How to Tally Health Related Care Experience for PA Programs: A Comprehensive Guide

For aspiring Physician Assistants (PAs), understanding the nuances of healthcare experience is crucial for a successful PA school application. While Direct Patient Care (DPC) often takes center stage, Health Related Experience (HRE) plays a significant supporting role. Navigating what counts as HRE and, importantly, How To Tally Health Related Care Experience For Pa Program applications can be confusing. This guide clarifies HRE, distinguishes it from DPC, and provides clear steps on how to effectively document and present your HRE hours for your PA program application.

Understanding Health Related Experience (HRE) for PA School

Health Related Experience (HRE) encompasses your exposure to the healthcare environment, patients, and healthcare professionals, but crucially, it’s experience where you are not directly providing healthcare to patients, or the experience occurs outside of a direct medical setting. Think of HRE as the broader spectrum of your involvement in healthcare that provides valuable context and understanding, even if it isn’t hands-on patient care. It’s about witnessing, learning, and contributing to the healthcare system in supportive roles. PA programs value HRE as it demonstrates your commitment to the medical field, your proactive engagement in learning about healthcare delivery, and your understanding of the diverse roles within healthcare teams. HRE helps you build a well-rounded perspective on patient care, even if it’s not always directly hands-on.

Examples of Health Related Experience (HRE)

To better grasp what constitutes HRE, consider these examples. These roles offer valuable insights into healthcare, even without direct patient care responsibilities:

• Shadowing Healthcare Professionals: Observing physicians, PAs, nurses, or other healthcare providers in their daily practice is a prime example of HRE. Shadowing provides firsthand exposure to patient interactions, clinical decision-making, and the overall workflow of a healthcare setting.
• Patient Transport: Assisting in moving patients within a hospital or clinic, while not direct care, involves interaction with patients and understanding the logistics of patient flow within a healthcare facility.
• Patient Education Roles: Developing or delivering educational materials to patients about their conditions or treatments provides valuable experience in patient communication and understanding health information dissemination.
• Clinical Research (Non-DPC): Working on clinical trials in roles that don’t involve direct patient intervention, such as data collection, regulatory tasks, or lab work, is considered HRE.
• Laboratory Bench Work: While vital to healthcare, laboratory research focused solely on experimentation and analysis without direct patient interaction falls under HRE.
• Telehealth Support (Non-Clinical): Making phone calls to patients for appointment reminders, follow-ups, or gathering information (that isn’t clinical assessment) is HRE.
• Non-Nursing Home Health Care: Providing companionship or non-medical assistance to individuals at home is health-related but not direct patient care in a clinical sense.
• Clerical and Administrative Roles in Healthcare: Working in medical offices, hospitals, or clinics in administrative, clerical, or electronic medical records (EMR) roles (outside of direct patient care documentation) provides exposure to the healthcare system’s operations.
• Internships and Clinical Rotations (Educational): Experiences gained through academic internships or clinical rotations as part of your pre-PA education are generally categorized as HRE, as they are primarily for learning and observation.
• Pharmacy Technician (depending on responsibilities): While some pharmacy tech duties might border on DPC (like administering vaccines in some settings), generally, dispensing medication and patient counseling under pharmacist supervision is often categorized as HRE, especially in retail settings.
• Medical Scribing (in some interpretations): While the original article mentions scribing as DPC, some institutions might consider it HRE if the role is primarily documentation and observation without direct patient interaction or independent clinical judgment. Clarify with specific PA programs if you are unsure about scribing hours.
• Other Roles: Lactation Specialist, Personal Trainer, Medical Office Clerical Staff/Receptionist/Scheduler, NICU Baby Cuddler, Observer/Shadower, Patient Transporter, Pharmacy Cashier/Clerk, Pharmacy Tech, Research Assistant (health related), Student Clinical Rotation/Internship, Ward Clerk.

It’s important to note that the distinction between DPC and HRE can sometimes be nuanced and may vary slightly between PA programs. When in doubt, it’s always best to err on the side of caution and categorize experience as HRE if you are unsure if it qualifies as DPC.

Differentiating HRE from Direct Patient Care (DPC)

The key difference between HRE and Direct Patient Care (DPC) lies in the directness of your involvement in providing healthcare. DPC is characterized by “hands-on” experience where you are actively responsible for providing care and treatment to patients. It’s about directly impacting a patient’s health and well-being through your actions. HRE, on the other hand, is more about exposure and observation within the healthcare field.

Think of DPC as requiring you to have a degree of responsibility for patient outcomes, even under supervision. Examples of DPC include:

• Taking vital signs.
• Administering medications.
• Wound care.
• Phlebotomy.
• Assisting with procedures.
• Patient counseling (in a direct care context).

These roles typically involve direct interaction and physical contact with patients for the purpose of providing healthcare. While HRE provides valuable context and understanding, DPC demonstrates your ability to function in a direct patient care role, a skill set highly valued by PA programs.

How to Tally and Report HRE for CASPA Applications

The Central Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA) application is where you will document your healthcare experiences. When listing your experiences, it’s crucial to accurately categorize and tally your HRE hours. Here’s how to approach it:

1. Understand CASPA Categories: CASPA specifically asks you to differentiate between “Patient Care Experience” (which aligns with DPC) and “Healthcare Experience” (which aligns with HRE). Make sure you are clear on these distinctions within the CASPA application.

2. Detailed Record Keeping: Maintain a detailed record of each HRE activity. For each experience, note:

   • Job Title/Role: Be specific (e.g., “Shadowing – Family Medicine PA,” “Medical Office Receptionist”).
   • Institution Name: Name of the hospital, clinic, office, or organization.
   • Supervisor Name and Title: Name and title of your direct supervisor.
   • Dates of Employment/Experience: Start and end dates (month/year).
   • Hours per Week: Average hours worked per week.
   • Total Weeks Worked: Total duration of the experience in weeks.
   • Detailed Description of Tasks: Provide a comprehensive description of your responsibilities and tasks. Focus on what you did and observed. For HRE, emphasize the exposure and learning aspects.

3. Calculate Total Hours: For each HRE experience, multiply the “Hours per Week” by the “Total Weeks Worked” to calculate the total hours.

4. Categorize Accurately: Carefully review your job descriptions and responsibilities. If an experience clearly falls into the HRE examples listed above and does not involve direct patient care as the primary function, categorize it as HRE. Shadowing experiences always go under HRE in CASPA.

5. Separate Combined Roles: If you held a job that included both DPC and HRE components, it is critical to break down these hours. For example, if you worked as a medical assistant and spent some time directly assisting with patient care (DPC) and some time on administrative tasks (HRE), you must estimate and separate the hours for each category. List the same job title and dates under both the “Patient Care Experience” and “Healthcare Experience” sections in CASPA, but with different hour breakdowns and task descriptions reflecting the DPC and HRE aspects of the role.

6. Accuracy is Key: Double-check your dates, hours, and descriptions for accuracy. Honesty and precision are essential in your CASPA application. Avoid inflating hours or misrepresenting your roles.

7. Review Program Requirements: While this guide provides general information, always review the specific requirements and recommendations of the PA programs you are applying to. Some programs may have specific preferences or guidelines regarding HRE and DPC.

By carefully documenting, categorizing, and tallying your Health Related Experience, you can effectively showcase the breadth of your healthcare exposure and strengthen your PA school application. Remember, HRE, while distinct from DPC, is a valuable component that demonstrates your commitment, knowledge, and preparation for a career as a Physician Assistant.