So You Want to Be a PA

Photo courtesy of: https://www.desktopbackground.org/tag/wallpapers-nurse

I’ll be honest, becoming a Physician Assistant was not my first choice. Initially, I thought I wanted to go to medical school and become a doctor. In undergrad, I majored in biology with a chemistry minor and was focused on meeting the prerequisites for medical school. My grades were decent. I say decent because I did not have a 4.0 and I did not always do well in my classes (I’m just not a fan of physics or organic chemistry). After graduation, I immediately took the MCAT without real preparation, four months later I attempted to the test again. Needless to say, it did not go so well. However, I didn’t give up. I enrolled in MCAT prep classes and spent a lot of money on study material. Two years go by and I still haven’t made any real moves towards “my dream”. I didn’t feel defeated, but something just didn’t feel right about what I was trying to pursue. It took a minute but I realized I wasn’t putting in the necessary work to get into medical school. Not because I’m lazy, but I just did not want to. I was putting all of this unnecessary stress on my life to pursue something that I was no longer sure I wanted.

Now I knew for sure I wanted to go into the medical field. I worked as a scribe/travel scribe
for 3.5 years and obtained a lot of experience. However, the drawback of being a scribe (at some places), was you didn’t get to talk or interact with the patient. Being a scribe got boring quickly! Plus it’s not a career, just one of those stepping-stones to allow you to get into the medical atmosphere, network, and learn more about the medical field. I remember late November/early December of 2014, I was talking with a friend and she mentioned she wanted to be a PA. I knew what a PA was; I had worked with several while I was a scribe. I just never looked into what it took to become a PA. After talking with her, I became enamored with the thought of being a PA. That night I went home and did a lot of research on the steps I needed to take to get into PA school. There were a couple of courses that I needed to meet the prerequisites, the GRE, and more healthcare hours (because being a scribe doesn’t count as direct patient care hours at all schools).

January 2015, I quit my job and began to focus on taking the necessary steps to get into PA school. At the time, I was living in California, so I moved back home and looked for another job. I was lucky, no...blessed to be able to find and start a job immediately after leaving one. I began working as a medical assistant/scribe for a private company. With this job, I was able to gain more healthcare experience and obtain the direct patient hours I needed. I enrolled as a post-baccalaureate student and completed my prerequisites during the summer and fall semesters. At the end of the year, I started preparing for the GRE and took it in February 2016. As soon as the CASPA application cycle opened, I started working on my applications. I started to feel a little nervous; I didn’t feel like an exemplary candidate. PA school is extremely competitive and I started to doubt whether I would be a good enough candidate for admission. My organic chemistry classes really did some damage on my GPA. I pushed through those doubts and applied anyway. I knew becoming a PA was what I wanted because I was actually taking the time to work for it, unlike my med school dreams. I was truly passionate about getting into PA school and becoming a PA. I ended up being offered 5 interviews, but I didn’t attend them all. I was accepted into a school during one of my interviews and started my journey from PA-S to PA-C in January 2017! Everything seemed to be falling into place as if I was finally doing what I was meant to do. Becoming a PA may not have been my first choice, but it’s the best decision I’ve made so far!

“It always seems impossible until it’s done”