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What are some things I can do outside of school if I want to be a physician assistant?

My dream job has been to be a physician assistant for a while now and I have been trying to look into things that I can do outside of school to help benefit my education or college applications. I tried volunteering but I was told I had to wait a couple of months because my age doesn't make me eligible. What can I do??

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Thank you comment icon You didn’t tell us how old you are, and that will make a difference in terms of volunteering or other activities that would bring you into direct contact with medical practitioners of all sorts. So, I would suggest you do some research. It would be good if you could have discussions with doctors, nurses, physician assistants, and people who work in the various supportive fields like radiology, laboratory technology, physical therapy, or any other field that touches your interest. It isn’t clear why you would prefer being a PA instead of a physician, so if you gave us more information about yourself we might be able to give you better advice. Paul S. Treuhaft, MD, MA Paul Treuhaft, MD, MA
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Marla’s Answer

Hi Emily, it's great to hear that you're interested in becoming a Physician Assistant. Since you're not able to volunteer due to your age, I suggest that you try to shadow a Physician Assistant, a Nurse Practitioner and a Physician. Depending on the specialty that you're interested in, it would also be beneficial to a shadow a health care worker in that specialty.
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Ethan’s Answer

Shadowing would be helpful. Sometimes the reality of a job is not what we think it is. For example I was convinced I was going to be a physical therapist until I spent time shadowing. Now I’m a PA.
I would recommend being a nurse aid of some kind. It gives valuable insight to how hospitals/clinics work and again will either further convince you that you are on the right career path or that medicine isn’t for you.
Best of luck with everything.
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Karissa’s Answer

Ask your Pediatrician if you can shadow him. It would only be for a day but it would give you valuable insight into the medical field. I know you mention you want experiences outside of school. Right now the most important thing to do is take AP Biology, AP Chemistry and AP Physics. If you can take AP Calculus do that as well. These classes are difficult and may take up all of your free time.
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Michelle’s Answer

Hi, Emily !

Being a Physician Assistant is a great dream job and it's awesome that you know which career you want to pursue. I have learned a lot about Physician Assistants while I interacted with them when I was a Case Manger and they seem to dedicate more time to the patients as compared to medical doctors for check ups and illness visits. Maybe it's just in the area where I live.

Because the duties of a PA consist of examining, diagnosing, ordering exams and interpreting them, prescribing medication and creating treatment plans and providing health care counseling, you maybe would want to do something that would give you insight or experience doing some or one of those things. The only thing I would suggest is to volunteer at your local Department of Health where you can possibly be a health information volunteer and be active in their community events.

You will get hands on practice when you are in your Physician Assistant Program. As an actor, I enjoyed being what is called a Standardized Patient for PA Students during their exams and finals. This means that I played the part of the patient, a scripted scenario, and the PA student took a history, talked with the patient, did an exam, diagnosed the patient and prescribed medication and/or follow up medical testing. As an actor, I loved this and was very impressed at the level of competency of the students. So you will get the chance to actually practice before you do your rotations and there's really no need to rush things.

I would suggest doing some reading about various conditions and illnesses. Also see if you can take an online medical terminology course to become familiar with the terms you'll be using and need to be familiar with.

Any type of volunteer work that you can obtain, even if it's not connected to medical fields, will be great for your applications to college. It doesn't have to be around medical. Colleges like to see consistent activities, extracurriculars and projects of any kind that the student had been participating in. So keep in mind that you can do anything that interests you. If there is a human science club at school, join that but it's perfectly fine to run for class office or join the debate team.

I advise turning your focus more towards what you will do for undergraduate school. Explore the different science majors and explore colleges. Take things one step at a time. Sure, PA is your dream career, but you don't have to do it now. It is a process. You'll need a solid college undergraduate program and once you enter the PA Program, that is when you will learn everything you need to know to be a PA, get hands on experience with Standardized Patients and get experience through doing your rotations.

I hope that this is helpful and I wish you all the best. Take it a step at a time and enjoy the process !
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