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I've been getting more into education. How I did it was just apply broadly to positions near me. Just kept searching and applying and eventually got a "part time - temporary" position as course director for pathophysiology, which has led to me being a regular guest lecturer now on topics that I'm more of an expert in. After this I applied for a full time remote teaching position for a DMS program. They didn't want me for full time, but also made me course director for a singe course, I think really as a trial. I've seen lots of friends get teaching jobs at their alma mater if they stayed local to it. That seems to be much easier since they know you a lot better. Some relevant information about teaching: Being "part-time" but course director is grueling. It's essentially having 2 full time jobs, it just lasts for a semester. For live teaching, I was given old lectures to work off of, but if you have a perfectionist personality it is still grueling. I was spending at minimum an 8 hour day every week modifying lectures. Then I had to re-write questions based on what I taught. Writing questions and multiple choice answers that are just the right degree of difficulty and not making an error that throws students off is a bit of an undertaking. Guest lecturing is a lot better, but I've found I've rarely been given the amount of time I felt needed to adequately cover a topic, which is frustrating. Plus the pay is terrible and really only do it for the passion. Per hour worked, I really feel like I'm making elementary teacher pay. Plus managing your clinical schedule to work around the student class schedule is a real pain. For remote teaching, it sounds great on paper, but in practice is as much work as live teaching and doing a commute. For me, I found I was not nearly as good of a lecturer recording my class as I was live speaking off the cuff. Lots of time spent editing recordings. Remote teaching, at least for doctoral programs, requires a LOT of discussion assignments, which you have to moderate, further the discussion, evaluate proper citations, etc. It's like grading several essays every week, which is not an insignificant amount of time, especially when you are working full time clinically. Plus you never really get those student "ah-ha!" moments that are rewarding in live classrooms. I've decided being the course director is really not for me, at least not while working clinically full time. I do it again since it got me into guest lecture work that I enjoy, but boy was I burning the candle at both ends during that semester both live and online courses. Unexpected bonus to teaching: I learned so much from teaching pathophysiology. It made me a better clinician and a better preceptor having to go back and relearn it all to teach, basically reading all of Rubin's Pathology.

That's pretty much all of corporate healthcare these days, event the so-called "non-profit" places.

Just got a call from Barry today and got off the waitlist! Looking forward to connect with the other students

Walmart Interesting one of these finally failed. Most of these places sell their soul for money and generally do poor medicine.

Patient was tachy, so getting a D Dimer to start the PE workup would be a good idea. I never do a CRP, but I always check a BNP, to eval for heart strain, e.e. from PE. Consider demand ischemia, but those trops are higher than I would expect if that was the case. How was the pt's kidney function?

I have a feeling about this Friday but maybe I'm just hoping

I also commute. 2 hrs to my primary job, 1.5 hrs to my secondary job and 3 hrs to my per diem job. typically 186-198 hrs/mo, but can be much higher if I pick up another shift or two. The autonomy is worth the drive. Also much better pay than urban EDs, which would significantly limit my scope of practice. PM me if interested in a very rural job in WA. Solo coverage. Pays $120/hr. 12 and 24 hr shifts available. This is a place I used to work. typical volume around 15-20/24 hrs. The drive was my main issue, not the job itself, which was kind of fun. back to back codes, delivering babies, wild trauma, etc

I hade an old friend who was a program director at a well respected program for many years. He grew the program from new to a couple of hundred students a year with great pass rates and good boards. They got a new dean in his department and he was replaced by the deans buddy for no reason. Another beloved teacher in the same program was removed after years and years of teaching because someone reevaluated his PhD and it wasn't accredited by an organization the program approved of. Academic centers can be viper pits full of climbers that will step on your neck for a promotion.

I know your area intimately. You could easily pull down 150k at a rural ED in that area, and probably 190k+ after residency with some leg work. That’s not going to happen at your bigger hospitals in your area, but rural solo EDs will see your value. Also could easily pull more than this in other states, but the cost of living will probably be higher. Residency gets you the job you want wherever you want, but you’ll either sacrifice pay or autonomy still if you choose a highly desirable area like say Denver Colorado or ATL Georgia. Contact me and I can point you in some directions if you want more rural work. Doesn’t necessarily mean you have to live there. I do 24-48 hour shifts and commute to my jobs.

I read about lack of PA faculty, but Idk how true that is. I looked at a job on LinkedIn the other day which had over 50 applicants.. I will say anecdotally numerous programs report challenge finding faculty. Many of the new faculty applicants have no experience and often are looking to get out of clinical practice and it is less about a calling to academia Also I would not feel ethical working for one of those no-name for profit schools that have popped up overnight. Some new programs seem to have no business in PA education. I really wish there was a way to cap the number of new programs. Interestingly, I know a few programs where most faculty seem to come from same niche surgical backgrounds, which makes me question how they are able to teach a wide range of topics.. Some of the strongest PA programs do not rely on core faculty to each every topic. Employing a diverse group of adjuncts with various specialties. I tell pre PA applicants if the same faculty member is teaching cardiology, neurology, pediatrics, radiology do yourself a favor and do not apply. Very important to any PA applicant viewing .... find out about clinical rotations (where are they, how established, how are they developed and assessed, exposure to specialties) and didactic lecturers ( are the topics taught by experts in the field? or does someone look up the topic on uptodate the week before).

Please don’t answer for me in fact I am a disabled vet and yes I get care from the VA

Congrats to all those who were accepted so far. I am a current student in the cohort so feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions regarding housing, curriculum, documents needed, etc. For those still waiting to hear back, good luck to you all. Remember the faculty members who are reviewing your apps are also practicing clinicians on top of being professors as well. They are very busy and it is a very busy time for them right now. My class is about to find out our clinical site rotations for next year, so they are working on that and we have a lot of events going on around the community that many of the staff are actively involved in as well. I know its hard, but be patient and try to remain positive. *For context, most of my class did not hear back until mid Jun - Late July last year

These clinics were a bad idea from the start. Large portions of their customer population are in lower socioeconomic brackets, and most likely have poor insurance or no coverage; these are the same pts we see in EM who have multiple concurrent health issues and utilize the ED as their PCP. Now imagine those same pts going to a Walmart clinic to have all those issues managed, often by an overburdened supervising attending supplemented with undertrained NPs ( and sometimes PAs) addressing several comorbidities in an improperly resourced environment. It borders on predatory behavior, because these pts don't have the wherewithal to set up with a PCP and our legislative bodies view "some healthcare" as better than "no healthcare" (which paradoxically leads to more problems). Anecdote: A Peds nurse that worked in our ED did her NP coursework on overnight shifts (telling as to how busy they were), got a job in Pain after graduating and transitioned to a Walmart clinic. No experience in primary care whatsoever, no experience with adult pts managing bread-and-butter conditions. We also have several ED nurses in NP school who are looking at PCP jobs, and don't even know about Choosing Wisely or the USPSTF. This is what corporate bodies like Walmart look for.

just received a status update! Seems there just a bit held up on decision. I’m actually super grateful they sent an email about this, it really helps the nerves. i just wanted to update, good luck you guys! Hope we hear soon!!

I think it's as simple as people don't trust Walmart with their health

Contracted physicians, assistants at Ascension St. John go on strike (detroitnews.com) My entire life I have been anti-union. I have had to change my mind because of the way giant corporations and organizations act.

Lol, it's good to have a wide differential. I'm just a simple person who stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.

I concur that constructing quality lectures is an extremely time-consuming process. I was given a course to teach with lecture materials that were 20 years out of date; I did some edits to them but to reconstruct them.. well, I am not a full-time faculty member with the time to do that. Universities view PA programs as cash cows and students pay a pretty penny, however, they will often run on the most skeleton faculty they can get away with per ARC-PA standards

Stable angina that progressed to unstable angina/ACS? "Also, many patients will already have coronary artery disease. This may be either established coronary artery disease or symptoms they have been experiencing for some time. These patients may have familiarity with the symptoms and may report an increase in episodes of chest pain that takes longer to resolve and an increase in the severity of symptoms. These symptoms indicate unstable angina as the more likely diagnosis, as opposed to stable angina or other causes of chest pain. This is important to note as these differences may indicate impending myocardial infarction and ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and should be evaluated expeditiously as the risk of morbidity and mortality are higher in this scenario versus stable angina." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK442000/

I am having that Friday feeling tooo

Does anyone know if st. Pete class is full yet? Got waitlisted in March so wondering if I still have time to hear back.

Probably a good guess. Along with hyper-regulation and insurance monopolies

Current student. Just want to send some words of encouragement for anyone applying this cycle. I love this school, I love this program and I'm sure you will too. Remember you're more than capable and one day you'll look back on your application season and get a little nostalgic (like I am right now). Can't believe the cycle is open again already. The past year has gone so fast! Anyways, put your best foot forth and remember no matter the results of this cycle, you're more than your GPA or a PCE number. Happy applying!

Focusing again on the strike: This was a recently unionized group of providers working for TeamHealth at an Ascension facility in the Chicago area. I don't know but would suspect that Team probably brought in some of their internal travelers to cover the ED during the 1 day strike. Has anyone heard whether their has been any movement on the issues at the center of the strike? Has anyone heard whether there has been any reprisals against the strikers?

I ,for one, am happy to see the failure of this retail medicine clinic. That is a terrible business model , prioritizing profit over quality care.

Why wasn't it profitable? Mega management ensuring protocol/new NP grad driven care, with "go to the ED to get checked out" seems to be a good idea financially. Anyone know where the financial failure was?

@TeddyRucpin if you want to remain anonymous, you should delete a lot of this info about the program. I figured out where in 2 seconds (there are few like it), and logically deduced who you are. But congrats because it is a great program!

congratulations, happy for you!! sounds like they're finally making some moves lol

Chicago, IL Ascension review - bunk Colton, CA ARMC review - less bunk, but the lecture time is too short, the program is less than one year, no ICU time. Visalia, CA KHMC - possibly the least bunk. Still less than one year, but most available rotations. I find it hard to believe all the rotations listed are scheduled and likely those are the electives you can choose. If they did fit them all, it would be way to short of a rotation to be meaningful. Though I love the mix of what you get if you can have them all. Moreno Valley, CA RUHS review - absolutely bunk. 2 months of electives? Plus this is one of their objectives: Understand the role of the AP and the supervising physician in the emergency department. That is all I need to hear that you will be treated like a second class citizen with the better procedures and cases going to physician residents and not teaching you to be an independent thinker Lansing, MI Sparrow Hospital - This is a hospitalist residency, but honestly it looks the best of the bunch. I'd do this before any of the others. The simple answer is never work for a CMG. Look at how EM physicians constantly complain about the quality of education even they receive at these.

Yea from what I've seen they will typically call a group 2 days after the interviews to let them know. BUT, I have also seen people accepted outside of that window so I don't think its a hard and fast rule that they only call 2 days post interview. I'm hoping we hear something within the next 2 weeks. Good luck to you!

Hello everyone! I am a clinical year PA student from Drexel University, I am hoping to connect with a potential primary care or family medicine preceptor in any state that is willing to take a student on for 10 weeks from late September through early December! Any leads would be greatly appreciated Have a wonderful day!

I received a rejection email yesterday. Thankfully I have been accepted elsewhere, but UNC would have been a great option. I didn’t get an interview at all, not sure if you interviewed for the individual one. congratulations to all of those who got the invite for the next interview round. Rooting for you all!

Thanks so much! Sending best wishes to you

I will be!

got the group interview, anyone else going to attend in person?

I got mine!! Super excited!!!

They sent out the in-person interview email!

I read about lack of PA faculty, but Idk how true that is. I looked at a job on LinkedIn the other day which had over 50 applicants.. Also I would not feel ethical working for one of those no-name for profit schools that have popped up overnight. Interestingly, I know a few programs where most faculty seem to come from same niche surgical backgrounds, which makes me question how they are able to teach a wide range of topics..

Lose the ego. If you are not humble, medicine will humble you.

It's been a while, but I was a bit like you when I went to PA school. Other than organic chemistry, I had straight As in my prerequisites. My first course in PA school was anatomy and I got pounded early. It made me wonder if my dream was over. I finally realized that the only thing that mattered was: Keep doing your best but realize that you just need to do well enough today to still be there tomorrow. As far as the downstream impact, I think SedRate stated it well.

You won't know everything in medicine. That's a fact. There's just too much to cram in to two years of PA school. PA school is really designed to teach you to evaluate and treat medical conditions by utilizing pre-PA skills. If you didn't have a prior medical career (like me and most PA students nowadays), you will struggle to some extent because you are learning even the basic stuff. Keep learning how to form a good differential, take a good history, and perform a good exam. And then work on understanding the concepts within each system. Focus your first years out in practice on filling in any blanks and get a job that has mentorship. Accepted it and understood that it's not a competition. In medicine you won't know everything and you're not taking a test so do your best to learn how to evaluate a patient and what next steps need to be taken to take care of the patient. No. There are still some areas I'm weaker in and so I just don't work in those areas. Mainly because those concepts aren't as natural for me to understand so I don't like them. Lol. I like understanding things. The unknown bothers me. I don't really remember what grades I got but I didn't get straight A's.

Starting this for this cycle. Good luck everyone!

Have you ever sought care at the VA? No, I haven't worked at a VA. I did apply to their ED about 10 years ago. Despite being a disabled retired military, which should have put me at the top of the list for hiring, I never heard back from them. Until about a YEAR later. One of my co-workers leaves her job to go work for the VA ED. She had applied about a year before as well, took them months to get back with her, and then about 9 months of bureaucracy before she would finally start. She quit her job and started at the VA. She lasted exactly 1 shift before quitting because, in her words, the EMR was horrible. The day she returned to work with me, I got a call from the VA asking if I could interview....TOMORROW! Ummm....nope. Getting CARE at the VA shows the obvious bureaucratical bungling.

So I in a group of NRCME for DOT exams It has amazed me to no end what some of the questions Chiro's are coming up with. Stuff that is basic pharm or pathophys they are stumped on. Makes me wonder, in my state they are "physicians" Their schooling is about the same length as PA (6-7 semesters) and they do not have a residency... yet they are physicians.... And the fact they are lacking so much in the pathophys and pharma realm is alarming..... BTW I refer to chiro all the time and even go to one myself so I am not against them, just amazed at the fact they are allowed to certify DOT drivers when it is clearly outside their training.

I just took the recertification test to be an NRCME (National Registry Certified Medical Examiners). While I passed without studying, I thought the test was overall horrible. I wonder who they hire to come up with these questions, and how they determine what is and is not important.

Just accepted to St. Pete!! I'm so shocked, excited, and grateful!! Interviewed 3/15!

if there are no off service rotations, it isn't a real fellowship. It is low paid work.

I referred to this quote (below). I heard of a concept of “class profile” before and it makes sense

I took mine through university of San Diego. It was a 2 credit, graduate level ( I have no clue why) self paced course. I did it in 3 days and it was accepted everywhere. It was literally just 25 modules with a quiz at the end. https://pce.sandiego.edu/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=38327378

Just wrote my last discussion posting in the program. I am now 100% done. For other folks considering doing this, it is a very worthwhile endeavor, but requires considerable time management skills. you really can't put off writing a big paper abd hope to get it all done at the last minute. Many courses have weekly assignments and a few large papers, some 20-50 pages in length. you can't procrastinate when writing a large paper like this. you need to break it into manageable chunks. write an outline. give yourself a MINIMUM of 1 hour for each finished page and divide your project over the term. 36 page paper due last week of class? discipline yourself to write 3 pages/week, every week for 12 weeks. there really is no other way to do this and stay sane while working full time hours. My course is officially over 9/20. the degree will be conferred 9/30. I will probably have it in my hands 11/15, but for all intents and purposes I am now Dr. Emedpa.