The Student Room Group

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
Original post by Cerceus
Hey, is there a list of physician associate programmes that is completely government-funded/tuition free e.g. Manchester?

Can you use the APEL process to shorten the two years training?

Thanks a lot for any information. Hope you're finding your course alright.


Hey! I am throughly enjoying my course, even though it is very intense!

Currently there are no government funded programmes that I am aware of. There are programmes, such as Manchester's, which have local agreements with either NHS Trust's or Health Education Regions who fund tuition fees and/or living expenses. As far as I know, there is currently no single site that can give you this kind of information. You can visit http://www.fparcp.co.uk/information-for-students/ for current validated courses within the UK, and then you would need to visit each university website to see if they were offering a tuition fee payments and/or other financial aides etc.

I'm not 100% sure on the APEL thing, but I would imagine that the answer would be no. I would assume that all university modules would need to be sat and passed by students to be eligible to sit the national assessment, but again this would be on a case by case basis and ultimately decided by the university.
Original post by UKPAStudent
Thinking about studying to become a Physician Associate? Let's chat. Current 1st year PA student.


I am in desperate help for interview tips. I have two coming up for Birmingham and Wolverhampton and do not want to fail any!!!
Reply 3
Original post by TomHickman1994
I am in desperate help for interview tips. I have two coming up for Birmingham and Wolverhampton and do not want to fail any!!!


Every university will be different, but they'll all probably want you to know these basic things about the NHS/PA:

- Why do you want to be a Physician Associate (and not a doctor?)
- How much do you know about the NHS? It's structure, how it's run, the 6 C's of the NHS and current events going on within the NHS.
- What skills and traits a PA should have?

In general, you need to be prepared to be put on the spot and then respond quickly. They want to see that you can handle pressure and stress. They want to see how you are at making decisions and backing them up. You need to be able to answer scenarios (like you've been called to see a 53 year old man who is refusing to take his blood pressure medication and you've been asked to try and get him to take it again). They are not looking for your medical knowledge (but obviously this will help) but more how you engage with the patient and handle the situation. In the example, do you rush in and tell the patient to take the tablets and show off your medical knowledge or do you engage in conversation with the patient and get to the root cause of why he doesn't want to take it?

Other than that, be prepared for questions relating to medical ethics and law and what you can bring to the PA profession.
Reply 4
Hi

How difficult on a scale from 1-10 would a person find the course after not partaking in any academic activity for lets say 3 years. What would you advice them to do in preparation
Original post by Momohamed
Hi

How difficult on a scale from 1-10 would a person find the course after not partaking in any academic activity for lets say 3 years. What would you advice them to do in preparation



Hi there

Im a first year PA student at Plymouth Peninsula Med School.
In matters of preparation I would say, study your anatomy HARD before coming to the course. I was told that and did not pay enough attention, I wish I had. Is good to have a physiology background as well, but since I did my bachelours in Physiology, I didnt require as much revision. If you have been away from academia for 3 years tho, you might want to start bringing back all the knowledge from your first degree. Anything can help you. I wouldn't bother studying any parhology or clinics because thats what the PA course will teach you in more depth.
In scale from 1-10 in difficulty, I would definitely give the course a 9. It is extremely demanding, make no mistake, but it is doable. And extremely gratifying once you finally get the chance to practice some Medicine

Good luck :smile:
Reply 6
Original post by j_vicente
Hi there

Im a first year PA student at Plymouth Peninsula Med School.
In matters of preparation I would say, study your anatomy HARD before coming to the course. I was told that and did not pay enough attention, I wish I had. Is good to have a physiology background as well, but since I did my bachelours in Physiology, I didnt require as much revision. If you have been away from academia for 3 years tho, you might want to start bringing back all the knowledge from your first degree. Anything can help you. I wouldn't bother studying any parhology or clinics because thats what the PA course will teach you in more depth.
In scale from 1-10 in difficulty, I would definitely give the course a 9. It is extremely demanding, make no mistake, but it is doable. And extremely gratifying once you finally get the chance to practice some Medicine

Good luck :smile:



Hi j-vicente

Thanks for the insight it is much appreciated
Reply 7
Hi,

I've got an interview for the Physician Associate Studies course at UWE on Tuesday. Sooo nervous, really don't want to mess it up! Any advice on what they might ask? All it says on the interview invite is that there will be a presentation then your 20 minute interview and then a written test.
Hey,

I'm really wanting to apply for the PA course.

I'm just confused why the north west courses aren't available to be applied for yet?

I've got an offer for a masters and I don't want to accept it until I know what's happening with the PA course. Like my heart is completely in the PA course but I just wanted to keep my options open.

When can we normally start applying for Liverpool/UCLAN/Manchester? And also, when generally do you hear back about a decision?

From applying, how soon is the interview?

Will the PA course be salaried for next year too?

Thank you for your help

Best wishes
Reply 9
Hi everyone, very new to TSR so forgive me! I'm currently finishing my second year of Adult Nursing and was always orientated to advanced practice and medicine, I always wanted to be a Clinical nurse specialist rather than just working on a ward when I qualify. I heard about the PA programmes being offered and think this would be a really good suit for me as I've found both from being a male nursing student as well as my own interests I very much like the idea of the medical model and how I could work regarding both specialties, responsibilities and hours. I was wondering if anyone had advice for me as some people have argued the PA vs NP route; however the PA role with the medical model is holding my interest more. I really hope you guys can give me any information :smile:
Reply 10
Original post by Lucy997
Hi,

I've got an interview for the Physician Associate Studies course at UWE on Tuesday. Sooo nervous, really don't want to mess it up! Any advice on what they might ask? All it says on the interview invite is that there will be a presentation then your 20 minute interview and then a written test.
.


Did you get into uwe for the physician associate course?
Reply 11
No I didn't :/ but I did get into Plymouth! :smile:
Reply 12
Hi,

What resources (books, websites) would you recommend for anyone starting the course?

Any other advice?
Original post by rachelt123
Hi, I'm currently about to write my personal statement for September 2017 / January 2018 entry. Do you have any advice on what i should include and how to make a good personal statement?
I'm going to apply to St George's , East Anglia, Brunel and Manchester.
Was going to apply to queen Mary but it requires a UKCAT test! Seems really over the top for an application that isn't medicine or dentistry :/


Thanks!


Hi Rachel

Don't let the new character of the course fool you, the application is exactly the same as for Medicine and Dentistry with the exception of needing UKCATs or BMATs (yet). Unis that already have a Med school have the exact same interview style and selection process used in their Medicine course, and Unis with PA programmes without a Med school are basing their selection criteria on the same way.
So the best advice I can give is, do the personal statement as if you were applying to Medicine. Talk about your passion for the medical field, why you would like to be a clinician and why do you think the PA profession is right for you (but you do NOT have to justify why you want to be a PA instead of a Doctor or Nurse, don't worry). As long as you manage to show how much this is important for you, you should be able to get an interview. Again, for interview preparation, read all you can about the interviews for Med schools in the Unis you are applying because they will be very similar if not the same.
Good Luck!
Completely agree with this. I also has a interview for medicine as well as PA and not a lot different. I had explain what it was and why I wanted to do it. The interview was strict but fair, they throw an ethical dilemma at you and you have discuss in detail your reasoning and why (including ethical justification I.e confidentially, data protection, advocacy and autonomy).

Just be yourself because pretending won't go far.

It's was an okay interview and I got the place so don't worry haha.

Original post by j_vicente
Hi Rachel

Don't let the new character of the course fool you, the application is exactly the same as for Medicine and Dentistry with the exception of needing UKCATs or BMATs (yet). Unis that already have a Med school have the exact same interview style and selection process used in their Medicine course, and Unis with PA programmes without a Med school are basing their selection criteria on the same way.
So the best advice I can give is, do the personal statement as if you were applying to Medicine. Talk about your passion for the medical field, why you would like to be a clinician and why do you think the PA profession is right for you (but you do NOT have to justify why you want to be a PA instead of a Doctor or Nurse, don't worry). As long as you manage to show how much this is important for you, you should be able to get an interview. Again, for interview preparation, read all you can about the interviews for Med schools in the Unis you are applying because they will be very similar if not the same.
Good Luck!
I have to say, if you're underestimating the demand that PA training takes or you're thinking it's an easier route than medicine, then I really think you need to re-consider if a PA training programme is for you.

Whilst we're not Doctors, and definitely won't be replacing Doctors, it isn't a reason for you not to know the medical conditions you will be diagnosing and treating in depth. PA training is very demanding, intense and only the very dedicated will actually get to the stage where they are recommended by their university to sit the national assessment. It isn't good enough just to pass your University programme to become a PA. You also have to sit and pass the National PA Assessment, which is now run by the Faculty of PA's at the Royal College of Physicians of London. Don't pass this, no PA life for you. It requires a LOT of commitment and rapid learning.

In the coming years I can see PA courses being so overly subscribed, similar to medicine/dentistry, that all PA programmes will require an admissions test (whether this is UKCAT, GAMSAT or others I don't know) to rule out the many highly qualified applicants. It is already oversubscribed and this is the first year of it being nationally offered.

I'll definitely agree with the other that the interview format takes exactly the same as medical schools. I'm currently at a non-medical school university and we had to have a pretty outstanding application to be even entertained for interview. Once we have secured an interview we had a 10-bay multiple mini interview ranging from breaking bad news to patients, discussing complex ideas to patients, confidentiality issues, patient interviews as well as the usual tell me about yourself and ethical dilemmas.

As far as your personal statement, here's something online about applying to become a Physician Associate: https://student.blogs.anglia.ac.uk/2016/06/07/jamie-applying-to-become-a-physician-associate/
Original post by UKPAStudent
Hey! I am throughly enjoying my course, even though it is very intense!

Currently there are no government funded programmes that I am aware of. There are programmes, such as Manchester's, which have local agreements with either NHS Trust's or Health Education Regions who fund tuition fees and/or living expenses. As far as I know, there is currently no single site that can give you this kind of information. You can visit http://www.fparcp.co.uk/information-for-students/ for current validated courses within the UK, and then you would need to visit each university website to see if they were offering a tuition fee payments and/or other financial aides etc.

I'm not 100% sure on the APEL thing, but I would imagine that the answer would be no. I would assume that all university modules would need to be sat and passed by students to be eligible to sit the national assessment, but again this would be on a case by case basis and ultimately decided by the university.


Can i ask do you learn about basic life support and things like that during the course?
Original post by angelseyes
Can i ask do you learn about basic life support and things like that during the course?


PA students are taught to a minimum of Immediate Life Support (ILS). This usually through the university offering ILS via the Resuscitation Council UK's course. This is the minimum they should work at according to the PA Competency Framework.

However many job descriptions state Advanced Life Support and Immediate Paediatric Life Support as desirable qualifications for PAs for job.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by UKPAStudent
PA students are taught to a minimum of Immediate Life Support (ILS). This usually through the university offering ILS via the Resuscitation Council UK's course. This is the minimum they should work at according to the PA Competency Framework.

However many job descriptions state Advanced Life Support and Immediate Paediatric Life Support as desirable qualifications for PAs for job.


thats good : ) what degree did you do at the start?
Original post by angelseyes
thats good : ) what degree did you do at the start?


I did BSc (Hons) Diagnostic Radiography. I then worked as a Diagnostic Radiographer for 4 years before starting the PA programme.

Latest