karebear12892

Look up Kevin Lacz, PA-C, former Navy SEAL

I second the idea of starting a subforum specifically for POCUS!

Some of the challenges we experienced were finding clinical rotation sites that were close by (particularly pediatrics, psychiatry, and women's health), not having students in the "class above us" to ask questions and mentor us, and not having old exam scores to compare our class's performance with. However, our program faculty was very open to constructive feedback and was always sending out surveys in order to use our evaluations to improve the program. Yes, it was slightly inconvenient to travel for rotations, but my experience ended up being phenomenal and there are plenty of established p

Current EM fellow here. My two cents = I spoke with tons of PA's who were current or former residents/fellows leading up to my residency/fellowship application process. Not a single one of them regretted doing it. But I've also met tons of PA's working in the ER who really wish they had done one. Side note: I really wish we (as a profession) would agree on either calling it a residency OR a fellowship. Using the terms interchangeably can be very confusing.

Personally, I'd go with the less expensive program. I'm a firm believer in "you get out of it what you put into it" as far as quality of rotations go, regardless of how long your program has been around. I chose to attend a brand new PA program to avoid paying out-of-state tuition and I have absolutely no regrets. Yes, there were "growing pains," but ultimately being part of a PA program's inaugural class was a really cool and unique experience. Some of my rotations were better than others (this will be the case anywhere you go) but I did not run into any serious issues and the majority of the

PA Mike, I'm sending you a PM.

Great list! Based on my fellowship interview experience I would also add one more thing to the list of "red flags." I interviewed at one EM program that expects fellows to spend at least 10 hours per week on research, writing articles/case studies, poster presentations, clinical trials, QI studies, etc. Which is fine if you're genuinely interested in those things, but that is not at all why I wanted to do a fellowship year. I'd much rather spend those 10 hours per week seeing patients in the ER or learning new procedures.

I believe it was just scribing in general. In our class, the only scribes we had were from EM, UC, and FM backgrounds. I think the upcoming class has scribes who worked in more specialized areas. I'd be curious to know how they compare as well.

I've contributed to many posts pertaining to this topic; please feel free to browse through them. Scribing (ER) was also my only paid medical experience prior to PA school. I was accepted to multiple programs, graduated at the top of my class, received multiple EM job offers, and accepted an EM fellowship at an academic Level 1 trauma center (my top choice). I am also moonlighting in a rural ER before/during my fellowship. I barely had the grades to get into PA school, but I came out of the program with a 4.0 GPA largely due to everything I learned as a scribe. I was incredibly lu

1. Join SEMPA. They offer discounted membership rates for students. Take advantage of the educational and networking opportunities that will be available to you once you join. 2. Flexibility. Be willing to work where nobody else wants to work. Academic/trauma centers in desirable urban areas have no problem recruiting experienced PA's, but there are plenty of other ER's that struggle to incentivize providers to sign on. Depending on where you live, that might mean a rural area, an underserved area, a less affluent area, etc. You don't have to stay out there forever, but you've gotta start

Recently encountered my first "it's probably nothing" fast-track disaster as a practicing PA in a rural Southeastern community hospital. 29 day old (delivered at 37 weeks) with reported chief complaint of "constipation." Saw on the tracker that the patient was afebrile and initially thought about picking up the chart, but my experience with neonates as a new grad is limited at best, and given that it was only my 3rd day of work, decided to pick up another chart and let the more seasoned provider handle this one. Thank goodness I did. His Na+ was 110. Turns out the parents wer

Good afternoon, If anyone with at least two years of clinical experience (or anyone who has completed residency/fellowship) is interested in working for TeamHealth, please PM me. Any location/specialty is acceptable. Thank you!

It's definitely a great academic environment for someone who wants to remain in academics/research post-graduation, but most PA's don't go that route. I think you're making a great decision. Congratulations and welcome to the FMUPAP family!

I am a member of that "1 graduating class so far," so obviously I am biased. But if you want to become a PA (and it sounds like that's really the underlying decision to be made here), then you should have no reservations about attending FMU. I will reiterate what others have said -- employers don't care one bit where you go to school. Patients don't care where you went to school. Your supervising physician won't care where you went to school. It really doesn't matter one bit. If you want to practice as a clinician out in the community, all that matters is that you are licensed and certif

It is entirely possible to have a dog while you're in PA school. I've had my beagle since I was a sophomore in college. I was worried he wouldn't get the time and attention he deserved while I was in PA school, but it was never a major issue. I lived in a dog-friendly apartment with no roommates. We'd go for short walks together in the morning, again when I got home from class/rotations, and again before bedtime. He stayed in his crate when I was not home. At first, I felt bad about leaving him in a crate all day, but he actually really likes it. It's not cruel as long as you don't use the cra