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Originally Posted by Schaumburger
My oldest niece graduated from the PA program at Duke last year. She is now working in the ER at a hospital near Durham, NC. Her Bachelor's Degree was in Biology, and after getting her Bachelor's in Biology she worked in a hospital in Madison, WI for 2 years before going to Duke. She said most of her classmates at Duke had some kind of medical/hospital background (nursing, lab work, etc.). From what my niece has told me, you have to have a pretty strong science background as an undergraduate to get admitted into a PA program. So an English major would probably have to take that into consideration -- getting a double major in a science field if they wanted to get into a PA program.
At Duke, the first year PA program is mostly classroom. The second year is almost entirely working with patients in various part of a hospital or clinic. In her second year at Duke, my niece spent 5 months at a clinic in a medically underserved area of western North Carolina and 6 weeks working in a hospital in Tanzania, in addition to her clinicals in a couple of hospitals in the Durham area.
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In my opinion, this issue is really not about how much education you get. When someone decides to became a medical doctor, they are dedicating their life to a profession of healing people and to constantly learn and strive to be the best they can be. Their profession becomes their identity. It is not just a job. Maybe I am wrong, but I just don't believe that nurse practitioners or physician assistants have the same lifelong dedication as medical doctors. I would rather be treated by a medical doctor.