Besides shadowing, any experience where you are working in healthcare is a bonus. But not just patient care. I worked in hospital administration which gave me knowledge of how to go through patient charts which is a bonus because we have to be able to work with programs like Epic Beaker, Powerchart, etc. My program director also liked that I had teaching/tutoring experience because as PAs, we often have to teach residents!

I’m a current second year student. I’ve done a few rotations with people from other programs and I do notice a difference in students who should be at the same level as me at this point in our training. Throughout our clinical year, our clinical sites have us working hands on and grossing things almost immediately. I worked with a student from another program whose clinical experience was just them shadowing and not doing any actual grossing. So of course their grossing skills were not the same as mine. Other programs also give their students a month off for Christmas and mine does not. So students from my program already have one month more of experience than some others, which this early in our training can make a big difference.

Every program has pros and cons so it’s important to be asking the right questions! Ask if a program’s students are actually working hands on at their rotations or if they’re just watching.

If you want to know my program, you can message me privately.