Patient
Contact
Obtaining patient contact hours is an integral part of applying to most graduate physician assistant programs. They allow applicants to set themselves apart with various forms of healthcare experience. Patient contact hours can be separated into different categories. See below for more information.
PA schools differ in what jobs they consider fit in experience categories, those that typically are controversial are mentioned below are followed by an asterisk. If you are unsure of the category, you can describe the activities you performed on the CASPA application.
Organizations offering patient contact hours can be found at the link below:
patient Care Experience
Direct contact with patients in which you provide some type of medical care
health care experience
Duties in a healthcare seeting that do not involve hands on patient care
shadowing
Observing a PA or physician while they work to gain knowledge within their specialty
Volunteering
Offering non-compensatory assistance to an organization
P
Patient Contact Experience (PCE)
Many PCE opportunities require previous training in order to be certified to work. Communication with potential employers could aid in making this determination.
Common methods of obtaining patient contact experience are as follows:
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Certified Nursing Assistant
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Personal Care Assistant/Technician
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Emergency Medical Technician
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Medical Assistant*
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Medical Scribe*
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Pharmacy Technician*
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Phlebotomist
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Home Health Aide
Health Care Experience (HCE)
Common methods of obtaining health care experience are as follows:
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Medical Scribe*
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Medical Assistant*
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Medical Secretary
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Unit Coordinator
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Filing at a doctor's office
Shadowing
Reach out to local physicians and PAs in order to obtain shadowing hours. Asking family friends and your primary care physician is a great way to start!
Shadowing PAs in different specialties is be a great way to reaffirm your interest in the career, but do not shy away from opportunities to shadow other related professions such as doctors, Nurse Practitioners, PTs, and OTs.
Volunteering
There are numerous ways to gain volunteering hours and it's a great way to get involved within your community.
Possible volunteering opportunities include:
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Soup kitchen
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Homeless shelters
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Red Cross
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Food banks
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Animal shelters
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Hospital volunteering