Transition from RN to PA

foreverLaur · Jan 23, 2010

:nurse:I am currently a student at Hocking College for RN, I plan on getting my Bachelor's online as soon as I graduate Hocking. I am really striving towards going for Physician's Assistant as soon as all that is done. Can anyone help me in some suggestions about where I should look at? Is Kettering College of Medical Arts a good choice? Also does anybody know how that transition from RN to PA goes? Any comments and suggestions are greatly apprciated.

First off, it is Physician Assistant. A PA is not owned by their supervising physician.

Secondly, RN-PA is one of the best routes you can take. The profession was founded on being a second medical career, so make sure you get around 2 years RN experience before PA school. Any decent school will require (or highly recommend) you to have at least 2,000 hours. The average is more like 6,000+. PA school is just as competitive if not mroe so than medical school. You'll need at least a 3.0 GPA and higher for top programs. You'll also need to take the GRE and you'll want at least a 1,000 cumulative score.

KCMA is a good school, but pricey and there are others that are better. The older the school, the better. They should also require or highly recommend direct hands on patient care experience. Marietta has a program, but it is also expensive. Toledo does too. Tri-C is a really fantastic program that offers a masters degree and the tuition is very cheap in comparison. That would be my top recommendation for Ohio.

I'm assuming you'll also have a lot of prerequisite coursework to take. Nursing schools don't usually include high level science courses for science majors.

You will need

-1 year biology w/ lab for science majors

-1 year chemistry w/ lab for science majors

-1 year (or 1 semester) organic chemistry w/ lab for science majors

-1 semester microbiology w/ lab for science majors

-1 year anatomy/physiology w/ lab

Some schools also require math, statistics, genetics, medical terminology, biochemistry, and more.

It is a great field. Your first year will be 3 semesters that are similar to the coursework taken in the first 2 years (4 semesters) of medical school. You will then do clinical rotations through all the major medical specialties. You graduate with 2,000-3,000 clinical hours. You typically get 500-800 elective hours, which gives you the opportunity to specialize. What I like a lot about PA is that you get 3-4 times the clinical hours of NPs and PAs get just as many specialty hours too! You also get a much stronger foundation in the sciences which is integral to practicing medicine.

I'd recommend checking out http://www.physicianassistantforum.com. It is a wonderul resource for pre-PA, PA students, and practicing PAs. You'll get tons of people who would be more than willing to help out over there.

mjcornnielies · Jan 23, 2010

Thannk you so much for the reply! It really helped. I am definetly going to check out that site!!

brown eyed girl · Feb 16, 2010

Kettering is an excellent but expensive choice. I say go to kettering, but im biased cause im from dayton. :lol2: No matter where you decide to go, do ya thing boo!