Anthony Amoroso MD - What Are the Key Pre-Requisites to Becoming a Physician Assistant?
The physician assistant profession was introduced in the year 1965, it was the first PA (Physician assistant program) offered by Duke University. The amazing increase in demand for this profession had brought with it with more than 135 training modules in this medical field today. One can easily find increasing numbers of Universities and Schools offering accredited physician assistant degree and bachelor programs which are held in the Universities campus or through online program, as compared to some twenty years ago.
But what are the
prerequisites for anyone to become a physician assistant:-
1. Most of the PA program requires its applicants to have at
least two years of college education with some relevant working experience in
the health care industry. However, more stringent world famous PA degree or
bachelor program from renowned Universities would require their candidates to
have at least a bachelor degree in any fields with at least 3 to 4 years of
working experience in the health-care industry.
2. Specifically, most of the PA program required at least
some, if not all of the following courses to have been completed, before you
are qualified to apply for the PA bachelor program. Find out the specific
prerequisites from the University that you are targeting for is always a
positive thing to do.
- 1 year of General Biology lecture and Lab or its
equivalent
- 1 year of General Chemistry Lecture and Lab or it
equivalent
- 1 semester of General Genetics
- 1 semester of Human Physiology
o At least one other upper division science course which can
be biology, chemistry, or physics,
o And at least 12 credit hours of Humanities, which can be
in any of these courses, Philosophy, fine arts, music, speech and communications
etc
o And at least 6 credit hours Psychology, which can be
selection of these courses such as the Biological Basis of Behavior, Drugs and
Behavior, Human development, and others.
- 1 semester of Statistics, which the statistics course can
be through any department but there are some compulsory papers which need to be
included, such as statistical measures, inference, hypothesis testing, and
distributions among others.
3. The PA program emphasizes on the continuous working
exposure which the applicants have had throughout his/her previous working
experience. This is because of the fast pace and frequent changes which are
happening in the Medical world, for nothing stay unchanged in the medical
world.
4. Most of the Schools will arrange for an interview session
to meet the short-listed candidate for the PA bachelor or degree program. Some
of the favorite interview questions would be, " your most and least
favorite working experience with any patients/colleagues"," how good
your knowledge is in the health care system in your current society" .
Therefore keeping a journal to keep track of these records with regards to your
working experience in the current field is essential. Also record your
interactions and also whatever guidance you have gained from other health care
professionals will add value for you to share during the interview.
5. Some of the PA program will look for the amount of
voluntary hours which one have exposed with, with the breadth of experience and
the commitment in providing your continuous service and exposure in any
volunteer medical health work.
6.Five Letters of evaluations from different sources are
required as part of your application to the PA program. Three of them need to
come from the individual faculty whom you had been tutored before, and the
other two from someone who knows you well enough to write good and powerful
evaluation letters for you. It is crucial for them to be able to provide
specific observations and examples emphasizing on your potential and skills in
the PA field, in order to add value in supporting your application into the PA
program.
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