Health Care Experience

Health Care Experience is a big part of your application. Many programs even require a minimum amount of hours you need before applying. I had a few friends from my class tell me about their previous health care experience so you can see some of the variety represented in our program and have an idea of the variety of experiences out there. 




Before school, I worked in a clinic with doctors of all specialties getting CTs and MRIs approved with insurance companies. I learned about the MANY different types of insurances and what criteria they look for before they will approve your imaging study. I learned how important it is for a practitioner to be detailed in their clinical notes in order to make it easier for the people getting the approvals. I also gained experience navigating EMR software, because I had to look at patient labs, previous imaging studies, current meds, and clinical notes.




I worked as an EMT/Paramedic in between graduating from undergrad and getting into PA school.  I also completed a 2-year community college certificate program while I worked to upgrade my abilities/title/pay early on.  I also worked my last year as an ER technician.  For me, it helped cement that I wanted to be involved in hands-on medicine (not research) as I had no previous experience in which to defend any post-grad education.  It’s helping me immensely with PA school in the functional aspects of it, such as feeling comfortable with patients and skills I’ve already encountered (eg: VS, interviewing), and some knowledge background, particularly on emergency-related health care which covers a huge variety of trauma and disease.




I worked as an MA at a sports medicine and orthopedic office in Bryan. As an MA, I took histories and vitals, ordered xrays, took out staples and stitches and cleaned incisions/wounds, helped put on casts (and got to use the awesome cast saw to cut them off!!), ordered, scheduled, and authorized MRIs, CTs, arthrograms, and surgeries, wrote orders for PT, sent/called in prescriptions... The doctors that I worked for are the team physicians for A&M athletics, and one of them is a renowned orthopedic surgeon, so I got to meet a large variety of patients, from Olympians and college athletes to 90 year olds with DJD. Working there helped me gain a bigger idea of what working in a medical office involved and how to be the best you can for your patients, and I was able to be taught by some of the most passionate and caring physicians! 




I didn’t know I was interested in medicine until I had the opportunity to work in the medical world as a pharmaceutical sales rep.  I think it helped me prepare for school  in a number of ways.  First, having 8 years of real-world experience after college has definitely prepared me for this program.  I feel I have a mature outlook to a post-grad program like this from being out in the professional work force for years.  Second, I have learned a lot about the healthcare system in general.  There are many facets of healthcare other than just the provider-patient interactions.  The hospital/system dynamics and politics, the payer influences, and the overall business side of healthcare is often overlooked by those going into medicine.  My experiences have helped me gain a deeper understanding of these aspects.  As far as the pharmaceutical understanding and disease state knowledge, I definitely am more prepared for certain disease state blocks and pharmacology drug class sections of the program.  That being said, this program continues to open my eyes to the amount of knowledge that I have yet to learn.

Once I decided to pursue a career in healthcare, my first step was to seek out shadowing opportunities.  Through family friends that were doctors and pre-healthcare organizations in undergrad I was able to find opportunities to shadow orthopedic surgery, spinal surgery (office visits only, no OR), family medicine, and emergency department.  While in the ED, the physician was complaining about the transition to EMR and the pressure he was feeling from administration to utilize a tablet to document patient visits.  I convinced him to let me give it a try just on a whim, and it eventually morphed into a scribe position for the remainder of that semester.  

I also worked at a company that did zip-line canopy tours.  This was not a healthcare job, but I did all I could to turn it into one.  For example, I initiated first-aid training sessions, outfitted the rescue bags with better first-aid equipment, and updated all emergency action plan protocols.  I believe you can show your passion for health and patient care regardless of the job you work, so don't be discouraged if it's hard to find HCE.

My most recent job before PA school was working as a scribe/MA for an orthopedic and spinal surgery office.  I found this job by relentlessly applying to every place I could find, until I got a hit from a Craigslist post.  I would not have landed this (paid) position had I not had the previous experience scribing in the ED (unpaid). Take any job, even if it's unpaid, that gets your foot in the door and prove to them that you can contribute to their practice. I sent countless letters of interest to any doctor's office I could find to ask about open positions...never hurts to ask.





I worked as a clinical dietitian prior to coming to PA school which gave me the opportunity to work with interdisciplinary teams including doctors, PA's, NP's, social workers, speech therapist, occupational therapist and physical therapists. It made me realize the unique position PA's are in and the respected relationships they build with not only patients but the interdisciplinary team. My job also gave me great experience in interviewing, educating patient's, communicating with nurses/physicians, charting, writing orders and conducting research.





My healthcare experience was really varied prior to entering school.  In high school I worked as a hospital volunteer, mainly in the ER, so I got to see a lot early (this was 20 years ago before things got really tight regarding PHI).  During college years, I worked in a small town as ER triage and registration and as a 911 dispatcher which was tied with a local "lifealert" system for seniors.  After getting my master's degree in exercise physiology, I worked as a research assistant at a very unique human physiology lab (http://www.ieemphd.org/) that not only conducts experimental research studies, but provides clinical care.  At this job I worked with healthy individuals of all ages and various patients (ex: seniors with HTN, young women with POTS, pregnant women).  Also, I was able to work as a inside chamber attendant for the hyperbaric medicine unit at the IEEM.  Here I assisted in the care of patients that have wounds that are not healing well (diabetic or post surgical), post radiology patients, scuba divers with the bends, and those suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. I got direct PA shadowing experience with an ortho I personally saw who has an ortho PA working for him, and two PA acquaintances I have that work in the ER and with a cardiologist's office respectively.  All worked at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.