Clinical Experience Hours

What are they and why do I need them?

The Physician Assistant profession began because of the vision of a few physicians after the Vietnam War. The profession and it’s training was designed to provide medics the opportunity to expand their current skills with more formalized training to "assist" the physician with history taking and physical examination. This first training program began at Duke University in the 1960's.

It is with this in mind that the earliest PA programs accepted only medics and then other medical professionals. Students whom already possessed a limited medical knowledge base. As time passed by, there were decreasing numbers of these candidates. The schools then began opening their doors to undergraduate students with out any previous medial training. These students would have to obtain some additional hours of health care experience and direct patient care before beginning the training. This would augment their knowledge before entering into the formal training of the Physician Assistant. It also gave the prospective student the opportunity to have a view of what the future will hold in this type of profession, and the opportunity to decide that it may not be what the student wants to do after all.

Here at King's College we still have the philosophy that all students benefit from these clinical experience hours. The additional experience of taking care of patients, observing clinicians and integrating themselves in health care is invaluable. The nuances of being a practitioner take time to learn. Extracurricular learning is a valuable tool.

We require a student to acquire 500 hours of these clinical experiences before entering the professional phase of the program. These hours are not arranged for the student by King's college or the Physician Assistant program. It is the student's responsibility to acquire and complete these hours. At times the program may have information to lead the student to certain experiences. However, these experiences are not coordinated by the College or the program. These experiences may be paid or volunteer in nature.

Clinical options (This is not an all inclusive list please; consult your advisor within the
Physician Assistant program for approval and guidance)

Certified Nursing Assistant

Emergency Medical Technician

Medical Assistant

Home Health Aide

Athletic Trainer

Physical Therapy Aide

Pharmacy Technician

Observation of a Physician Assistant

Observation of a Physician

Observation of a Nurse Practitioner

First Aid training

CPR training

Orderly

Volunteering at camps with ill clients

Working with Mentally handicapped individuals

* The best experience can be gained from both hands-on and observational experiences. Observational experience alone is not optimal nor acceptable.