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If You Could Go Anywhere and Do Anything, What Would You Do?


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Call me crazy, but if I had the freedom to do anything professionally I would like to work at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica. 

 

 

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

 

sign me up!!!!!!!!!1

 

Then a small AK village in the south East of AK

 

Then the high desert southwest for one winter (just amazing topography and weather)

 

Then back to AK to live in Anchorage for a few years to save up money

 

Then off to the countryside in Honduras (or maybe the island of Roatan - also in honduras) and work for free - have to know Spanish though......

 

Then back to Asheville NC at the VA medical center and settle down..... so to speak

 

 

and yes trying to always keep it federal gov't so that pension grows!

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I just got back from a Coast Guard patrol to McMurdo station. It was an interesting place, nice "hospital" with very helpful and friendly staff. We spent about 3 days at the station in Jan/Feb.

 

The base itself is pretty much an industrial site, little to do, would get old quick. Suprisingly good food. I would definately be willing to spend a couple 'summers' there if I didn't have to leave my family behind.

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That's in the differential, for sure. Definitely something I'm considering.

the distillery or med school?

if med school you would be silly not to consider the lecom bridge. they just graduated their first class. everyone rocked boards and got their choice of residency.

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the distillery or med school?

if med school you would be silly not to consider the lecom bridge. they just graduated their first class. everyone rocked boards and got their choice of residency.

Haha med school. I don't like beer all that much :P

 

I've been looking into the Lecom bridge for sure. My PA school grades and board scores weren't all that great though so I have a bit of a barrier. Not impossible to overcome though (especially since I feel like I've come VERY far in the past 1.5 years since finishing PA school).

 

Definitely an option.

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talk to Dr. K the director there. they are very open to working with applicants to make applying as painless as possible.

To be "competitive" for admission there I woulds only need one 3 unit online intro ochem course without lab to fulfill the ochem requirement for example....tempting, but tough with my family situation as it currently stands...if I could do it without moving it would be a no-brainer. I would have already applied.

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Not quite graduated yet. We graduate June 1. My residency orientation starts June 9

Sure am glad I matched where I already own a home and don't have to move!!!

Would you mind sharing what you and others matched into? I believe half of the spots are for students interested in primary care?

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$30k/yr tuition and fees plus living expenses for 3 yr. I worked some, but not as much as I would have liked to--just enough to get by without some creature comforts beyond loans and maintain a high B average. Really couldn't work until 2nd yr though. Savings was almost gone by then so work was a necessity. Most of my more frugal APAP-mates did not work though.

I did manage to get NHSC loan repayment of $120k over 4 yr starting this August during residency. I will only have about $25-30k remaining in loans after that so I'm very thankful.

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  • 6 months later...

This has me pretty excited. I'm 21 and will be entering the PA program at Yale in 2015. It is good to know there will be plenty of options once I graduate, as I, also, (currently) do not have anything that is tying me down to any particular area.

Good Luck, Maverick!

Keep us posted on what you decide!

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Is Mars on the multiple choice list?

 

I would love to be paid to travel to exotic places, a different one each month.  If I could do ANYTHING, it would be paleontology or archaeology. My dad was an archaeologist. 

my undergrad was anthro and I took a lot of archaeology. fun stuff.

you know you can get on a list to go to mars, but it's one way:

http://www.mars-one.com/mission/humankind-on-mars

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If I could do anything? Hmm. Interesting question.

 

I mean, I already doubled my stupid undergrad student loans (the ones I wasn't paying down very well with stupid $35k a year jobs) when I left the bizniss world behind to go to PA school in my 30s, so on one level I hope I'm doing what I really want.

 

But if loan payments and family objections were no obstacle, and income was decent, I might enjoy mixing a little clinic time with a little teaching time.

 

I recently applied for a thing my practice group does where they set up a clinic inside the corportate campus of a big client, and the PA acts as the doc-in-a-box for employees and their families. In the right environment, that could be a lot of fun. Like being a logging-camp doctor in the 1940s, but without the isolation. (That's a cool link, btw.)

 

Similarly, it might be fun being a cruise ship or even better a resort "doctor" for a while... or if we're really going blue-sky, why not combine my love of videogames with medicine, and be the on-site medic for a game development studio? Managing chronic conditions, dealing with urgent stuff, and unofficially using the bubble of confidentiality to help people decide on story or gameplay would be cool.

 

You remember that episode of Star Trek where Picard tells Wesley that when he goes to the Academy, he has to find Boothby and he can trust and rely on him as a mentor? Wesley asks what subject he teaches, and Picard is like, "no, he's the gardener." That kind of thing. Just doing my thing day to day, being excellent at it, but also being unoficially brilliant.

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Work in Detroit in the "bad part of town". Medical mission type service.

 

I don't know if you're into surgery, but my very favorite rotation in school was Surgery, at Flint Michigan's Hurley Medical Center. The only Level I Trauma in the state not in Detroit, and a ridiculously economically depressed town. It's good work, and they have a ton of PAs with great responsibilities.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Figured I'd update this since it's been about 8 months since I created this thread.

 

Ultimately, I'm deciding between staying in the military system (as a non-active duty member), joining the reserves, becoming administrator, teaching at a school, doing locums, dermatology residency, or simply taking a job in a big city. PA-DO bridge program is still a possibility, but it doesn't make as much sense to me as it used to.

 

I'd like to open my own clinic at some point, but I would like to be more experienced first.

 

In all honesty, being that I will be 28 when I get out, I'm at the point in my life where I would like to soon be in the beginning stages of starting a family. So I'll probably end up in a city where there are a large amount of attractive, educated women with good careers.

 

10.5 months left to go. We'll see....

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