Ascending the ladder. PA?

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Specializes in Hospice, Skilled, LTC, Home Health.

hello! i am starting lpn school at job corp in a couple weeks, and have recently decided that a career as a pa is something that would bring me a great amount of joy. i've been a cna for 7 years, and enjoy the work, but would like to get into diagnosis and actual treatment. i would love more responsibility, but still don't mind working with someone supervising me once in a while. my question is, what schools out there offer the pa program? what are the prerequisites? and can i become a pa if i only have my adn? or does it require a bsn? since job corp is free to me, and it only offers the lpn program, i'm going to take what i can get and use it as a stepping stone. would you recommend going for the bsn after the lpn, or going to adn, then bsn? i'm so confused!! help! :uhoh3:

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You can do a search and you will find a lot of threads on this site about this. PA is not a nursing track for one.

The way to search is up at top right, you can search this site. Goodluck.

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Specializes in Hospice, Skilled, LTC, Home Health.

I don't understand why it would be frowned upon to have nursing experience and want to become a PA. We're all working with patients, and nursing education allows for a lot of the required prerequisites. Oh, and every time I search this topic its just MORE people arguing over NP or PA blah blah blah. We're all in this together. Nurse practitioner or physician assistant.:monkeydance:

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Specializes in Hospice / Ambulatory Clinic.

I think what she is trying to say is that you don't need to be a nurse to become a PA. In fact if you become a nurse it makes more sense to go the NP route since it builds upon your nursing education. PA school does not and would would start essentially from scratch

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Specializes in Hospice, Skilled, LTC, Home Health.

ok, so what about the medical background that a lot of the programs have as a prerequisite to the program? nursing is listed as one.

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Well, people will always argue... the reason to search is to just quickly scan the posts for some news you can use. Sometimes I open Word and copy paste stuff I am interested in, this is an easy way. But to just be truthful, there are important differences in NP and PA, pick that stuff out of the threads, you need to know it. Just move over the fussy stuff. Spending time in nursing edu, will only prolong your PA aquisition really, I'd cut to the chase and just do PA if you want it. If you want the NP, well then the nursing stuff you do will contribute in some way to your practice once you are a NP.

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Specializes in mental health, military nursing.

Because a PA program is just a masters-level program, you should be able to start it with a BSN without any problem. You must have your bachelors (whether in nursing or another science) before PA school.

PAs and NPs just have different job roles - it's not necessary to argue over which is better. However, with the popularity of NP programs these days, you may be able to find and get into an NP program much easier. Plus, there are a quite a few ADN-to-NP programs out there.

Minimum amount of school will be five to six years, if you take no time off in between programs = 1 (LPN) + 1 (LPN-RN) + 1 (RN-BSN accelerated) + 2 (PA or NP school).

Go for it! It's completely possible to do all of those programs while working, too, which is pretty nice - and if you need to take a break, you've got one license or another to fall back on. Much better than a BS in pre-med ;-)

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ok, so what about the medical background that a lot of the programs have as a prerequisite to the program? nursing is listed as one.

Some people who are RNs decide to do a career change, and like any career change a transcript review would be necessary to see what's what. Like I say, you will find out a whole lot if you read old posts, there is a lot of info in some of those threads you could use.

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Specializes in Hospice, Skilled, LTC, Home Health.

thank you Laura!! That's what I wanted to know! I've read a ton of old posts, trying the best I can to filter through all the back and forth banter...and I'm almost 100% positive I want to be a PA. NP is a wonderful job I'm sure, but I know quite a few PA's..and I think it is the right choice for me. The reason that I am going through with the nursing is because its just the first step into a higher education. I don't qualify for other colleges right now (due to financial reasons) and Job corp's LPN program is free to me. I know that it is going to be a major struggle financially, so I chose the nursing path because I can earn higher pay while I progress (ie: LPN-RN or RN-BSN) and if will help me take care of finances instead of just going straight through a 4-yr. BS or pre-med degree. I know its confusing, and a lot of people think that its stupid to do it that way, but I WANT to be a PA, and I need a healthy, steady income as well while I am in school. THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!

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Hello,

Your going to require a Bachelor degree in something. I don't know if their are accelerated PA programs that are both. I know they offer nurse practitioner programs.

Good Luck!!

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Specializes in Hospice, Skilled, LTC, Home Health.

Thank you everyone for your help! I just found out that there is a PA program at DMU here in Iowa. I'm excited! :yeah:

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Specializes in Hospice / Ambulatory Clinic.

Good. My advice would be not to upgrade to an RN after getting your LPN if PA school is your ultimate goal. You'll get there quicker if you don't take the extra time for Rn school. Just concentrate on just getting what ever you need for your PA program

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