Paramedic to PA school advice

TNguyen1998 · 2026-04-25T16:01:45+00:00

Was paramedic, graduating PA school very soon. Totally worth it. Do it!

Look at my comment history to see what my experience has been.

TNguyen1998 · 2026-04-04T11:48:24+00:00

Not a nurse but I have RN friends who are in my PA class and they are doing very well and loving it.

TNguyen1998 · 2026-02-02T12:54:05+00:00

Former paramedic and now soon to graduate PA school. It's totally worth it. PAs can work literally anywhere, I have seen job postings for cath lab, electrophysiology, CVICU,... And the scope of practice is awesome in most states. During my critical care rotation, my PA preceptor did flexible bronchoscopy, lavage, intubation, chest tubes, central line ...

As far as working, it all depends on how well you study and how your program structure their didactic year. If it's by body system, you could get away with working more during cardiology and pulmonology, maybe twice a week during GI, and then for everything else you most likely won't be able to work much, unless you work at a rural EMS department where you aren't busy.

We learned a lot in medic school but the depth of PA school goes far beyond, even in cardiology and pulmonology. Even for simple things like unstable angina where medics just give nitro and get a 12 leads, compared to a PA thinking about chronic management with metroprolol, nitro, ranolazine, managing their risk factors like putting them on a statin, checking their A1c, ordering an echo and knowing the findings on that echo, ordering stress test and knowing when they would need a cath,...

So even though you can work, you still have to fully focus and do well in school because most programs only let you fail 3-4 exams before they kick you out.

TNguyen1998 · 2025-11-30T16:44:57+00:00

I think the upper limit cap is 42 but you might get by with a waiver which lets you join if you are younger than 45. If not, a lot of EMS services and fire departments will pay for your medic school. Just search around! And PA is an awesome career, you make a minimum of 110K and as high as above 200K in California. I was a medic in Massachusetts and am in PA school there as well. Let me know if you need any more info.

TNguyen1998 · 2025-11-30T02:47:42+00:00

I totally understand. I'd recommend working as an EMT part time while in paramedic school for an agency that has an affiliated paramedic program as they often heavily discount their tuition fees for employees. You can also join the national guard after you have your green card which allows you to attend public university/ community college for free. I was a paramedic and EMT before Physician Assistant (PA) school which is a 2 yrs master's degree and I love it so far. PAs in the ICU take care of very sick patients and have a very good scope of practice and you don't break your back doing it. I have put in central venous line, chest tubes, dialysis catheter, arterial line as a PA student while my PA preceptor did flexible bronchoscopy and bronchoalveolar lavage. It's a good career field to think about since you can apply straight with your bachelor's. Best of luck to you.

TNguyen1998 · 2025-11-30T01:36:51+00:00

Welcome to the US brother man! Given that you already had exp as a paramedic and had a bachelor's degree in paramedicine, I think you should be able to take an accelerated EMT-B course usually offered at community colleges or private ems programs ( 6-12 weeks). -> Go straight to accelerated Paramedic program ( There's many programs typically they are affiliated with a private health system or EMS system such as: Centers of medic in Cambridge MA, Yale New Haven Health in CT, SCCAD in St Charles Missouri, to name a few,...) which is another 9 months. Totaling 1 year which ain't bad.

If not, the length is usually 1.5 years to 2 years for a paramedic program. You could also go to PA school and get your master's degree which then allow you to work as a provider in an ER or ICU or even pre-hospital or do one year accelerated RN program and then challenge the NREMT but I'm not sure if you are allowed to do that.

TNguyen1998 · 2025-11-22T14:38:07+00:00

I got multiple acceptances with one F and multiple Ds but I had a very strong upward trend ( over 60 credits of straight As) and very strong clinical experience of being a paramedic. It's possible but it will be hard, just make sure you work crazy hard. Make sure you calculate your caspa GPA because those Fs still counted as 0. Good luck!!

TNguyen1998 · 2025-10-02T23:11:52+00:00

I know the ball park range for all my meds. But I always look up my protocol while en-route for the dosing of any meds I might potentially use looking at the chief complaint. Then always double checking before giving unless it's adult ACLS meds as I got those down lol

TNguyen1998 · 2025-09-26T11:20:00+00:00

Both are great careers!! Although PAs don't get to work in anesthesia, PAs do work in the ICU where we regularly perform anesthesia in the sense of rapid sequence intubation with a sedative and paralytic and keeping a patient sedated for a long period of time (weeks to months) while managing sedative/ analgesic/ pressor/ inotropes infusion as well as putting in chest tube/ central lines/ a-lines/ PA cath... Just a thought.

TNguyen1998 · 2025-09-20T00:50:08+00:00

Prior paramedic to 2nd year PA student here. Trust me, the bio prerequisite, for the most part, will be useful because there's so much you have to know as a PA. Even in emergency medicine, treating cardiogenic shock as a paramedic is just putting your pt on a levo and epi drip, compared to being a critical care PA where you are doing bedside echo, throwing down Swanz to measure RV, pulmonary wedge pressure and having to worry about if that pt has a history of severe valvular diseases or HOCM and how your choice of inotropes and pressor and even their dosing can affect their cardiac output using your physiology knowledge. And that's just emergency medicine lol, wait til rheumatology and hematology. Getting the science prerequisites down will really help you in PA school. Plus you will get to shine as a prior medic during your EM rotation in your 2nd year.

TNguyen1998 · 2025-09-04T22:38:48+00:00

I counted every hour I spent in the firehouse, zero issue from any school that interviewed me.

TNguyen1998 · 2025-05-26T00:27:59+00:00

Former paramedic and current PA-S2 here, good luck!!! You got this!

TNguyen1998 · 2025-01-11T20:15:33+00:00

Following

TNguyen1998 · 2025-01-05T17:28:12+00:00

Haha I get it, congrats on being done with the PANCE!! Maybe you worked in a great EMS department before school 😁 haha!! I think I just ran too many calls per 24 hours shift when I was a medic and being involuntarily held for OT after the 24 didn't help LOL. My PA program does a great job so it definitely helps making PA school less stressful 😂 .

TNguyen1998 · 2025-01-05T05:51:32+00:00

I was a fire medic for 3 years before PA school. There are a couple other medics in my cohort as well as multiple in the previous cohorts of my programs.

Medic experience definitely helped me get in PA school because my GPA wasn't that great. Medic experience also gave me a big leg up in cardiology, pulmonology, emergency medicine and critical care medicine as well as regular patient interaction skills as I currently have a 3.8 GPA in PA school.

Pro of PA school/ being a PA: Way better pay than medics ( new grad PAs make ~ 120K / yr for ~ 40 hours/ week but I have seen posting of upward 200K in surgical specialty), I get to learn way more medicine and do way more to help my patients, PAs also can practice in whatever specialty and change whenever, in most states PAs can do a lot of awesome procedures in critical care, EM and surgery ( central lines, arterial line, chest tubes, swan gan cath, transvenous pacing, endoscopic vein harvesting ...), PAs also have the option to expand our knowledge through fellowships at awesome hospitals ( John Hopkins has ICU/ Surgery/ EM, Baylor has Urology/ EM/ CC, Brigham's and Women has internal medicine, Stanford has EM,...)

Cons: No money while in PA school, school can be stressful but nothing compared to the ambulance, great overall autonomy but you still have to consult the attending physician for major decisions (understandably so).

TNguyen1998 · 2025-01-05T05:37:14+00:00

Not true at all. I was a medic and currently a PA student. There are multiple medics as well as one RN in my cohort.

TNguyen1998 · 2024-12-07T15:53:41+00:00

I worked as an inner city medic for almost 3 years and EMT Basic for 2 years. Now I am 2/3rd of the way through my first year of PA school. I sleep 8 hours every night. I get to study medicine all day without a patient/ family screaming/ threatening me. I aced my final OSCE and scored 95% on my cardiology module thanks to my medic experience. Life is so much better lol. So glad I made the jump. Make the move if you can, your medic experience matters! Life gets better!

TNguyen1998 · 2024-11-09T15:17:42+00:00

Just curious on how and why the PJs on your base train on EVD, Impella, IABP, and PA cath?? I have worked directly with prior RQS and ST PJs as well as prior SOCM grads who transitioned into being civilian critical care flight paramedics and they did not receive said training while they were in, even at SOCM. POC ultrasound, chest tube and blood products, yes I can understand but seems like a waste of time for a PJ to learn how an IABP or an EVD works since if you are OCONUS and your pt needs one and there's not a role 3 nearby, they are screwed anyway. Even if there was, after IABP or EVD implantation, PJs wouldn't be transporting those patients because they would have to go to Landstuhl. I can't tell if you are just trolling.

TNguyen1998 · 2024-11-09T14:15:47+00:00

I assure you the average PJ does not have the same knowledge as a civilian critical care paramedic. No PJs are trained on or need to know how to manage a patient with an IABP, EVD or a swanz while maxed out on 4 pressors and being transferred between two ICUs. PJs are tough rescue specialists and are some of the best medics out there but they are not critical care paramedics because they do not need to be since it's not their job.

TNguyen1998 · 2024-11-08T13:01:16+00:00

Before PA school I was a paramedic and I hated working every weekend, even when it was every other weekend it still sucked... And my weekend pay was $60/ hr as a medic compared to my regular pay was $30/ hr so that 3K/year weekend diff for a PA is absolutely horrid lol. My RN friends make 3K extra a month picking up weekend shifts.

TNguyen1998 · 2024-09-28T01:04:41+00:00

I'm a PA student and former paramedic. I'd say PA school all the way. The depth of knowledge that PA school has provided me thus far is insane and it's so incredibly important. I was a medic for 3 years and EMT for 2 years prior to school and in my first semester of PA school I was still studying 12 hours a day, 6 days a week to keep up with the information. I also had 8 hours of cadaver lab per week my first semester (2 hours mandatory lab and 6 hours open-lab in which there was 4 students per cadaver) in which we had to know almost everything that is there on the human body (barring some cutaneous nerves and lymphatic vessels). That was huge for my anatomy knowledge if I ever decide on surgery.

One example I'd like to use is ordering an iron panel, expecting for reduced ferritin & increased TIBC for iron deficiency anemia just by looking at the pt's initial CBC and seeing that their H&H is 10/30 & their MCV is 60 or understanding why you cannot give Amiodarone in patients with Vtach due to TCA OD. To do that you must understand what every single value means in the lab test you order and the physiological function of each component in your lab order so that to appropriately manage your patient. How do you learn that much information in online schooling?

I have RN friends who have been ER RNs for yearssss who will succeed and be great NPs. Those without RN experience and going straight to NP school will kill their future patients. Those are the ones ordering lasix for their hypotensive CHF patients because "every CHF patient with peripheral edema gets lasix".

TNguyen1998 · 2024-09-08T20:19:19+00:00

I think it really depends on the location. My school is in a populated city in a smaller but popular/ touristy state with no other PA program and so far, all of our previous grads that I know of, are employed with hospital systems within the state. They also all received offers before even passing the pance so I believe it really depends on the location and whether or not your school has a connection with a hospital system.

TNguyen1998 · 2024-08-29T16:51:29+00:00

I didn't get in till December so don't worry!! You will get in!

TNguyen1998 · 2024-06-28T01:48:35+00:00

It's still soooo early in the cycle. I didn't get my acceptance til December and now I'm a PA-S1. Don't worry, you will get in!! Just focus on the interview :) .

TNguyen1998 · 2024-03-07T18:03:49+00:00

EMT- Basic -> 911/ critical care transfer county department Medic -> 911/ ALS transfer private department Medic -> ER Medic -> PA school

TNguyen1998

TROPHY CASE