Current PA Emergency Fellow @ Albany Med; Blog

[EMEDPA]

Congrats, there are not a lot of jobs like that around so I wouldn't be too quick to leave. I know of less than 10 similar jobs for PAs nationwide encompassing maybe 50 PAs total. These jobs are all in the states of VT, ME, NE, MT, WA, ND, WY, OK, MI, and SD. I work at one such place with 4 other PAs and it is the only similar opportunity within hundreds of miles. It took me 15 years as an em pa to land the job(I sent them my cv every year for 10 years) and you got one right out of residency! That says a lot about the quality of your learning experience and the value of residency. congrats again!

[jd4mvp]

 prospective

*perspective :)

[ventana]

Residency works!

 

Congrats!

[jhodes]

Congrats Jordan!!!! It has been so encouraging and exciting to follow you and Matt's journey through this residency program! I can't thank you both enough for detailing this experience. I just submitted my application to AMC today, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

 

Keep up that amazing spirit and passion :)

[ewillPAC]

Hey everyone! My name is Eric and I am one of the 4 fellows at Albany Medical Center ER currently. I felt now was a great time to comment on my experience so far because I am about half way through the fellowship. So far in addition to all my ER shifts I have completeted rotations in: ultrasound, toxicology, ophthalmology, pediatrics, anesthesia, radiology. I still have yet to do a rotation in CCU, SICU, EMS, trauma. and my elective month.

 

I started my fellowship with 2 weeks of ultrasound training which was beyond amazing to learn. When we were not doing class or hands on with our attending, myself and another one of the fellows were out in the ER ultrasounding every person we could find which was amazing because patient's were very receptive to letting us practice and learn and just by explaining to the patient what we were looking at and for, helped educate the patient and us reinforce the skills and knowledge exponentially. Matt and I even took it a little further and started learning how to apply ultrasound to many other things (i.e. Ophthalmology, peritonsillar abscesses, etc.). After hearing from previous fellows how marketable ultrasound training was when applying to jobs, I made it a point to keep up with my ultrasound skills and get as much exerperience as I possibly could. So far I have about 560 ultrasounds logged of various kinds. Dr. Cadigan who is our ultrasound ER guru is exceptionally amazing to work with and will take free time to go out of her way and explain something to you if you have any questions.

 

As Jenelle has previously mentioned, I too feel that I did not have the confidence I should with seeing patients with eye complaints. We unfortunately did not have a great deal of Ophthalmology training in school. I will even admit that when I saw patient's initially in the ER at the beginning of my fellowship I was intimidated by doing a good and thorough slit-lamp examination or even knowing who needs to be consulted and who can be sent home with follow-up. Well after my Ophthalmology rotation with various amazing Ophtho residents and attendings at AMC, I was a rockstar! I learned so much and just learning how to perform a good and thorough slit-lamp examination alone is a huge help. I now see patient's and do things without even needing to consult Ophto residents to do. I remove foreign bodies from people's corneas. I even performed a laceration repair of a lid margin using 7-0 chromic gut sutures, which impressed the Ophthalmology resident that is something that normally requires a skilled Ophthalmologist to handle. So needless to say, I have now have a huge passion for Ophthalmology and find that other PAs, residents, and sometimes attendings have asked me questions about using the slit-lamp or with handling certain Ophtho complaints, which is a huge confidence booster.

 

Toxicology was beyond amazing. I never how much existed regarding tox until doing this rotation. Albany Medical Center ER is extremely fortunate that we have 3 amazing board certified Toxicologists! Between the lectures and tox cases that I had, I gained a huge amount of knowledge that I would have never learned otherwise. We learned not just drugs/medications, but how to recognize and treat certain exposures to chemicals (i.e. from patient's place of employment), plants, etc. Now when we get overdoses or exposure to random chemicals, I jump right on it and feel confident seeing those patient's and knowing how to treat them accordingly.

 

Anesthesia was an amazing experience. I don't know how many intubations some people may have done while in school, but after talking to some of my friends who have completed a year of ER as a PA, they have done ZERO. With that said, I did 32 intubations in 1 week alone! Talk about a great experience, after that week I felt like I could walk into any situation and intubate without any hesitation.

 

Pediatrics was a great rotation because let's face it, kids can be very intimidating to treat. Unless you have that background in Pediatrics, there are a lot of differences in working up a kid or newborn baby. We have some absolutely amazing Pediatric ER certified attendings and they just made the experience amazing. I loved every minute of it, and within 1 week alone I was picking up ICU level peds patient's.

 

All in all, my experience over the past 6 months has been beyond amazing and far exceeded my expectations prior to starting the program. It is also great because I have 3 other amazing PA fellows that I work with, and we enjoy sharing our experiences with one another because we all want to learn and help each other come out of this program with the most knowledge that we can possibly gain over this year. Everyone else in the ER has been great from nurses to the other PAs, residents, and attending physicians. I find that no matter how busy it may be sometimes, there is always someone is willing to help if I have a question or feel like I need to bounce some ideas off of them. If anyone has any questions at all about my experience or the program itself feel free to contact me williae1@mail.amc.edu.

 

I will definitely keep updating this blog with any latest experiences or news.

[ewillPAC]

Hey everyone. If you have already read my blog in the AMC part deux section, this is pretty much the same thing. One of our PA fellow graduates from several years ago had started this forum and then Andy from my class started the part deux forum, so I have tried to keep them both going as they both portray experience from PA fellows throughout many years.

 

I graduated from the Albany Medical Center ER PA fellowship about 1.5 years ago. Since finishing my fellowship, I actually stayed at Albany Med and took a job working overnights in the ER. One of the greatest aspects about working my overnight shift is that there are very few residents and I (being the only PA on during the night time) work solely in the trauma section of the ER. I have to say that without a doubt it would be difficult to handle such an intense area of the ER. I don't think that I would be able to function so well if it had not been for my fellowship training. Additionally, having done a fellowship and having the skills and knowledge I acquired, the attending physicians love how autonomous I am. Since it is only myself and 1 resident in the trauma zone, when we have multiple trauma's or sick patient's simultaneously, I can manage them confidently, and the attending physicians love it. I continue to have the ability to perform all the procedures that I did during fellowship, which yet again would be a huge challenge if I did not have so much prior experience. Often, I go off by myself without anyone in the room and perform invasive procedures (i.e. chest tubes, central lines, etc). I have done so many at this point, that I even teach and let PA students do some of these procedures. It is also not uncommon that the attending physician will have me even teach some of the residents how to do these procedures, since I have done more than many of them.

 

Another area that I have now become more involved in is the academic side of things. I love getting to work with the current PA fellows and passing my knowledge to them, in addition to giving away procedures to them that I may have (which they greatly appreciate) because I want to help contribute to trying to make the program be the best experience possible for anyone that goes through it. Since I have so much ultrasound experience, I was even asked to be the point person that trains all the PA's on ultrasound. I feel very honored to still be a relatively new PA, yet because of how good I am at ultrasound, I am now in charge of training a large group of physician assistants (with many more years of experience than me). I have also become involved with SIM center training and myself and another PA have worked hard to try and make SIM training better than ever. I absolutely love my job, and I love all the emails I receive from everyone who has interest in a fellowship. If i've said it before, i'll say it again, hands down the best thing I ever could have done out of school. So for those that are interested, please do not hesitate to contact me as I am always happy to answer any questions that people may have. Williae1@mail.amc.edu

[AdamAMCED]

Hi all,

 

The Albany Medical Center Physician Assistant Post-graduate Fellowship in Emergency Medicine is pleased to announce that we are currently accepting applications for our next Fellowship class,which will begin Fall 2017. We are will be accepting 5 fellows for the class next year.

 

Attached please find our program brochure and application.

 

Additional Information, as well as the application, can be found on our program's website

http://www.amc.edu/Academic/GME/programs/ed_pa_fellowship/index.cfm

 

 

"LIKE" us on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/pages/AMC-Physician-Assistant-Post-graduate-Fellowship-in-Emergency-Medicine/164516957091527

 

 

My name is Adam Lloyd and I am the founder and Co-Director of the PA Emergency Medicine Fellowship Program at Albany Medical Center.  We have been fortunate to have had our alumni fellow Jordan start this blog several years ago.  His blog definitely illuminates the curriculum we have at our program.  Please feel free to reach out to me at lloyda@mail.amc.edu if you have any questions.

 

Sincerely,

Adam 

[HugheskPAC]

Hey Everyone, 

 

My name is Katie and I am a current fellow ('16-'17) here at AMC. I just wanted to reach out as I don't think you have heard from anyone in my current fellow class. As everyone has noted previously this has been an amazing experience. I am about 6-7 months in and have completed rotations in Ultrasound, Ophthalmology, Toxicology, CCU, and community medicine. Currently I am on my airway rotation. Today we started interviews for the next class of fellows and one of the popular questions was "What is your favorite rotation so far?" For me that is difficult to answer because I really have enjoyed all of them, and learned so much on each and every one. I will say that following each rotation I return to the Emergency Department with more confidence in treating patients with those specific conditions. I still have a lot to accomplish and a couple more rotations left however I have learned so much over the past couple of months. As many people have mentioned before the procedural experience has been amazing. From what I have heard from prior fellows, when they look for jobs potential employers are always astounded at the amount of procedures we have under out belt (I will keep you posted on that one--I am just starting that process.) I also want to speak about the acuity of the patients that we see here at AMC. Many are very sick, therefore you are able to get exposure to a wide variety of pathology. I know that in comparing the patients that I see in a day to some of the patients my classmates from PA school care for is eye opening. At the same time the attendings that I work with have been really amazing. If you need help or guidance they have your back. They are also very open to teaching--and really pro-PAs (which unfortunately isn't always the case elsewhere). Our program directors are also amazing. They are always open for feedback and interested in making this the best experience possible. Every year they make subtle changes to ensure that we are getting the most out of our experience. I think the prior fellows in this blog have gone over the curriculum and process really well. If any of you have further questions or want to hear more about the process feel free to reach out to me. I am here to answer any questions you may have. Thanks. -K

[Bluehcs8]

On 3/27/2017 at 4:35 PM, HugheskPAC said:

Hey Everyone, 

 

My name is Katie and I am a current fellow ('16-'17) here at AMC. I just wanted to reach out as I don't think you have heard from anyone in my current fellow class. As everyone has noted previously this has been an amazing experience. I am about 6-7 months in and have completed rotations in Ultrasound, Ophthalmology, Toxicology, CCU, and community medicine. Currently I am on my airway rotation. Today we started interviews for the next class of fellows and one of the popular questions was "What is your favorite rotation so far?" For me that is difficult to answer because I really have enjoyed all of them, and learned so much on each and every one. I will say that following each rotation I return to the Emergency Department with more confidence in treating patients with those specific conditions. I still have a lot to accomplish and a couple more rotations left however I have learned so much over the past couple of months. As many people have mentioned before the procedural experience has been amazing. From what I have heard from prior fellows, when they look for jobs potential employers are always astounded at the amount of procedures we have under out belt (I will keep you posted on that one--I am just starting that process.) I also want to speak about the acuity of the patients that we see here at AMC. Many are very sick, therefore you are able to get exposure to a wide variety of pathology. I know that in comparing the patients that I see in a day to some of the patients my classmates from PA school care for is eye opening. At the same time the attendings that I work with have been really amazing. If you need help or guidance they have your back. They are also very open to teaching--and really pro-PAs (which unfortunately isn't always the case elsewhere). Our program directors are also amazing. They are always open for feedback and interested in making this the best experience possible. Every year they make subtle changes to ensure that we are getting the most out of our experience. I think the prior fellows in this blog have gone over the curriculum and process really well. If any of you have further questions or want to hear more about the process feel free to reach out to me. I am here to answer any questions you may have. Thanks. -K

Hi Katie!

Thanks for your feedback. It seems like you have been having amazing experiences!

I am currently a 2nd year PA student and was just wondering how competitive it was to apply to these programs. I saw in earlier posts that rather than the GPA, they put more weight in letters of rec and personal statement. Just wanted to hear some more insight regarding the process. 

Thank you!

-Hanna

[HugheskPAC]

Hi Hanna,

The process can be competitive, but I do agree that they look at the overall applicant and not just your GPA. They are interested in people who are dedicated to Emergency Medicine. If you show that you have a passion for the field and the fellowship than that goes a long way. It also helps if you have good letters of recommendation. Either way it doesn't hurt to apply and get your name out there, and if you get an interview that is really your time to shine. If you have any other specific questions feel free to contact me! 

Best

Katie

[apteran]

HI all ! my name is Alex and I am one of the fellows that just graduated from the fellowship in 2020. I can hands down say it was the best decision i made coming out of PA school. The didactic curriculum has stayed the same during my year, with a few setbacks because of covid like No SEMPA  and we had to cut down cadaver lab, but it is still a great experience. I speak with my friends who went into urgent care or straight into the ER and we have so much more opportunities and gain so much confidence in a short year.

A little about me, I gradated from Arcadia University May 2019, began the fellowship September 2019, graduated September 2020 and singed on a staff PA at AMC. The other fellows, Jack, Alessandra, Karley, and Caitlin have all graduated as well. Jack took an ICU job and the remainder stayed in ER around NY.

I cant talk forever about my experience but i really wanted to open up questions for you guys. You can contact me at any time at terana@amc.edu. I would be happy to answer anything or even chat on the phone if that helps. I will also touch base with the other fellows for them to come on and talk a little about them. 

 

Best, 

Alex

Edited November 27, 2020 by apteran

[ateran]

hey all!!

It's that time of year when starting to think about applying to EM fellowship. 

My name is Alex and I am a former fellow (2019-2020) cycle. I really would urge anyone who is interested in ER to apply to a fellowship program, I am biased with Albany med, but it really does give you a foundation if ER is your passion.  It is a one year program in which you rotate through various different specialities while also working in the ER. Along with the ER residents, you attend conference every Wednesday to fulfill the didactic portion of the program. 

I decided to stay after fellowship at Albany Medical Center where I have been a staff PA for almost a year and a half. The environment, attendings, and experiences you gain in a level 1 trauma adult and level 2 pediatric center is so worth it. 

If anyone has any specific questions about the program or would just like to chat about it, feel free to email me at terana@amc.edu. 

 

Alex