Art and creativity are inseparable. They are intimately connected. In no way is it creative to simply funnel patients through, check off labs, reorder the same prescriptions, and set up the same follow-ups. But this is what can happen when a rushed internist or family medicine physician assistant sees 30 patients a day. The practice…
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University of Charleston Physician Assistant Program
This is a very exciting time in PA Education and especially for the University of Charleston Physician Assistant program. We have been working diligently over the last several months to develop an outstanding program. I’m happy to report that we are now accepting applications. So what’s going to be so great about the UC PA Program?…
Changing Education Paradigms
The essence of education is to help individuals be successful in life and to positively contribute to society. How can this be better accomplished than by helping students find their passions and developing their talents for those passions? Dead is the age where we must force upon every student proficiencies across multiple domains…
Six Second ECG – Dynamic Cardiac Rhythm Simulator
Lately I’ve been working to build up the new PhysicianAssistantED.com links library. This morning I stumbled across this jewel of a link that helps students learn ECG rhythms (or clinicians review ECG rhythms). In a nutshell, it provides descriptions of several cardiac rhythms and arrhythmias and challenges the student to identify them correctly. It also…
NEW Links Libraries
Some say we live in the information age. I believe this is true. However, I believe to this point we have only witnessed the early dawn of the information age. As we step further into the future, as processors become more powerful, as software becomes more user-friendly, and as innovators continue to make leaps in…
Being a Physician Assistant #9: Not Always Seeing the Rewards of Your Efforts
Much of what we do, and what we should be doing better, is in the realm of preventive medicine. If I can control a patient’s cholesterol and high blood pressure then I significantly reduce that patient’s risk of several disease processes, perhaps most notably heart attack and stroke. So what’s my reward then? Numbers on a lab sheet? Do you think patients generally say, “Wow, you’re amazing! I can’t believe that you’ve helped me control my Hypertension for the last several years. Thank you so much!”
Two Year Anniversary – PhysicianAssistantED.com
OK, so it’s not actually the two year anniversary of www.PhysicianAssistantED.com (which actually officially launched January of this year). However, October will mark two years since the inspiration hit me to create the website. I remember it vividly. I was lying down in a hotel room in Portland, Oregon after a day full of events at the annual Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) conference. I was thinking about all the great conference presentations and began to wonder…
Critical Practitioner Skill – The Art of Listening
I recently watched a TED Talk entitled “5 Ways to Listen Better,” which I’ve included below. It was very insightful. All health care providers (current and future) will benefit tremendously by paying careful attention to what Mr. Treasure has to say. One of the six core competencies of the PA profession is Interpersonal & Communication skills. I don’t believe there’s…
Pre-PA Superstars, We NEED You!
As I’m working to build an extraordinary program to train PAs, thousands of hopeful pre-PAs are submitting applications in an effort to land one of the coveted seats within nearly 160 programs across the nation. What do we need in these applicants? We need applicants who understand that going into medicine is all about the patient, about centering everything we do as practitioners around the health and well-being of the patient. We need applicants who are willing…