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Current UC Davis Students Please Comment!


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Nuoodns, its important when shadowing to show up early (5-10mins). Last thing you want to do is make your PA wait. Ask the PA what you should wear. When I shadowed at Kaiser, I wore scrubs and a non-logoed, non-hoodied jacket because I had heard it sometimes got cold in the ED. Ask whether there is a locker room or office that you can leave a bag in during the shift. If so, it might be a good idea to bring along some water and snacks, depending on how long your shadow shift is scheduled for. The Kaiser ED shifts during which I shadowed were 10-12 hours long. So, it was nice to have a something to snack on in between patients, because you wont have a chance to go to the cafeteria.

 

Whenever you shadow in any service, the PA/MD will introduce the patient to you as a someone shadowing, or as one of their students. The vast majority of the time the patient will have no problem with you being in the room while their history/procedure is being taken/performed. If asked to leave the room, your PA will tell you where to go. Otherwise, you will sit and observe. Be patient and wait to get a feel for how the shift is going. There maybe an opportunity for you to ask questions or be asked questions during the evaluation. You are there to learn, so questions should be encouraged. However, be sure to not interrupt the flow of the PA. Depending on how much charting is necessary for the Shriner's system, that can be a good time to ask follow-up questions. Lastly, if the PA asks you a question during the evaluation and you dont know, then be honest and say you dont know. Its not your job to know everything at this point; you haven't gone through the didactic and clinical training necessary to answer more questions you might need to know on a day-to-day basis and even when you are finished with the program, its still going to be a life-long process of learning. At the same time, it sure does feel good to get pimped by your PA/MD and know the right answer.

 

Good luck and have fun.

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  • 2 months later...

I'm currently enjoying a trip to Lake Tahoe to keep my sanity during the application process. I've swayed my companions to go through Sacramento on our return route to Oregon. I would greatly appreciate any recommendations on parts of campus that are a must see for a group of travelers that include a corgi and my wheelchair rocking brother. We would love to get a feel for every day life for UC Davis PA students and we'll be there on a Thursday if that matters. Thanks!

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I'm  a current PA student.  This is a little unrelated but you need to be very careful about your choice to come here.  They are resting on their laurels and have a massive publicity campaign that attracts good students.  This is why they claim they have a good program but they don't. When 21 out of 83 students fail a test and the program decides to combine the take-home pre-test score with it so it looks like only 5 people failed then there is a massive problem with the instruction.  The class size is too big for the resources.  The lectures are disjointed and disorganized.  Do not come here for the program.  If you come it has to be for the location or that you only have class 4 days a week.  We have students that got in to Yale, and Rutgers, and Northeastern and other amazing schools that came here because they were promised things that the program used to have but now does not.  I regret the choice to come here.

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Recently I've been hearing a lot of weird stuff about UC Davis. First of all they don't even reply to emails apparently. So I called the program and the person who I spoke with said that each rotation is going to be TWO WEEKS long!! How is it even possible for you to learn anything at a site in two weeks. Secondly, I shadowed a PA who was precepting some UC Davis students and she was really surprised at how unskilled they were which was a big shock to her since she graduated from the UC Davis program years ago.

 

Do you think the transition from the UC Davis SOM to the School of Nursing is hurting the program? What changes have you noticed? Are you able to discuss any pros and cons you've experienced from being the transition class?

 

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

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I'm  a current PA student.  This is a little unrelated but you need to be very careful about your choice to come here.  They are resting on their laurels and have a massive publicity campaign that attracts good students.  This is why they claim they have a good program but they don't. When 21 out of 83 students fail a test and the program decides to combine the take-home pre-test score with it so it looks like only 5 people failed then there is a massive problem with the instruction.  The class size is too big for the resources.  The lectures are disjointed and disorganized.  Do not come here for the program.  If you come it has to be for the location or that you only have class 4 days a week.  We have students that got in to Yale, and Rutgers, and Northeastern and other amazing schools that came here because they were promised things that the program used to have but now does not.  I regret the choice to come here.

Let's start out by saying that this student has only spent one quarter here.  Hardly enough time to make a fair assessment of our program. I am a current 2nd-year student on clinical rotations and honestly have no regrets.  Did I have my frustrations with the program? Of course I did.  The lectures and objectives seem to be disconnected with the exams. Some of the leadership classes seemed like busy work and distracted me from studying pharmacology and medicine. Yes it is true that we didn't get to spend as much time as I thought we would in the advanced simulation lab. However there have been many cohorts before this one that have figured out how to take and pass the exams in this program. The lectures acted as a guide for what we needed to know so as students we knew we were responsible for that information no matter how we learned it.  It took a lot of hours outside the classroom utilizing faculty, fellow PA/NP students, med students, 2nd year students, youtube, and books outside of the required/recommended books.  Some of us attend the med student lectures or talks/seminars that are given on campus.  We volunteered as much as we could at student run clinics to learn from med students and physicians.  So there are plenty of resources for a person here to learn and pass their exams.  As far as the SIM lab goes, the School of Nursing (SON) has recognized that problem and has invested in it's own building with it's own SIM lab so they are not at the mercy of the School of Medicine for time in lab.  Also the schedule changes it is not just a 4-day a week program.  It varies dependent on your classes and space availability in the School of Medicine (SOM). When I first started it was Monday-Friday 8AM-5PM, students complained how there wasn't enough time to study so the SON made it 4-days a week for the new cohort giving them longer weekends to study. One quarter we only went to school 3-days a week with an occasional Saturday class again this being dependent on classroom availability and us sharing space  with the SOM.  By the summer of 2017 the SON will have it's own building and it's own space, thus drastically changing the everyday life of a student.   I have only seen improvement since starting this program and can see how the faculty work hard behind the scenes.  They take student feedback seriously and will make changes for the next cohort.  What people need to understand is that we are the only PA/NP program in the whole country. It's never been done before.  The SON had to develop a curriculum that satisfies both accrediting entities for PA and NP education.  As with any brand new curriculum there are going to be bumps in the road and some growing pains.  It's not going to be perfect and one should not expect perfection.  I can find students at any program that will complain about how things run.  This is still a good program and they are taking strides to make it better.  It will only get better.  We are PA students expected to learn as much as medical students learn in two-years in one-year.  That is a challenge for any program and it leaves a lot of responsibility on the students.  This program as with any situation in life is what you make it.  The SON provides plenty of opportunities for any student to learn and succeed.  You just have to be proactive and seek them out.

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