  careercupid.blogspot.com