LPN or Focus on PA School

[Nyc327]

I am new here and I've been wanting to comment for a while! This website is so helpful!

I am currently dying to go back to school but I am a bit lost. I haven't been enrolled in school in over 6 years and when I was last enrolled, I only did one semester. 6 years later, I am ready to get the show on the road and do my absolute best.

My issue today is that I am unsure of what route to go down. I am 25 and currently working at a lab doing entry level work, no education needed. I miss working with customers, as I was always in customer service positions in every job I've had prior.

I have been doing research for a few months now and I have come to fall in love with the medical field, particularly nursing and physician assistant programs.

My question is, if I go to a vocational school for practical nursing now, and graduate in a year, would it be ideal to get back into college to work my way towards a degree as a PA? I know how long it will take and everything. I am asking Bc I know to get into the PA school of my interest, I would need patient/doctor hands on hours (I know I worded this poorly).

How many of you started as an LPN and transitioned to a PA? Would it be smarter for me to skip the LPN route and go straight into my bachelors instead?

I hope my questions aren't all over the place. I tried my best to break it down as least as possible. Thank you so much in advance.

[Nyc327]

Thank you I'll look into the paramedic option in my area.

[RainbowSprinkles]

If you are starting with a clean slate and heading to a community college...it wouldn't be a bad idea to check out some health sciences associates programs to see if pre reqs are closely aligned with the suggested bachelors needed for PA school...such as respiratory care, physical therapist, or occupational therapist. This way..you bang out an affordable associate, most 4 yr schools accept associate degree and full credits, and get your necessary hours while working on your bachelors.

[the_murse_factor]

Just a bit of advice from someone with personal experience trying to gain entry into PA school. Make sure your grades are TOP NOTCH. GPA above 3.5 to be competitive 3.7 ish or higher plus a really good GRE score. PA school is extremely competitive. I know of people that got into medical school before they gained entry into PA school. PA schools get hundreds of applications and only allow 40 students a year to gain entry. If youu go the PA routue just hunker down and do really well with your pre-reqs and you will be in a good position for entry.

I decided to go the nursing route because my GPA wasn't strong enough and I'm to old to keep taking pre-reqs over again. The application cycle is viscious.

Good luck and study hard!

[kaylee.]

I guess I didn't understand about the hands-on hours requirement. I just googled a random program (Chapman U. in Ca) and it has a list of fields where this hands-on can occur:

https://www.chapman.edu/crean/_files/forms/pas-patient-contact-hours-2016.pdf

I suppose that changes things from what I said in my previous post. oops! The list I posted has established careers that would count as experience (nurse, respiratory ther, dental hygenist etc), but also lists things like CNA, MA, medic, which are also career paths but require much less to get into.

A CNA in a hospital gets tons of valuable experience. Many of the ones I work with are in nursing school or have PA school as a goal. When I think about the option of LPN, it seems like alot of time and money for the sole purpose of being PA school patient experience.

Medic would be a good one too, IMO. I would pick something that can be started while pursuing bachelors. But either way, it looks like have a number of routes to choose from!

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

I don't see how one (LVN) has to do with the other (PA). LVN is nursing whereas PA is medicine & $26K for an LVN program is highway robbery! Save that money for your PA schooling.

[sassyspoon]

When I was trying to get my HCE, I became a PCT basically a CNA at a hospital. Although if I were you, I would do EMT. I read a ton of "how I got into PA school" articles and I receive a bunch of PA platform emails that show case people that were admitted into PA school, most of the people that got in were EMTs. And as someone above mentioned, make sure your GPA is in the 3.5-4.0 range.