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Primary care provider education requirements

Updated January 8, 2025
2 min read
Usually, primary care providers don't need a college education. The most common degree for primary care providers is bachelor's degree with 42% graduates, with only 18% primary care provider graduates earning master's degree. Primary care providers who decided to graduate from college often finish Excelsior College or University of Florida. Some good skills to have in this position include patients, internal medicine and family practice.

Popular primary care provider certifications include Medical Assistant, Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA), or Family Nurse Practitioner. To improve primary care provider qualification and skills, we prepared some online courses to help in primary care provider education paths.

What education do you need to become a primary care provider?

What degree do you need to be a primary care provider?

The most common degree for primary care providers is bachelor's degree, with 42% of primary care providers earning that degree. The second and third most common degree levels are master's degree degree at 18% and master's degree degree at 15%.
  • Bachelor's, 42%
  • Master's, 18%
  • Associate, 15%
  • Doctorate, 8%
  • Other Degrees, 17%

What should I major in to become a primary care provider?

You should major in nursing to become a primary care provider. 37% of primary care providers major in nursing. Other common majors for a primary care provider include business and physician assistant.

Best majors for primary care providers

RankMajorPercentages
1Nursing36.6%
2Business8.8%
3Physician Assistant7.4%
4Medicine6.4%
5Biology5.7%

20 best online courses for primary care providers

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1. Health for All Through Primary Health Care

coursera

This course explores why primary health care is central for achieving Health for All. It provides examples of how primary health care has been instrumental in approaching this goal in selected populations and how the principles of primary health care can guide future policies and actions. Two of the most inspiring, least understood, and most often derided terms in global health discourse are “Health for All” and “Primary Health Care.” In this course, we will explore these terms in the context...

2. Health After Cancer: Cancer Survivorship for Primary Care

coursera

This course presents basic principles of cancer survivorship to primary-care physicians. Developed by a team of experts in caring for cancer survivors, and narrated by a primary-care physician, this course provides practical tips and tools that can be easily integrated into medical practice. You will learn about the complex physical and psychosocial needs and concerns of the growing number of cancer survivors, along with the key role that primary care physicians have in guiding these patients...

3. Providing Trauma-Informed Care

udemy
4.7
(1,276)

Exploring psychological trauma and how to provide care and compassion to trauma survivors...

4. Coping Skills and Self-Care for Mental Health

udemy
4.5
(443)

Essential skills to manage intense emotions and develop a self-care practice to promote mental health...

5. Palliative Care Always Capstone Course

coursera

The Palliative Care Always Capstone course is designed to let you test your knowledge about palliative and help others understand the value of palliative care, while showing your creative side. In this course, you will impact community awareness about palliative care, promote self-care and wellness, show-off your communication skills in a virtual environment, and finish the course off by proving your thoughts on ways to offer psychosocial support to a patient and family...

6. Value-Based Care: Managing Processes to Improve Outcomes

coursera

COURSE 3 of 7. This course is designed to introduce you to critical office-based processes that a value-based practice must manage in the drive towards improved patient outcomes. In Module 2, we’ll focus on office-based and clinical patient-based supporting functions. At every level in healthcare, guidelines, processes, and functions exist to improve outcomes, and following a consistent process will return the best effect. Refine your understanding of value and learn strategies to provide real...

7. The Key to Happiness: Self Care

udemy
4.6
(413)

Discover Self Care as a tool for creating positive change in your mental health, behaviours, and well-being...

8. Self-Care Life Coach Certification (Boundary Setting)

udemy
4.6
(466)

Empower Your Life Coach Your Clients to Develop Self-Care, Self-Love, Boundary Setting and How to Say No...

9. Health Care Delivery in Healthcare Organizations

coursera

Have you ever needed health care and thought that there must be better ways to get or deliver health care? For example, have you found yourself thinking that there should be a way to get a diagnostic test or treatment at home? Or do you work in a healthcare organization and find yourself thinking that there must be better ways to deliver health care? If you have, this course is for you. Course content includes an overview of health care delivery including healthcare consumerism, the patient's...

10. Traditional herbal medicine in supportive cancer care: From alternative to integrative

coursera

Please join us for an exciting and innovative journey, examining one of the most important and often overlooked aspects of the oncology setting: Traditional Herbal Medicine in Supportive Cancer Care. This course is presented with short lectures offering a wide range of issues related to the principles and practice of herbal medicine in cancer care. The course includes interviews with leading world experts from the field of Integrative Oncology, from the U.S. and Canada, as well as Europe, the...

11. Home Health Aide, Nurse Aide, Caregiver Certification Course

udemy
4.6
(1,178)

Become A Certified Home Health Aide, Personal Care Aide, Nurse Aide/ Caregiver At The End Of This Course. Enroll Now!!...

12. Trauma Emergencies and Care

coursera

Welcome to Trauma Emergencies and Care. In this course, you will learn about some of the mechanics and physics of trauma on the human body, and how this can cause injury. You will continue to expand your new vocabulary with medical terminology, and learn how to describe the different injuries you may see. You will also learn about the trauma system itself- and when it is important to transport patients to a trauma center. Then we will dive into specific injuries based on what part of the body...

13. Pain Management: Easing Pain in Palliative Care

coursera

In this course, you will be able to develop a systems view for assessing and managing pain in the palliative care setting. By the end of the course, you will be able to: 1) Describe the pain problem in the palliative care setting; 2) Assess a person’s pain, 3) Explain the benefits of integrative therapies and pharmacologic strategies to manage pain...

14. Emergency Care: Pregnancy, Infants, and Children

coursera

Welcome to the final course of lectures in your quest to master EMT basics. In this course, we will cover some of the highest-stress patient populations: pregnant patients and kids, also known as pediatrics. To wrap up your EMT knowledge we will end this course with information about hazmat situations, extricating patients from tight spots and finally how you write a note about your patient care. You will learn to ensure it communicates what your assessment of the patient was, what...

15. Health Care IT: Challenges and Opportunities

coursera

A strong argument can be made that the health care field is one of the most information-intensive sectors in the U.S. economy and avoidance of the rapid advances in information technology is no longer an option. Consequently, the study of health care information technology and systems has become central to health care delivery effectiveness. This course covers the modern application of information technology that is critical to supporting the vision and operational knowledge of the health care...

16. Thinking About Care

coursera

Although all humans require care to develop and thrive, it is rarely the focus of academic studies. This course enriches learner’s understanding of this critical yet underappreciated facet of their lives by addressing such questions as: What is care? Who has traditionally provided it? How valued is care work? Does money take the care out of care work? In addition to advancing learner’s knowledge of the place of care in modern society and controversies surrounding it, Thinking About Care will...

17. Addiction Treatment: Clinical Skills for Healthcare Providers

coursera

This course is designed with a singular goal: to improve the care you provide to your patients with substance use disorders. By delving into a model case performed by actors, seven Yale instructors from various fields provide techniques to screen your patients for substance use disorder risk, diagnose patients to gauge the severity of their use, directly manage treatment plans, refer out to treatment services, and navigate the various conditions that may limit your patient’s access to treatment...

18. Prehospital care of acute stroke and patient selection for endovascular treatment using the RACE scale

coursera

Acute stroke is a time-dependent medical emergency. In acute ischemic stroke, the first objective is to restore brain flow using sistemic thrombolytic treatment and, in patients with large vessel occlusion, by endovascular treatment. In hemorrhagic stroke there are also specific treatments that can improve the clinical outcome. The sooner the initiation of all these therapies the higher the clinical benefit. Thus, the organization of Stroke Code systems coordinated between emergency medical...

19. COVID-19 Training for Healthcare Workers

coursera

COVID-19 is rapidly spreading across the globe and all providers must be prepared to recognize, stabilize and treat patients with novel coronavirus infection. Following completion of this short course physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals will have a unified, evidenced-based approach to saving the lives of patients with COVID-19, including those who are critically ill. Learning modules are broken into short videos presented in a richly illustrated and compelling manner. The...

20. Kids with Cancer Still Need School: The Providers Role

coursera

This course will help you understand and address the challenges parents and families face regarding schooling after a cancer diagnosis. When a child is diagnosed with cancer, families can be overwhelmed learning about and managing this new and frightening reality. As they adjust to the new normal of ongoing treatment, school may be the farthest thing from their mind. However, as their oncology health care provider, you have a critical role in starting conversations about schooling. Even for...

Average primary care provider salary by education level

Primary care providers with a Master's degree earn more than those without, at $39,124 annually. With a Bachelor's degree, primary care providers earn a median annual income of $38,260 compared to $37,703 for primary care providers with an Associate degree.
Primary care provider education levelPrimary care provider salary
Master's Degree$39,124
High School Diploma or Less$36,254
Bachelor's Degree$38,260
Some College/ Associate Degree$37,703

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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