What is a Physician Assistant?

So what exactly is a Physician Assistant (PA)? I have included below a link to the US Department of Labor page on PA's, as well as a video clip that does a very good job of decribing the profession. Also be sure to check out my links section on the right hand side of the page for more pages with information on PA's. Enjoy!

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos081.htm

A Little About Myself…

Hello! For my first post, I decided that I would introduce myself, as well as let you know where I am in the process of applying to physician assistant (PA) school. For starters, my name is Ron, and I am a junior health and exercise science major at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). I started my freshman year as a chemistry major, hoping to go into forensics, but I decided to change career paths and my major during the summer before sophomore year. After speaking to a few people I worked with that summer, I decided that the physician assistant career path was the right choice for me. Thankfully, many of the classes I took as a chemistry major are prerequisite courses for PA school, so I did not have to start all over again. Since then, I have taken many of the required or recommended prerequisite courses for PA school, including Anatomy and Physiology I, Introduction to Pharmacology, Nutrition, and many others, all of which I am enjoying. In the past fall semester I completed organic chemistry I, which was a tough battle, but I got through it. In the upcoming spring semester, I plan to take Anatomy and Physiology II, Biomedical Ethics, Microbiology, Abnormal Psychology, and a Medical Terminology course online through my local community college.

If you happen to be in the same position as I am, or are just beginning your quest towards becoming a PA, I highly recommend you take as many of the courses I mentioned above as possible. The three courses I bolded are courses that are required at a majority of PA schools, and most of the others are considered "highly recommended". Just make sure that you achieve at least a "C" in the class, as most schools do not accept any grades below a "C" to count as a prerequisite. In addition, PA schools really focus on your science classes, so be sure to do as well as possible in those courses.

Just last week (12/13/2007), literally 1 hour after completing my last final exam, I fought through an ice storm and made my way into Philadelphia to attend an open house for the Drexel-Hahnemann PA program. I found the one and a half hour long program to be very informative, though I still plan to email the program director with a few further questions. I highly recommend attending an open house for any programs that you are considering. They are very informative, allow you to ask any questions that you may have, and, if nothing else, allows the program to get to know you and shows your interest in their program (which cannot hurt your application). By attending the open house, I have reaffirmed my opinion that Drexel-Hahnemann is my number 1 choice.

So outside of school, what do I do? Well, I am a NJ EMT-B, and I volunteer on both my campus squad (Lions' EMS) and my home squad (Allamuchy-Green First Aid Squad). I also plan to volunteer at a hospital next semester, as well as on another squad near my college. I plan to count all of these volunteer hours towards my patient contact time when it comes time to apply to PA school. Many, if not all schools require or recommend some sort of patient contact time prior to admission. I currently have approximately 800 hours, and I plan to gain another 200-300 before I send in my applications.

I also happen to be a New York Jets fan, though being a Jets fan can be tough at times. I am fan of my two dogs, a sheltie and a shih tzu, as well as emergency medicine shows on TV, cheap delivery food (if you are or ever were a college student you'd understand), refrigerators that don't smell, people who don't turn the thermostat up to 90 degrees, my girlfriend, rural living, Charlie Brown, and snow storms. If you would like to know more about anything I have discussed above, feel free to leave comments, or check back periodically for more posts as I continue working towards becoming a physician assistant. Have a happy holidays!