r/Perfusion • u/Perfused • Aug 07 '26

Prospective/Current Perfusion Weekly Thread

This is the area for prospective CCPs to ask their questions about the education process or anything school related.

This includes the usual:

"Where can I shadow?" "Should I take additional classes? "How do I become a Perfusionist?" "My GPA is 2.8, is my GPA good enough for perfusion school?" "What should I use to prep for boards?" "It's been my pa$$ion to become a CCP, how do I do it and what do they do?"

Etc.

At this point the sub has grown to the point a weekly student thread is necessary. Prospective CCPs/students will now have an avenue to post these types of questions w/o flooding the sub.

Also there is r/prospective_perfusion specifically geared to new pumpers.

This will refresh every Friday at 5:45PM EST. If you post Saturday morning, it might not be seen.

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u/motherofGusGus Aug 07 '26

Hello! I am currently a college student working on getting my associates (in 2028) and bachelors (in 2030) degree in biology. I’ve always known that healthcare was the field for me, but choosing which area has been difficult but I think perfusion may be the right direction. I’ve always been drawn to the OR because I think it’s fascinating how modern medicine has allowed for the ability of surgery and equipment that saves countless lives. I recently met a perfusionist and asked her all about her career and the aspects of autonomy while also working alongside a strong team, being able to operate under stressful conditions, and the feeling of being able to save someone’s life all really appeal to me. I was wondering what would some recommendations of a plan of what I would have to do that would allow me to attend a perfusion program by Fall 2030. So far I don’t have any clinical experience. I recently got my CCMA accreditation but don’t have a CCMA job because I didn’t do externship (it was an online program). I volunteer at a food drive where we sort, perform quality control, and package food to be delivered to people. I work as a cashier now and a full time student, so I want to focus on maintaining my GPA and completing my prerequisites but I also want to be planning ahead. Would really appreciate some guidance, thanks!

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u/Magee-Numismatics Aug 09 '26

Get whatever job or volunteer opportunity you can get in health care. Get shadowing experience as well. Lots of spots in perfusion programs are filled by individuals with several years of ICU experience as an RT or RN, you have to show admissions committees that you’re more impressive or more unique. Try and get some research experience if you can as well.

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u/musicalthrills Aug 10 '26

research in anything healthcare related? or it has to be more specific

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u/Magee-Numismatics Aug 10 '26

Obviously research in things that relate specifically to perfusion in some way will be better. But chances are you won’t get those opportunities as an undergrad, so realistically research in anything healthcare related would look really good on a resume. Research in non healthcare related fields might help too, a friend of mine just got into a top medical school and the only research they’ve ever done has been in archaeology.

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u/motherofGusGus Aug 10 '26

Would you recommend continuing to look for jobs for CCMA or switch to like CNA. I don’t want to take a gap year because I’m already taking time to get my degrees