Clinical Experience
Clinical experience gained through working or volunteering at a hospital, clinic, or other health care facility is essentially required by most admissions committees. Such experience will enhance your knowledge of the profession, as well as demonstrate your commitment when you are interviewed for admission. Experience should include actual patient contact in which you are the caregiver, even if you are simply bringing a glass of water to a post-op patient or listening to the stories of a lonely nursing home resident. Veterinary and physician assistant schools may require hundreds, even thousands, of hours of experience. It is also extremely useful, in making certain this is the career for you, that you spend some time observing or working one-on-one with a health care practitioner in your chosen profession.