HCE (health care) vs PCE (patient care) for PA School Application | In depth examples of HCE vs PCE

[@adriannfolts5141]

This was so helpful! Thank you!

[@myPAjourney]

I am so glad you found this helpful! You are welcome :)

[@dawnv8432]

Hi! I am new to your channel and am loving it!! What do you think working as an admission representative in an ER is considered, PCE or HCE? I feel it’s more HCE because I was not always in direct contact with patients but I did perform triages for chief complaint and depending on the complaints I would then complete the registration or call for an RN if the patient displayed signs of stroke, chest pain, trauma etc. working in a level I trauma center was such great experience!

[@myPAjourney]

Hi!! So glad you found me! An ER admission rep counts more towards HCE. If you have any interaction with the patient at all you could count a certain portion of your hours as PCE. So for example, if you spent 15 minutes out of 1 hour talking to a patient and seeing if they are at a stroke risk or heart attack risk, then you can count 25% of that as PCE. So if you do that for 100 of your hours, then you can count 75 hours as HCE, and 25 of those hours as PCE. Hope this helps!

[@salinamariel3312]

I’m considering applying for PA school. I’m an ultrasound technologist. We do diagnostic imaging for most parts of the body but the difference between ultrasound and other modalities is that it is tech dependent so we spend every second of the scan beside the patient. Sometimes for an hour depending on the study. It’s our job to go in and look for the problems while also keeping the patient as comfortable and safe as possible. Also assist in ultrasound guided procedures. Does this all count as patient care experience even though it’s mostly diagnostic?

[@myPAjourney]

Your job sounds awesome! So whenever you are working with computers and not technically with a patient - I would count that as health care experience. And the times when you are actually interacting with the patients - answering their questions, asking them about their health and concerns, touching patients to perform procedures - I would count those as patient care experience! It's all about how you explain your experiences on CASPA - you can divide your hours into HCE and PCE any way you like, as long as your justify your reasonings so they know you actually had those experiences. Also be prepared to be answer questions about them on your PA school interview. And you can always directly call the school to find out whether they would consider your job description as HCE or PCE! Good Luck :)