Mental health counselor to physician assistant?

[starrynight1929]

I am a mental health counselor working towards getting my license. My mid-career earnings are estimated to be $50,000. When I originally planned this career, I did not expect having to raise a family myself. However, my husband cannot bring in any income, so my focus has turned more towards a higher salary rather than doing what I love.

There are a five or six pre-requisite classes I would have to take to get accepted into a Physician Assistant program (Biology, chemistry, etc). I have an undergraduate degree in Psychology which can be somewhat helpful. What i am wondering is this: If I take those five classes, would I be able to get in to a program? I have good grades (3.89 GPA from undergrad and 4.0 from my master's in counseling program)

I know programs want you to have some medical office experience. I work as a counselor and technically we are "health care," although we don't do surgery or focus on physical health.

I basically want to know what I would have to go through to get a Physician Assistant masters degree. That will determine whether I bother trying

[PaulK]

Your story is similar to mine. I am a marriage and family therapist, and I decided to make the switch. Because I was doing psychiatric emergency, they had no trouble counting this as patient care experience. Even if you do psychotherapy, I suggest you claim your work with patients as "Patient Care Experience" because you are assessing and treating mental health. Also, you are working alongside/with physicians (I assume you sometimes refer to psychiatry or primary care for meds, etc.)

BUT you WILL need some "traditional" medical experience. You will need to find a way to get some acute care experience, even if it isn't extensive. EMT, ER volunteer, etc would be good. Your grades are excellent, but you as I said, you will need to round out your application with health care experience that is different from mental health.

From your question, it doesn't sound like you're passionate about medicine - are you sure it's for you?

[huma1985]

yes its my mental health physician assistant.