Patient care hours · Guide

How many patient care hours do you need for PA school?

By The Prereq Club, a pre-PA student and her mom (not PAs or admissions advisers). Every program rule below names its source and the month we checked it: October 2026.

Short answer

Minimums at the programs we checked run from none (Rutgers) to 2,000 required. In PAEA's 2022 survey, half of new PA students reported 3,200 or more hours of paid direct patient contact. Plan for the minimum at every school on your list, then keep going.

Minimums at nine programs

ProgramMinimumNote
Rutgers
2026–27 cycle		None"There are no minimum-hour requirements" for patient care experience
Stanford500 recommended"We recommend that applicants complete a minimum of 500 hours clinical experience" (patient care and health care experience combined; not a prerequisite)
Yale
current page (checked Oct 2026)		1,000 recommendedOr six months full-time; not required
Albany Medical College
page checked Oct 2026		1,000Paid or volunteer; pending hours estimated to Oct 1
Duke
2026–27		1,000Hands-on, done by May 1 of the application year
UNC Chapel Hill
Jan 2027 entry cycle		1,000Paid only
USC Keck
2027–28 cycle		1,000New for 2027–28; paid or non-paid
Quinnipiac
current catalog		2,000Direct patient care, U.S. or Canada, for CASPA applicants
UW MEDEX Northwest
2026–27		2,000Paid, recent

Examples, not a ranking. UNC's (Aug 1, 2026), UW MEDEX's (Oct 1, 2026) and Albany's (Oct 1) deadlines have passed, so check each page again when your cycle's requirements post.

What admitted students actually have

  • Nationally: PAEA's survey of students who started PA school in 2022 found a median of 3,200 hours of paid direct patient contact; a quarter had 1,750 hours or fewer.
  • Albany: interviews generally go to applicants with a profile similar to its accepted Class of 2028, which Albany lists as 2,100 patient care hours at the time of application.
  • Yale: its class entering in fall 2025 averaged 2,184 healthcare hours, ranging from 500 to 4,416.

How long 1,000 hours takes

Some simple math you can redo for your own schedule:

  • Part-time in college: 10 hours a week for 32 school weeks is 320 hours. Add 35 hours a week for 12 summer weeks (420 hours) and you reach 740 in a year, and 1,000 partway through the next.
  • Full-time: 40 hours a week for 48 weeks is 1,920 hours in a year.

Only hours that count at your programs add up, so check paid-only rules and training-hour rules before you start the clock.

Free: the Patient Care Hours Starter Kit. A 3-step check for whether a job counts at your schools, CASPA's categories on one page, and a simple hours log. Built from the same program pages as this guide.

Get the free kit →

Quick answers

How many patient care hours do I need for PA school?

Minimums at the nine programs we checked range from none (Rutgers) and 500 recommended (Stanford) to 2,000 required (Quinnipiac and UW MEDEX). In PAEA's survey of 2022 matriculants, the median was 3,200 hours of paid direct patient contact.

Is 1,000 patient care hours enough?

1,000 hours that meet each program's rules (paid only at UNC Chapel Hill, finished by May 1 at Duke, in a licensed setting at Albany) meets the minimum at those programs and, from 2027–28, at USC Keck. It is below what three-quarters of 2022's new PA students reported (a quarter had 1,750 or fewer), and Albany's accepted-class profile lists 2,100 hours.

Sources (all opened October 2026)

Rules can change from one cycle to the next. Before you count on any of this, check each program's own admissions page or email the program. This guide is educational only and isn't admissions advice.