rev ronin

Want to see age discrimination? Work in tech. My graying temples were beginning to become a liability, but in medicine patients LOVE to have a middle-aged practitioner: no one has every asked me when the "real" doctor is showing up. I don't perceive that it made a difference in any of my PA school interviews.

What do you want them to do to make you whole? I had one position fall through a few years back, and I documented everything I'd spent preparing for the move, which was in the low four figures, and sent it to the HR rep. They paid it. No lawyers involved.

My best attempt at a big-tent look at abortion pill reversal (progesterone after mifepristone), both looking at the current science (safety/efficacy) as well as the ethical decision making based on the woman's autonomy, without reference to fetal personhood. In short: should pro-choice clinicians support progesterone post mifepristone if requested by mom? It's a non-CME, caucus-sponsored evening session. Yep, will be at HOD. I authored a resolution and am definitely speaking to several others.

Any masters' helps, in that it shows you can do graduate level work. I had an MS in religion and an MDiv when I applied to PA school. Indirectly, that graduate work helped with my GRE verbal score, which increased significantly in the 15+ years from right after undergrad to right before PA school. I don't have an MPH, but with the relevant parts of my DMSc, I'm not sure it's really focused on the day-to-day patient care that entry level PAs are expected to provide. Based on my situation, if I were to acquire additional graduate degrees to further pad my CV and diversify my portfolio, public health might be my 4th choice, after medical ethics, counseling, and business.

I've always thought that if you couldn't ask about it in an employment interview, you can't ask about it in a University interview. When I interview applicants for my PA program, there are a series of about 6-8 mandatory questions, and about a dozen more optional ones which can be used, time permitting. All of them are carefully worded, and while they're not all my favorite, every last one of them is "safe" and doesn't touch on any protected class, political/religious views, etc. On the other hand, as a hiring manager, I did occasionally invite applicants to disclose more than strictly necessary. One applicant obviously was older than the experience listed on his resume, so I pointed that out and asked him if there was anything relevant to the position he wanted to disclose. He mentioned some cool but mostly irrelevant experience which rounded him out better as a candidate. That candor and well-roundedness impressed me, but he didn't end up getting that job when all the interviewers' scores were added up.

The fact that a topic is not something that the AAPA House of Delegates should probably not weigh in on rarely seems to stop it from doing so.

As a self-employed clinician, if I don't get my charts done and billed in a timely manner, I don't get paid. Mind you, I have a year to submit correct charts, but why get behind in the first place if you can avoid it? Absent any contractual issues, the risks from delayed documentation as I see it are... 1) Delayed referrals. Can't send the referral without the relevant chart note. 2) Delayed payments. Can't bill the encounter without the relevant chart note. 3) Accuracy. Poor memory means more risk of recall errors, which are liabilities for malpractice, fraud, and the like. So, it's not just about money, although it is about money, it's about good patient care.

I will be there. Come hear my Sunday evening talk!

Especially if you've been out of school for a while and have a family, start working NOW to ease into it. Train your spouse and especially kids that you're not interruptible while studying, and deal with the hurt feelings and fallout from that proactively so you can find a rhythm that works for your loved ones so you can 1) stay with your loved ones, and 2) succeed at PA school.

ARC-PA has been handing out probation pretty liberally lately. I'm not entirely sure why, but schools like you described as #1, with a whole ecosystem surrounding the PA program, are going to be the least likely to ultimately lose accreditation: they have other programs and a reputation to uphold. The PA program isn't the first or only graduate level health sciences program, but a bigger part of the university's overall portfolio. A significant number of PA programs are started at schools without that infrastructure because they're lucrative. A good school I'm quite familiar with was briefly placed on probation a few years back because too many of their pediatrics rotations weren't with board certified pediatricians, but rather with family med PAs and NPs. It's an arbitrary and fixable problem, and I suspect your school #1 is in a similar boat.

Make yourself PA Student business cards. Vistaprint will sell you more than you ever need for a few bucks, and they make great bookmarks once you're out of school.

Charm is a supposedly turnkey web-based operation that I've not used personally, but a former SP uses for a side gig doing a few patients a week and it's VERY reasonably priced, per her. Jane is a Canadian product whose primary users seem to be small, independent practices like chiropractors, massage therapists, and mental health therapists. It's web-based, handles insurance billing reasonably well with clearinghouse ($100 extra per month, worth it), and it will automatically assess your license needs and bill you accordingly for part- or full-time licenses. I'm paying $135/month for the insurance plan with 1.5 clinician licenses. The only thing I really don't like about it is it sucks and handling external documents: You can upload them, but not manipulate them, rename/reorder them, or even sort them. As such, I keep a Dropbox account for managing documents. Oh, e-Rx is not included in Jane, but apparently Charm has it. I'm using MDToolbox, which does have a way to export/import patient lists, but it doesn't let me e.g., re-export a med list from MDToolbox back to Jane. Jane doesn't try to be medicare-compliant, and so has zero alerts and dialog boxes... unless YOU tell it to stop you if you haven't completed a field, is highly customizable, has its own built-in telemedicine platform (I dropped from the professional tier of Doxy.me after most of my patients got used to it). The billing/coding part of it is simple enough if you're used to doing your own coding, although there is always a learning curve.

The wise mouse understands why the cheese is free.

I don't think I'm supposed to copy/paste from UpToDate, but for hew exposure in healthcare workers, treat if newly positive, or retest 8-10 weeks if negative. OR if you decline tx, monitor annually. It's a pretty complicated algorithm, and the more I read of it, the less clear, concrete guidance there is.

I've had serious frustration getting Dragon Home to recognize genital words.