Experience is a legal category in several states, not just a professional one.
How the tiers work
A state sets a threshold — commonly expressed as post-graduate clinical hours, sometimes with a separate specialty-specific figure. Below it, the PA practices under supervision. Above it, and usually after the board certifies the transition, the PA practices under collaboration, with lighter documentation and fewer constraints.
Thresholds vary. Four thousand post-graduate hours with two thousand in the chosen specialty appears in several schemes; some states set a higher bar for removing the requirement altogether.
The documentation problem
The hours are yours, but the evidence usually belongs to former employers. Reconstructing several years of practice hours from payroll records, credentialing files and memory is slow, and it gets slower the longer you leave it — practices close, systems get replaced, and the person who could have signed the attestation moves on.
What to keep
A running record: employer, dates, specialty, approximate hours, and a contact who could attest. Update it when you leave a role, while everyone still remembers you.
It costs nothing to maintain and it is the difference between claiming a tier and qualifying for one. It is also useful for compact eligibility work later, where a complete practice history has to be assembled anyway.
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