PA school - All done, time to get to work

[Dino]

I just finished day one of Physician Assistant (PA) school, and had a day of orientation yesterday. And I love it!

Sure it's a ton of work, I'll be studying for several more hours tonight and we've only just begun, but it'll be well worth it.
Definitely no car time left in the day!

They really make you hit the ground running. I'm trying to memorize a lot of dermatology stuff, and I need to know about 12 muscles of the back from origin to insertion, actions, innervation, and blood supply. We get a bunch more next week. Luckily I do know some of them from undergrad so I'm not starting from scratch.

We've also spent a few hours in the cadaver lab already. I spent my afternoon removing a trapezius muscle after removing the skin and a lot of fat. How was your day?  

I'll post back from time to time to let you know how close to insanity I am.  

[XH29N0G]

Excellent.  My day was good too. 

[66FBCharger]

Dino,
I'm glad you like school. Best Wishes. I hope to see posts from you when you can.
My day was good, I got my Charger running today, thanks to Ron.
John

[myk]

Cadavers?  Jeez.  I don't know own how you medical/science types do your thing.  Knock em dead Dino....

[Dino]

Glad to hear you guys are doing good! Good news on your car 66FB!   

I can't knock 'em dead Myk, they were that way when I walked in!  Okay that was bad... 

[tsmithae]

Which PA Schoolike? My fiance graduated from Midwestern. Good luck with your adventures through PA School!

[Dino]

Thanks! I'm at Eastern Michigan University.

[myk]

Glad to hear you guys are doing good! Good news on your car 66FB!   

I can't knock 'em dead Myk, they were that way when I walked in!  Okay that was bad... 

[Dino]

Cadaver content below. Don't read if it turns your stomach. Obviously I'm not posting pics.   









Lab day started out sort of familiar; After cutting out a few muscles I had to remove a section of the spine, more specifically the spinous processes which are the pointy thingies you can feel on your back. I only had to remove about 6 of them but the part that was interesting was the tool. It was an oscillating disc, very much like the one I used to utilize when making cuts in sheet metal! You can imagine the weird vibes I got while cutting this section of spine out. I was thinking how the heck did my life evolve from cutting cars to cutting humans!   

Once that section was out we uncovered the spinal cord and the various spinal nerves and blood vessels. Quite delicate work but very interesting.

I've had exactly three days in this program and about 9 more muscles were added to memorize. I have a good 70 pages of some very intense stuff to read tomorrow for my pathophysiology class and who knows what else. I'm trying to stay above water, but it's rising fast.

I feel like the walking dead half the time but it's oh so worth it!   

[Kern Dog]

I was hoping that PA meant Plymouth Academy. 

[Chad L. Magee]

Good luck with the studies.  Just remember to take a small stress break once and a while,  you will need them...

[Dino]

I was hoping that PA meant Plymouth Academy. 

Ah no, a degree from this one will actually get me somewhere. 

Good luck with the studies.  Just remember to take a small stress break once and a while,  you will need them...

Thanks Chad! Yep I'll take plenty of them to keep my sanity in check. See I'm taking one right now!   

[Finn]

Keep the updates coming if you have time! 

[Dino]

You want the juicy stuff?   

Nothing much has changed; still memorizing loads of muscles and we're adding dermatology diseases to our rapidly growing list of diseases to know about three days a week.

We did have our first offical PBL class: it stands for Problem Based Learning. Instead of having the professor lecture the class, we are divided in groups of six students, using software to examine and interview a virtual patient to find out the diagnosis of the disease. One operates the computer and software while another pens everything down on a big white board, actually two of them.
We do this every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning. We start a case on Monday, study up on it by Wednesday when we all present our findings, and we find the diagnosis on Friday. The professor is present just to guide us and make sure we don't waste time going off in the wrong direction, especially this early in the game.

I'll post more updates as I get them. I'm spending another three hours in cadaver lab tomorrow so there should be some good stuff to learn there as well.   

I've been sleeping like a baby by the way, I'm pretty much exhausted by the time I get home.   

[Ponch ®]

Cadaver content below. Don't read if it turns your stomach. Obviously I'm not posting pics.   









Lab day started out sort of familiar; After cutting out a few muscles I had to remove a section of the spine, more specifically the spinous processes which are the pointy thingies you can feel on your back. I only had to remove about 6 of them but the part that was interesting was the tool. It was an oscillating disc, very much like the one I used to utilize when making cuts in sheet metal! You can imagine the weird vibes I got while cutting this section of spine out. I was thinking how the heck did my life evolve from cutting cars to cutting humans!   

Once that section was out we uncovered the spinal cord and the various spinal nerves and blood vessels. Quite delicate work but very interesting.

I've had exactly three days in this program and about 9 more muscles were added to memorize. I have a good 70 pages of some very intense stuff to read tomorrow for my pathophysiology class and who knows what else. I'm trying to stay above water, but it's rising fast.

I feel like the walking dead half the time but it's oh so worth it!   

definitely not a career for the squeamish.

That being said, right on dude...keep on keepin on!

[Q5XX29]

Glad to hear you are already getting some dermatology training! The PA's around here (SD) don't appear to be very strong in that area of medicine, for the most part. Or the primary care physicians. No matter what field of medicine you end up going into, you will always get a ton of questions (from family, if no one else) about skin concerns.

Keep your head up, and good luck!

[Mopar Nut]

Awesome!

[41husk]

best of luck

[68 BENGAL R/T]

Congratulations Dino,
My daughter just graduated from her undergrad program and is in the process of applying to PA schools.
We live in the Detroit Metro Area and Eastern is one of the schools see is interested in.  Any tips to help
her apply, get accepted, and pick the right schools from your experience?
Good Luck! It's a difficult but rewarding profession. I'll be watching your progress.
Chris

[Dino]

Thanks Chris! 

I have tons of tips so let her get in touch with me. She can email me at mistervis@gmail.com. In short, you need to apply to as many schools as you can or at least are willing to attend. That said, even though I applied and interviewed at several, I only really wanted to go to EMU. If they had not taken me then I would've gone to Toledo but I would've been pretty bummed about it. I didn't want to waste a year and try again though so I'm very happy EMU accepted me.
The application process is super competitive and you have to stand out in a crowd. After weeding out a few hundred candidates at EMU, faculty was still left with over 700 viable candidates and there are 30 seats available. It's more competitive than med school these days.
Written on your application essay that you want to be a PA so you can help people is one of the ways to get rejected as the argument may be: why don't you go work for the Red Cross or something? And it's pretty valid.

High GPA is very important but they do look at the combination of your work so your character, your experience with patients (and some in my class have next to nothing), diversity is also important so if she has something to offer that is a bit out of the norm then it'll be in her favor.

Have her email me with some info about her, her GPA, science GPA (or grades if GPA is not yet calculated), patient care hours and experience and if she wants I'm happy to read her essays. I can't say exactly what gets you in and what does not, but I may have an idea.

Dirk

[Dino]

And a small update:

We get objectives in problem based learning class every Monday and have to present on that every Wednesday. Last week I presented on the mechanisms of acute inflammation, and tomorrow I'll be presenting on Type IV hypersensitivity. These are super in depth systems so the real trick is having a clear presentation with the key points without going to deep into the rabbit hole. You can write entire books about these subjects.

Anatomy is getting real intense. I think I have about 45-50 muscles to learn so far, with all their origins, insertions, actions, innervations, and blood supply and it's really nuts. I've got lots of flash cards here!   

Clinical medicine is super overwhelming. Three days a week we are taught all these conditions (all dermatology so far) and it is immensely in depth. We need to know tons of the stuff and it's very easy to get behind.

Pharmacology started slow but is kicking into high gear now. The nice thing is that it follows the rest of the courses so it's all dermatology right now.

We also have a patient assessment class where we get lectures, and practical lab experience so we'll be doing actual exams on each other. We did medical interviewing today. Luckily I have experience in that so it was a bit of a break for me. We have our first lecture exam in this class on Thursday and we basically need to know the first 4 chapters in the book. Last year's students have told us that we'll need to know the book cover to cover, and really know it.   

We had our introduction to simulation lab today as well. That won't start until two weeks from now. We'll be doing practical stuff we learn in the various classes on real and fake patients. Cool stuff!

And then there's the assignments, papers, essays and all that good stuff for each class. And we're only warming up!

I take a few breaks here and there but pretty soon I'll be studying pretty much every waking hour. There's just no other way.

All worth it though!   

[Dino]

Holy crap I'm tired!   

I've been studying about 5 hours each day and about 10-12 each Saturday and Sunday. This was a bad time to start binge watching Game of Thrones! 

In order to pass we need to score 82% on everything we do: every quiz, exam, assignment, you name it. If you don't get 82% on one of them then you need an "intervention" where you will be tested again on the material and you may get an added assignment or something. Well my first quiz I scored 81.48% so not the greatest start.   
There is no limit on how many interventions you can have, but you need to have a final score in that class of 82% to pass. There is a remediation process you can do but if you have less than a B grade more than twice during the first year, you get kicked out of the program.

I did the intervention which went really smooth and today took my second quiz in that same class. I don't have my grade yet but it went pretty well.

First pharmacology exam I got 86% which is not all that bad considering the sheer volume of information we had to know. I'm also still learning how to take these tests. This is not undergrad anymore Dorothy!

Tomorrow I have my first anatomy lab exam where I'll be tested on roughly 50 muscles and a few dozen nerves and blood vessels, but I feel pretty good about it.

Two more exams next week. Looks like we'll have some form of test just about every week. The class of 2017 (I'm class of 18) just started their rotations and they ended up doing 55 quizzes/exams in one year.   

I'll be studying some more anatomy until late tonight and I will be cramming a ton of stuff over the long weekend, but tomorrow evening I'm taking some time off to chill out! I'll put on a dumb movie that doesn't require me to think and I'll pop a cold beer...or five.      

[ws23rt]

    It's clear you are motivated
All of the hours you talk about are investment hours.--ca ching--  They are your future -not unlike a savings account or buying a house or mutual funds, etc.

You WILL get back what you are earning now.---This is an old guy speaking that put in an effort for my future when all my friends were talking about doing it later.

[Dino]

Thanks for the words of encouragement ws23rt!   

It's true, it is an investment, and it will pay off quite well as long as I live to tell.   

[Mytur Binsdirti]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjIH1jdx2_A


NWS for a F-bomb.