Canadian Registered practical nurse to Physician Assistant California

[migz_7]

Hi all! Im a 26 year old Canadian Registered Practical nurse licensed under College of Nurses of Ontario seeking information on how I can pursue a career as a Physician assistant in North California. I recently moved to California and want to continue my education. I want to know what pre reqs. I would need to be considered to be able to compete for the PA program and would they take in consideration my education and experiance as a Canadian RPN. Since my education is from a different country would they require me to take some kind of entrance exam to be able to take any pre reqs for Universities or colleges in the USA?

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

This is a nursing forum so there are only occasional visits from actual Physician Assistants (PA) around these threads. Your experience as an RPN in Canada will help in meeting the requirement for "Health-care related experience" prior to entry in PA programs. There are a variety of educational entry points to becoming a PA. While the curriculum is essentially similar, PA programs are either Associate's, Bachelor's, or Master's degrees.

There are very few Associate's degree programs in existence. Since you mentioned interest in Northern California programs, there are 3 around here: Stanford, Samuel Merritt, and University of California - Davis, and all 3 have Master's degree programs for PA studies. That means you have to enter with a Bachelor's degree in something already. You also must have completed prerequisite science courses as well as probably have to take the GRE.

http://www.paeaonline.org/index.php