Phase 2: Week 1

quick update on what we did this week, the first week of the second semester.

Neurology – neuro assessment, neuro tests

Surgery – wound healing, suturing, knot tying practice session

Internal Medicine (Nephrology Module) – glomerular filtration, proximal convoluted tubule, calculating Glomerular Filtration Rate

Primary Care (12-lead Module) – intro to twelve leads

Anatomy and Physiology – Skeletal System

Physical Diagnosis – Breast and Pelvic Exams

Pediatrics – peri- and post-natal assessments, pediatric cardiology

Epidemiology – intro to epidemiology

Pharmacology – drugs for asthma and COPD

 

We also had our White Coat Ceremony as we will be seeing patients Monday.  The White Coat Ceremony is basically when we take our oath to be responsible clinicians, patient advocates, and humanitarians.  One line that sticks out from the speeches was something about some of our patients might not have been born yet, and we might meet them 20 years from now, and they will not have heard us take this oath, but we are still responsible for treating them with dignity and kindness and to fulfill our duty to be the best clinician for them.

1st semester: done

If there is one thing I have learned this past semester, it is that you must make time for important things in life like family and friends. After all, once school is done you hope they will still be there! My journey through PA school would not be possible without the support of my family and my GF so I was very happy to be able to spend the last week NOT at school, and NOT doing homework, but vacationing with my GF (sorry parents, I will see you next week!)

I have not just learned one thing this past semester, though. I’ve actually learned a lot. I know the picure above is not very clear, but that makes sense because its a picture of everything I am supposed to know by the end of next year. It is the Blueprint of the board exam, a list of diseases and conditions that a new PA should be able to diagnose, treat, and manage. Each page is a different system: Dermatology, EENT (eyes, ears, nose, throat), Endocrinology, GI, Genitourinary, Hematology, Infectious Disease, Muskulosketal, Neurological, Psychiatry, Pulmonology, and Reproductive. If you want the full list you can check this out : https://www.nccpa.net/pdfs/Content%20Blueprint%20Booklet.pdf

In our first semester we have about 1/3rd of this down.  Quick summary of our first semester:

Women’s Health: common problems, puberty and ovulation, cancer, bleeding and obstetrics

Psychiatry: anxiety, personality disorders, drug abuse, dementia and delerium, sexual disorders, pediatrics and development

Nutrition: functions/deficiencies/excess of vitamins and minerals as well as treatment for various states of malnutrition and obesity

Internal Medicine: immunology, cardiology, hematology

Pharmacology: drugs for inflammation, arthritis and gout, pain, opiates, cold and flu, heart failure and ischemia, antiarrythmics, antithrombotics, antideppressants and mood stabalizers, antipsychotics, and anxiolytics

Physical Diagnosis: history taking, skin exam, head exam (everything except eyes), neck and throat exam, respiratory exam, cardiac exam, chest exam, and abdominal exam

Primary Care: genetics, dermatology, ears, ears, nose, and throat

Anatomy and Physiology: autonomic nervous system, blood, cardiovascular/heart, cardiopulmonary/lungs, GI, kidneys, fluid and electrolyte balance, urinary system, immune system, reproductive system,

Professional Practice: healthcare and professional stuff

 

Seem like a lot? It is, and we have two semesters more!

Spring Break

Spring break has come and gone.  Its pretty amazing how quickly time is passing.  In 4 weeks we will be done with the first semester.  I was talking with some students from another area school, and they have two years of didactic, which I could not do.  They take summers off and less classes per semester, so its equals out to be the same.  As fast paced as it is, I couldn’t imagine it any other way.  Its like immersion foreign language.  Or maybe its just cause I’m older and more focused than my 20 year old self in undergrad.  

 

Although it was nice to have a week at home and see some family and friends who I haven’t seen in weeks (months?), it felt awkward to not be in school for a week.  I got out of my eat/study/sleep/repeat routine and it kinda messed me up.  I didn’t do about 90% of what I had hoped to as far as school work goes.  Instead I was sleeping in (10AM!), hanging with family, walking the dogs, cleaning the yard and drinking beers.  Don’ get me wrong, it was nice.  But what would be nicer would be to power through the semester and have an extra week off in between semesters.  Oh well.  Anyways:

Our program is starting to do a pretty good job of integrating the material from different classes.  its difficult to do, especially at the beginning when we haven’t learned anything to integrate.  Pharmacology (once a week) is touching on conditions we have learned about in Internal Med and anatomy & physiology, specifically: drugs for heart failure, antiarrhythmic drugs, and anti thrombotics.  A&P is touching on things we learned nutrition (among other things).  And Physical Diagnosis is touching on everything (get it?).  

Our current modules in Internal Med and Primary Care are Hematology and ENT (Eyes Nose Throat). Before Spring Break we finished up Cardiology and Dermatology.  Over the last two weeks of the semester, we will have lots of exams : Behavioral Med, Obstetrics, A&P (written, no practical), Hematology, Pharmacology, ENT, Physical Diagnosis will include a written and a practical, Nutrition is a take home test, and I am not completely sure what is happening in Professional Practice.  I know we have a paper to write, and we may or may not have a Final.  So if I add that all up correctly its 8 finals, one practical, and a take home.  Two of those are the week before and the rest all happen the last week of the semester.  I will very much be looking forward to taking a break and going down south with my girlfriend!

blinded by thirst

Now I really understand why all the other PA Student blogs go away after a few posts. When I started this blog people were like “aint nobody got time for that” (not really cause that meme hadn’t come out yet). The last few weeks I barely want to take the time to shave because it eats into my sleep/study time. But right now I am sitting at the airport waiting for my love to arrive/disembark and I have a few free minutes…only because I finished reading all the study materials I brought with me 🙂

Quick update since last time we internetted: Genetics Done!, in addition to a Pharm exam, Nutrition and Women’s Health midterms in the last two weeks..I think. I don’t know, weeks have become a meaningless invention for scheduling convenience at this point. Next week is Dermatology final, Behavioral Health midterm, and another Pharm exam.

Good news: this is really fun in addition to stressful.

In other news: I can’t wait to hang out with my girlfriend this weekend.

stay tuned for more in depth update at some point.

First Final Exam

Let see, what’s been going on that is interesting. Well, we had our first Final Exam, that was fun. We have had Immunology twice a week for three weeks. Our professor, who also teaches the Med and Vet students, told us that we have had over half of the material that the med students get…but let me point out that they have class for a whole semester. Above 80% means you pass and you get to stay in school. BTW thats with every class we take, B- or you’re out. Drop below a 3.0 and you get “decelerated”, which means you have to wait till next year to redo the course, oh and you lose your financial aid, thanks for playing 🙂

Immunology wasn’t so bad. In two weeks we have a Pharmacology and something else test. I can’t think that far ahead. Quizzes every week in Physical Diagnosis and A&P. I am still a little worried about A&P, mostly because their is only one exam at the end; at least with our other semester-length classes we get a midterm, or more tests. They said that if you are doing well on the quizzes for A&P then you will be fine for the test…we will see. With Immunology done, we will start Cardiology next week which I am psyched about. I love the heart (get it?) and I am excited to learn more about heart disease. Physical Diagnosis will parallel that course, I think, as we will go into cardiac exams and heart sounds, which I am also psyched about. I have been itching to try out my new Cardiology III. We still haven’t met the course director for Women’s Health, which I find endlessly frustrating. We have a different guest lecturer every time and it would be nice to meet the person who is supposed to be in charge of making sure we are learning what we are supposed to…and maybe giving us a clue what that will be in the end.

We also had our first Admission Info Session of the year. If you recall, this is the first year of this program, which makes us the guinea pigs, as the faculty so endearingly refer to us. So they asked a few of us to linger around after the info session to talk with prospective students. As I walked over to the hall after anatomy lab (more on that next post), I was thinking to myself, what the crap do I have to tell these kids? I’ve only been here for like 3 weeks! Then while I was sitting in the back of the hall listening to the end of the presentation and the general Q&A of the director, I was thinking HA these kids have no idea what they are getting themselves into! It made me feel very fortunate to get into a very good school on my first application. Talking with the people after made me realize how happy I am to be back in school and furthering my education. Learning is really cool, and not many people get this opportunity 7 or 8 years after graduating college. And its only been 3 weeks! We got 97 to go! Ok thats enough for now, thanks for tuning in.

Immunology[x] – Genetics[ ] – Cardiology[ ] – Otolaryngology[ ] – Dermatology[ ] – Ophthalmology[ ] – Nutrition[ ] – Behavioral Medicine[ ] – Women’s Health[ ] – Functional Anatomy[ ] – Professional Practice[ ] – Pharmacology[ ] – Physical Diagnosis[ ]

Adjunct Professor or Add Junk Professor?

I am starting to understand why all the other PA student blogs tend go silent after classes start.  We are getting a lot of material very quickly.  Let me tell you a little about the teaching model we are using.  There are, I guess, two approached to teaching this kind of program, the Core Faculty Model and the Adjunct Professor Model.  The Core Faculty Model is when you have a group of teachers who teach classes.  I would guess these are usually people with PhDs, who are full time educators.  The Adjunct Professor Model uses a small amount of Course Directors, who keep things running, but the teaching is done by hired guns.  In our case, we are using the Adjunct Professor Model.  Our hired guns are practicing clinicians from the med center.  In most cases, I think, the same people who are teaching the med students.

 Some of these people are educators as well, and some of them are just, well, lecturers.  It is frustrating to have someone come into the classroom, who probably doesn’t want to be there, would rather be back in the office or the lab, and read off a 100-slide powerpoint for 2 hours.  From the program directors point of view, the advantages of this teaching model out-way the disadvantages, and I agree (under protest).  In the end we are being taught by people who are actually practicing medicine, and teaching us what they think we need to know about what they do.  Probably more valuable than reading a chapter in a text book.  The disadvantage is trying to follow along with someone who has little interest in me learning.  That’s what it feels like anyways.  

Sorry to be a Debbie-Downer!  On the positive side, the other classes are going great!  Some of these people really enjoy teaching and are enthusiastic and just as excited as we are.  And the core faculty are amazing.  Immunology has been meeting twice a week and we have a final exam next week for that class.  I find it hard to believe that we only need to know that much about immunology to work in medicine.  I guess we are just learning the foundation and we will apply what we learned to out other, core clinical, classes.  Quiz every week in Functional Anatomy.  I don’t have a problem with that except that the quiz is due Sundays and class meets on Tuesdays so it puts a crimp my procrastination style.  Speaking of which, I need to go hit the books!

My Schedule

One full week of classes under my belt.  I’m going to keep this post short cause I’m wicked tired.  Luckily we have the day off tomorrow so I can stay caught up on reading.  Mondays are Nutrition and Behavioral Medicine.  Tuesdays: Women’s Health in the morning and Functional Anatomy lecture and lab all afternoon.  Functional Anatomy is like anatomy and physiology rolled into one.  We will be learning about different structures and systems during the lecture then going over to the lab to see them in real life.  I am psyched that the Med students are the ones doing he actual dissecting and we get to just come in and poke around.  Dissection is tedious work.  Wednesday: Internal Medicine (also Thursdays), Professional Practice, and Pharmacology.  Internal Medicine will be a sequential module type of thing.  The first module is 3 weeks of Immunology (Awesome!(nerdtime)).  Professional Practice addresses the non-medical aspects of being a Physician Assistant.  Things like scope of practice, legal aspects, credentialing, billing and fun stuff like that (nerdtime?).  Thursday: Round Two of Internal Medicine in the morning with a lecture and lab of Physical Diagnosis.  Friday morning is another module thing, Primary Care, which starts out with 4 weeks of Genetics.  Friday afternoons are “off” but will be used for group meetings, advisor meetings, and tests.  Speeking of which we have had 3 quizes so far.  We get an hour for lunch everyday, but are required to attend a lecture once a week at the Med Center.  It makes for a busy week but there is ample time for reading and studying, considering that I am not working and have no distractions.  While I have some adjusting to do with all the technology being used now, I have to tell you it feels great to be back in the classroom, on THIS side of the podium.

First Class

Todays starts the first day of actual PA school. For those of you unfamiliar with a PA, let me give a brief introduction. A Physician assistant is one step below, you guessed it, a physician. PAs are trained under the medical model, and essentially practice medicine under the supervision of a doctor. They work in offices, hospitals, ERs, clinics, prisons, the military…pretty much anywhere there are Drs there are PAs. In some states, PAs have no restrictions on what they can and cannot do, the limits are set by the supervising physician. What does all that mean for me? It means that over the next two years I need to learn how to do anything a Dr would do. I don’t know what Dr school is like, but I keep hearing that PA school is like the first three years of Dr school condensed into 1, followed by a years worth of clinical rotations.

But what does that really mean? It means a crap load of info just got thrown at me today and its only the beginning. Actually it wasn’t that bad, now that I am home reflecting on it. Because Mondays will be lost to holiday weekends, our schedule for Mondays is two long class sessions…although I just looked at my schedule tomorrow and those sessions are long too. Anyways, since its been 7 years or so since I have been in a classroom I am trying to find my style of note taking. Nobody brought their computers to class when I was in college, because computers weighed like 30 pounds and came with a separate CRT monitor. Typing on the computer is way easier than scribbling in my notebook. But I am not sure what to do when it comes time to study. I am very tactile, thats why I bought all my books the old fashioned way, not EBooks. I like to flip pages while I study. Speaking of studying, I will leave you with a view of my new study space. My best friend and his wife were generous enough to not just let me live in their house, but they let me take over half of another room as an office! Thanks guys!

First Week

Well, I made it through the first week and they haven’t told me to leave yet, so I guess I really am supposed to be here. I have been half expecting someone to come in, double checking some list, pointing at me and saying “How did you get in here?”

I have heard from a lot of PAs and PA students that the feeling is universal but that doesn’t make it any better. You know what does make it better? Our class average on the first test was 95%. Granted it was only a medical terminology test, but we nailed it!

In other news, we were fitted for coats and scrubs, which I have since found out will NOT arrive before our first anatomy lab (gross (not the anatomy kind of gross, gross gross)). We also have to supply our own gloves, apparently tuition doesn’t cover a $10 box of gloves. Classes haven’t even started yet and I’m already complaining, I guess the honeymoon is over.

We also received our medical equipment, which was like nerd christmas. We had a chance to poke and prod each other with our various new -scopes even though none of us really new what we were doing. Favorite quote from these sessions “Oh my God I’m going to be a horrible PA!”

We met representatives from state and national professional organizations and the Student Senate. It appears that it is not just the students who are excited about the new program here (did I mention that we are the inaugural class yet?) On that note, we had a lunch get-together to meet the faculty who have not been a part of Orientation. It is really comforting that they are just as excited as we are to be a part this whole thing. Faculty, staff, and students continue to amaze me at how well we are getting along. Our lunch was provided in a classroom in the library and I was afraid the librarian was going to tell us to shhh because of all the noise escaping down the hall.

Which brings me to my final observation/comment about Orientation week. We were provided with lunch every day except one! Need I say any more?

Day 1: Done

Ok, so my earlier attempt at this very post went horribly wrong.  So let me sum it up for you (*minus witty comments and clever, unique writing style*)

Today was Orientation to the University, you know, Financial Aid Speech, Library tour, that kinda thing.  Whether it was by design or by fortuitous events, we were privledged with several looong breaks and a generous lunch “hour” (complete with lunch provided).  The breaks were the highlight, for me, of the day.  No, not because I don’t enjoy a good lecture from Student Support Services or a guided tour of the Online Learning System, I do enjoy those things, really.  The reason I enjoyed the breaks so much was because my classmates are all so friendly and it was really nice to be able to speak (rather than FB chat) with them.  When I was in undergrad phones weren’t “smart” they were just phones, and Facebook was restricted to Harvard students.  This time around breaking the ice was much easier because I was able to FBstalk a little (thats not creepy is it?).  I was particularly interested in the diversity of our backgrounds and experience.  I think this will be a great group to get through the next two years with.  OK, time for bed, tomorrow Orientation to the PA program starts, and classes officially start next week.

 

Oh and I almost forgot: Nerdtime 2013: