“What would you do if you were homeless?” The medical resident just stared at me. I had interrupted what was threatening to become a full-speed rant about how one of our patients was only in the hospital to avoid another night on a cold park bench. The man’s problems were far more social than medical….
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin honored the PA profession last week by speaking at the Yale Physician Associate Program’s graduation ceremony. In her speech, Dr. Benjamin encouraged students to view patients as complete people and consider all of the obstacles they face. She recalled individual patients throughout her career and their complicated social issues….
An ongoing series in which the author discusses a life lesson taken from each clinical rotation
OK, so it’s not actually the two year anniversary of www.PhysicianAssistantED.com (which actually officially launched January of this year). However, October will mark two years since the inspiration hit me to create the website. I remember it vividly. I was lying down in a hotel room in Portland, Oregon after a day full of events at the annual Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) conference. I was thinking about all the great conference presentations and began to wonder…
I recently watched a TED Talk entitled “5 Ways to Listen Better,” which I’ve included below. It was very insightful. All health care providers (current and future) will benefit tremendously by paying careful attention to what Mr. Treasure has to say. One of the six core competencies of the PA profession is Interpersonal & Communication skills. I don’t believe there’s…
As I’m working to build an extraordinary program to train PAs, thousands of hopeful pre-PAs are submitting applications in an effort to land one of the coveted seats within nearly 160 programs across the nation. What do we need in these applicants? We need applicants who understand that going into medicine is all about the patient, about centering everything we do as practitioners around the health and well-being of the patient. We need applicants who are willing…
Follow these simple guidelines to have a fun and successful first year of PA school.
Today, I am a tourist. Right now, I am converting kinetic energy into potential energy. Since this requires no effort on my part, I’m busy worrying about whether the rope will snap–and if not, whether it will slow me before I meet the oncoming tree branch. Neither happens, and I can see a breathtaking panorama…
Well, today was interesting and a wonderful learning experience. I shadowed with a PA that specializes in Pulmonary treatment. When I arrived at 9am, we went over the appointment list, seeing who was coming in- at this point, the patient’s name is all we know. After the nurse rooms the patient, we got their chart. Reviewing their reason for seeing us today, we looked up their record in the amazing EMR. The EMR (Electronic Medical Record) is an amazing tool.. with the touch of a button, we could see X-Rays, Lab Results, Past Medical History, and more! We saw the patient, answered any questions the patient had, reviewed their medication, and listened to their chest. I heard the worst (hands-down) set of lungs I’ve ever heard. The patient was presenting with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). The patients lungs, when auscultated with the stethoscope, sounded as if we were taking sandpaper across pavement with every breath. The patient said they dropped from four packs of cigarretes, to only three.. but wanted to know why there were still problems with breathing. This is definitely an interest of mine and I am excited to return Monday to finish my shadowing. I will be shadowing, over the next couple of weeks, PAs in Family Medicine, Dermatology, In-Patient Psychiatry, and Oncology. Shadowing has really opened my eyes to the profession and I am glad that this is my future profession.
Today was my first experience with shadowing a PA! I shadowed with a Psychiatric PA. Overall, I enjoyed the time. However, I did learn that I do not have an interest in this specialty or at least not the position this PA has. She was responsible for medication checks and getting an update on the patient’s condition. I saw several patients, in which some we felt were drug seekers, which is not uncommon. The session consisted of an update since their last visit, how their medications are doing, and any new changes in their environment. I saw several patients today in a pitiful state of mind; some recently lost loved ones, to bipolar patients on a rollercoaster of emotions, some of which were suicidal. This experience opened my eyes to this field and made me take a look at how thankful I am to have my health and overall sanity. I will be shadowing in a veterans inpatient facility next week, in which I am very excited about. I hope it is a little more exciting than what I did today, although I did enjoy myself.