Thoughts from a New PA Graduate

[rcreek]

I just graduated from the University of Utah PA Program and took my PANCE yesterday. I felt pretty good about it after taking the CME review course beforehand. As my formal PA education comes to a close and I embark on this career path (already have a job lined up), I just have a few things that I would like to share.

 

I'm a 31 year old father of two young boys. I got divorced in didactic year. I had my fair share of challenges, but realized that I am not really a unique case among other PA students across the country. Others have gone through similar life shake-ups before me and have succeeded. I just put my head down and kept powering through my studies while I utilized the student counseling/therapy services available to me. My faculty was understanding and helpful, which I am grateful for.

 

I want to dispel the myth that you have to give up your whole life and everything you are to succeed in PA school. I used to think that in order to succeed I had to become some sort of study robot. That is not true, and is actually a detrimental way to approach it. You must maintain balance in your life and care for your own mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Only then will you have the mental fortitude to learn what you need to learn. I was able to take up new hobbies. I exercised and lost weight. I went on dates. I developed a new relationship with an awesome woman. I spent time with my kids.

 

With that being said, PA school honestly was a little easier than I expected. Certainly it wasn't harder than handling several science prerequisite courses and a job before PA school. I found the course-load and content to be challenging, but doable. I didn't have to change my study habits much at all. The same study habits that got me accepted also got me through.

 

I was never able to afford health insurance for myself. My school did not offer any good options either. The amount of $ I got to live on through high interest grad plus loans placed me square in the poverty level and I had to rely on some help from my parents to lease a car for me to use.

 

I was dismayed to see that medical students had more options for loans than I did as a PA student. When I was interviewing at PA schools, they all touted these loan repayment programs that are available. These are actually very few and far between and not easy to come by. I'll be paying my loans off the old-fashioned way, as are the majority of PAs.

 

Yes I struggled with self doubt at times. I have learned that this is normal. The clinical rotations especially placed me outside of my comfort zone on numerous occasions, but it made me a better clinician in the end. Coming out of PA school I realize I am far from a medical expert. There is and always will be more to learn in this field. This is a career for lifelong learners.

 

I really feel that the PA profession is best suited for older students who have already had careers doing other things. If I was in my early 20's and new in my undergraduate education, I would shoot for medical school. It's a longer path but it makes more sense financially speaking. Not trying to dissuade anyone, but that is my opinion on the matter.

 

The PA profession is a great one, but there are hurdles facing the profession. It's important for all of us to advocate and be active with groups that influence PA legislation in our states. I realized this more and more as I rotated with other PAs.

 

To all of you considering the PA profession or currently in a program, I wish all of you the best!

[corpsman89]

Bravo! 

 

Thank you for your insight, and I hope to be in your shoes in a couple of years!

 

Good luck to you, 

 

Greg

[moestown1016]

Congratulations! Sounds like you soldiered through just fine despite the difficulties. Welcome to the other side =D

 

 

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[FuturePA31]

Thank you for shedding some light for us future PA-S. Much appreciated! I, too, hope to be in your shoes one day.

[sfine]

Thank you for sharing.

 

 

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[SoCalPA]

Thank you for sharing your insight!!  Can i ask how many months your program was?  

[dilemma84]

Thank you for your post, it is such a great and refreshing post to read before starting Pa school. All my research and experience have been you need to do this, that, sleep deprivation, catching up whenever there's a break, etc.. So it is already stressful before I even started the program just to think that pa school means 24/7 of studying and stressing. I'm glad and would love to hear other graduates thoughts on their school/life balance.

[nubienne]

Thank you so much for sharing this. Your honesty is very refreshing and much appreciated!

[south]

I'm very glad you found it easier than you thought, but you speak as though your experience and opinions are the correct standard and you are setting us all straight.

 

There is that 10% of people who have a combination of incredible study skills and/or a competent or less difficult program that allow the things that you describe.  Even in a program as unnecessarily difficult as mine was, there are a couple of savants who absorb everything seemingly by magic.  

 

The 90% of us who may not have these tools have to put school before everything else and grind through some long hours.  

 

THAT's the standard.  Again, I'm glad you are outside the norm, but please don't present your experience as fact; not a good look.  I've run into a couple of your classmates and I'm pretty sure they would say that the experience there at Utah generally follows the norm.

 

Outliers exist, but school is still difficult, folks.  

[south]

 All my research and experience have been you need to do this, that, sleep deprivation, catching up whenever there's a break, etc.. So it is already stressful 

 

A comment on that.  Folks should prepare for added stress and focus, but don't go crazy borrowing trouble by getting stressed out and panicking.

 

Almost 100% of this battle is eliminating distractions.  Answer this question - can you exclusively go to school all day, and study all evening, every day, for months at a time?  There will be breaks here and there, but that will be your focus.

 

If you can do that, you will succeed.  If you have something preventing that, you will struggle or fail.  It's that simple. 

 

If you have something requiring your attention during that time, you will have to make a choice.  

 

We flunked out a lady who was expected to get out of school at 5 and put it away until the next morning at 8 AM - cook dinner, run kids to activities, attend school functions, etc.  Her husband pulled the plug a couple semesters in, and she quit a few hours before she was formally flunked out.  

 

So deep breath and make your choice.  There ARE those who find themselves able to skate through, but again 90% of us really have to buckle down.   

 

You CAN do it and if you focus, you WILL do it.  Try not to stress. 

[anewconvert]

My experience thus far has been that the people who have to spend hours every day outside of the class room studying also tend to be trying to do something other than listening to the lecturer during class hours.  Whether it be studying for another class, or chatting on g-chat/facebook with other class members/family, or just being distracted by the internet.  Then when the test comes they have to cram the night before, get minimal sleep and are too tired to function in lecture after their morning test. 

 

 

Paying attention during the lecture goes a LOOONG way in making your studying reasonable. 

[Lyndhurst]

Agree completely with the above. Some lecturers I just could not stay focused on....sometimes it was their presentation style and some times the material. In any event those were the classes I had to spend more time on to feel comfortable with.

 

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[dilemma84]

My experience thus far has been that the people who have to spend hours every day outside of the class room studying also tend to be trying to do something other than listening to the lecturer during class hours.  Whether it be studying for another class, or chatting on g-chat/facebook with other class members/family, or just being distracted by the internet.  Then when the test comes they have to cram the night before, get minimal sleep and are too tired to function in lecture after their morning test. 

 

 

Paying attention during the lecture goes a LOOONG way in making your studying reasonable.

 

Did you feel that paying attention to the lecture and actively taking notes cut down on your studying time outside of class ? I'm normally an independent learner and so I'm very nervous starting pa school in couple months. I know there will be a lot of lecture and notes, so I am getting myself mentally ready for the rigor of the program. Any advice ? Thanks!

[south]

My experience thus far has been that the people who have to spend hours every day outside of the class room studying also tend to be trying to do something other than listening to the lecturer during class hours.  Whether it be studying for another class, or chatting on g-chat/facebook with other class members/family, or just being distracted by the internet.  Then when the test comes they have to cram the night before, get minimal sleep and are too tired to function in lecture after their morning test. 

 

 

Paying attention during the lecture goes a LOOONG way in making your studying reasonable. 

 

...for you.  Everyone is different.  I don't learn hardly anything at all when someone is up there reading powerpoint bullets to me for hours on end, even with total concentration.  

 

I'm an independent, visual learner, and trust me, I would not be here today if I had not figured that out after the first semester, after being placed in the potential flunk corner after wasting days on end struggling to absorb and remember what someone was saying to me in their own way, then starting from zero (with a headache) after 5 PM.

 

We had a few people that tuned in, listened and absorbed everything, and when they left they pretty much had it, except for a couple of read throughs before the exam.  Good for them.  

 

We had people, as a measure of survival, sitting in the back wearing earplugs studying at their own pace.  And that works for them.  (this is assuming you had stupid ass mandatory attendance, as we did). 

 

And everything in between.  The key is to find how YOU perform and learn best.  You just have to do it a lot.  

 

I have a friend in the medical school where I was who hasn't attended a single lecture in three years, not one.  He sits at Panera with the powerpoints and drinks tea from 8 AM to around 3 or 4, takes a long break and reviews for an hour or so each evening.  His GPA and scores are phenomenal.  He has to come and go across the street for labs and other mandatory out-of-class nonsense, but he says he doesn't even know for sure which lecture halls are which and less than half of his professors by sight.

 

He told me once that if you can't teach yourself effectively by this time, you'll waste massive amounts of time and forever struggle to make it to mediocre.  Smart kid. 

[anewconvert]

Dilemma: Yes, I really felt that paying attention to the lecture made an enormous difference.  Trying to at least glance at the topic the night before or, if the ppt was available, read through the powerpoint before the lecture made the lecture more valuable as well. 

 

As south pointed out you will have to find your way, but my opinion is that your studying is going to be more valuable if you have already been exposed to the content once, whether that be by pre-reading or by paying attention to the lecturer.  Coming at the topic cold after the lecture, having not paid any attention, deprives you of both the opportunity to ask questions of someone who is ostensibly an expert on the topic and the chance to double your exposure. 

 

Nevermind that it is really frustrating to be a lecturer standing at the front of the room and see 70% of the class with their head down doing something else.  When I used to teach anatomy I would randomly call on people during class to answer rhetorical questions just to get them to pay attention.

 

 

Regardless, I am of the opinion that PA school wasn't nearly as terrible as everyone says it will be and that we, as students and former students, like to make it a bigger deal than it is for giggles and impressive stories.  :)

[Lyndhurst]

ANC if your impressive stories include sitting in a lecture hall for hours on end then you need better stories :-)

 

Seriously though I agree with your point that paying attention in class mainly pays off. Asking questions of the lecturer was a great source of clarification for me especially when the book, the lecture and online sources all disagree. In those moments the only way to know which right answer would be the right answer for the exam, was to ask.

 

However there were certain lecturers where this wasnt the case. I recall one Cardiology lecture in particular that was so dry and presented with such a low level of enthusiasm that it became a form of anethesia.

[south]

Maybe I'm too old and crusty but in some ways I don't like being forced to do something one way when there is a better, more efficient one.  Especially when the only reason you are sitting there is for professorial job security.  

 

Now, I actually DO think that ignoring the professor is rude and possibly disrespectful, but then again, I'm the paying customer and the consumer here.  It's MY risk and MY money that is wasted if I follow some unwritten etiquette rules to avoid another adult getting their feelings hurt.  There's a time and place to prioritize maybe hurting someone's feelings.  

 

And I will ALSO say that the advice of preparing for class and trying to listen is absolutely sound.  It's just that it may find it does not work for you and you find yourself wasting 9 hours every day.  Improvise...adapt...overcome.

 

Speaking of rude and disrespectful, that's what mandatory attendance is.  I brought this up whenever we were admonished for expectations of being adults or taking responsibility.  Well, then treat us like the adults you claim we are whenever it's convenient for you, how about that mandatory attendance thing we haven't run into since grade school?  Never got a response other than a red face.

 

They actually attempted to make medical school attendance mandatory after some school big shot walked into a lecture hall to see about 20 people sitting there out of a class of ~145.  The class president immediately organized a mass walkout and a boycott of something involving incoming classes (like interviews or tours or whatever).  The idea was killed instantly.  Good times.

[anewconvert]

ANC if your impressive stories include sitting in a lecture hall for hours on end then you need better stories :-)

 

 

 

Lol, tell me about it :)

 

What I mean is the "in my day..." type stories. "Well when I was in PA school I had to study 8 hours a day AFTER class to get C's because there was SO MUCH information"

[MattHopes]

Great discussion, good luck and thanks for sharing this valuable information with all.

[Croooz]

I don't see what the issues are with the OP's post.  He posted that the study habits he used in undergrad didn't change when he went to PA school.  The assumption seems to be that he's saying PA school is no more difficult than undergrad and others posted that may be the case for 10% of the students and such.  Yet could it also be that as a nontraditional PA student he developed study habits and time-management during undergrad that were actually at the grad school level.  He's a father of two and during undergrad he took a science heavy courseload and had a job.  It doesn't read to me that he's part of the 10% that just "gets it."  I read it as someone who had superior study habits prior to school, habits at the graduate school level so his transition to PA school was easier than expected.  I equate it to how we trained in the military "The one who sweats more in peace, bleeds less at war."  It's why some argued that making physician residencies easier, less work, was a disservice because once they hit the streets as attendings their workloads/hours were actually going to increase.... less sweat = more blood... 

 

I post this because as an even older fart I was accused of "just getting it while the rest of us have to study."  As I sit here studying A&P as a pre-PA I was like "WTH do they think I do...just listen in class??"  Class is three hours and I leave after the first hour.  All the prof does is read the powerpoint slides (ie, Death by PowerPoint!)  The only reason I even go is because attendance is mandatory but sticking around isn't.  It's a waste of my time to have slides read to me.  So I study with what I know to work for me.  I'm "accused" of having a photographic memory and I'm like..."Um yeah...I stare at the material, then I draw it from memory a hundred times...rinse & repeat...going back to look at what I missed and filling it in more and more every time..."  So the majority of the class are guys and gals in their twenties who haven't earned their first degree and are cramming for the quizzes/exams.  These will be my classmates and they will have to step it up just as I will have to.  But we're not stepping up from the same level. 

 

Not looking for a fight just offering another perspective as to what he might mean with what he wrote.