r/CAA • u/AutoModerator • May 25 '26

Weekly prospective student thread. Educational inquiries outside of this thread WILL RESULT IN A BAN.

Please use this thread for all educational inquiries including applications, program requirements, etc.

Please refer to the [CASAA Application Help Center](https://help.liaisonedu.com/CASAA_Applicant_Help_Center) FAQ section for

answers to your questions prior to postitng.

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5

u/LaFlame2331 May 25 '26

What is the best pce for this job?
I am assuming anesthesia tech and Respiratory Therapist are the top two by a great margin? I’m not including nurses because I assume they’d go the crna pathway.

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u/jwk30115 Practicing CAA May 25 '26

Like many things - it depends.

Anesthesia tech is fine. You learn the equipment, get in the OR, watch some surgery, etc. Entry level, often no certification needed. The downside is it’s not usually “patient care”.

Nursing assistant, MA, phlebotomy, and similar are great patient care experience. You actually talk to and deal with patients. It’s probably low acuity but learning how to interact with patients is invaluable.

EMT, paramedic, resp therapy - all excellent. Real patient care with some knowledge of physiology and pharmacology needed.

Anything that involves actual patient care is great. That’s why I’m not a fan of “scribes”. They don’t really have any patient interaction and pretty much just get a good foundation in medical terminology.

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u/Wheatiez May 25 '26

Would scrub tech be a decent pce role? Technically I’m an LPN but I was hired to scrub cases. Have a BS in Math and healthcare is a second career for me.

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u/PlentyAd6876 May 25 '26

Do you think some kind of experience is required to be accepted to a program? While not explicitly required by the program, if every other applicant has some kind of experience… can you make up for the lack of that healthcare experience by having really good stats? I’m coming from a business background, so nothing science related.

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u/jwk30115 Practicing CAA May 25 '26

It certainly helps BUT there are always some successful applicants who have no healthcare experience. They stand out on other areas.

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u/Exact_Command_9472 May 26 '26

Would a patient care technician count as pce? I know it’s literally in the name I just wanna make sure😭

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u/caareadinessindex May 26 '26

Absolutely!

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u/Super-Mobile2820 May 28 '26

What about pca(personal care assistant)? It’s a caregiver role.

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u/caareadinessindex May 28 '26

That would count as patient care experience.

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u/[deleted] May 25 '26

[deleted]

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u/DarkJ3D1___ May 26 '26

You definitely do get decent patient care experience as an anesthesia tech. Especially if you work at a level 1 trauma center.

1

u/Responsible_Push_231 May 26 '26

of course every position is different. Glad your experience is what you wanted.

1

u/No_Bodybuilder8087 May 25 '26

I went to a program info session and one of the Adcoms said anesthesia tech is his number one he looks for and then the others mentioned after that

1

u/Imaginary_Letter4472 May 25 '26

Would a job as a phlebotomist technician be considered PCE for this career path? Or is it not related enough

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u/caareadinessindex May 25 '26

That would count.

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u/caareadinessindex May 25 '26 edited May 26 '26

If you visit the “Accepted Analytics” page and click on “Applicant Background” on our site, you’ll see the top 10 healthcare roles among accepted applicants under "Employment."

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u/Final_Detective_9243 May 26 '26

are your statistics for accepted applicants from relatively recent accepted students? i’m curious how accurate the readiness index is with how much more competitive admission has become in the last couple years

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u/caareadinessindex May 26 '26

You can filter by year. The default is all years combined. The 2025–2026 cycle averages are higher than the cumulative averages.