PA2O18

Do as many practice tests as you can and make sure you time yourself.

I’ll be graduating early next August and taking the PANCE by the end of August. Hypothetically, if I have a job secured sometime during rotations, how long does it usually take to get licensure and credentialing done and start the job full time? I realize credentialing depends on the employer.

I have never heard of this. There is a reason why some schools require a minimum of 2000 patient hours. You will be thankful for your medical experience while in PA school. Don’t sweat it.

I’ve heard a lot of different opinions about when you should take the PANCE after graduating. Week after graduation? 2 weeks? 4 weeks? I know it will depend on how ready you feel for it and how much you have studied, but wondering what some of y’all opinions are?

Have some knowledge about the PA program as well. When asked if you have any questions for them, I think it’s beneficial to center your questions around that particular program.

Yeah there are actual cadavers and also virtual cadavers. There are a bunch of workstations that have tv displays and other technology. The professor can switch all the tv’s to display something to everyone in their workstations. You should be able to google “Idaho State Univiersity Anatomy Lab” and see a bunch on it! This is for the Meridian campus.

I would just stick with CNA because like said above, doesn’t sound like you would use the EMT cert for very long. You must be doing something right if you are already getting interviews! Plus being a bouncer sounds kinda fun. Good luck!

Hello! I’m starting my first year in the program in a week. I’ll try to shed some light on some of the differences. Meridian - The “campus” is actually charter high school right off the freeway. ISU has nursing, pharmacy, and PT students here as well. Lectures are held in one classroom all day that doesn’t have a window which sucks? there is a sweet anatomy lab on campus with some high tech stuff in it. They just built Idaho’s first medical school right next door. I’m sure we will be collaborating with the Med students on occasion. You can also use the high schools gym when their school is out. Meridian is right next to Boise so there is a ton to do. I have lived here my whole life and absolutely love it. Tons to do outdoors. I live in downtown Boise and since the school is right by the freeway it will only take 15-20 minutes to get to. There is a ski hill 45 minutes away. Huge lake 30 minutes away. And tons of parks and a river that runs through the whole valley. Pocatello - Idaho State University’s main campus is located here. Much smaller town but lots to do outdoors from what I have heard. You will have more access to college resources since this is the actual campus. Caldwell - I interviewed at Caldwell so I got a good look at what’s going on over there. Caldwell is about 35-45 minutes from downtown Boise. So about 20 minutes from meridian. The PA program has a small little buolding on the College of Idaho’s campus that the 12 PA students use. Much smaller class size compared to the other campuses so all the students seemed like they were close with each other. The CofI campus is beautiful and historic. You get access to the campus gym. You travel to Meridian for anatomy lab. Bad thing about Caldwell is you have to pay a lot more money since college of idaho is a private school. Lectures are held at all 3 campuses. So when the lecturer isn’t at your campus, it is video broadcasted to you. Everyone has a mic on their desk that you can buzz in to ask questions. From what I have heard, it isn’t a big deal to have a bunch of lectures over video. The technology is very good and there is dedicated staff just to make sure that everything goes smoothly. Hope that helps a little! Glad to answer any questions that I can.

If you want to do the physassist job, you can just ask for LOR from the ER docs now since you have been working with them for 3 years it sounds like. Glad you are going to do emt to get more hands on experience! Good luck

I shadowed an internal medicine PA for about 40 hours. I took down some notes so that I could use them for writing about my experience in CASPA. I was able to ask questions with what little time we had between patients and on lunch. I pretty much just observed and didn’t talk to patients unless they talked to me. You kind of feel like a burden at first, but once you get a feel for the person you are shadowing it gets better. I would ask for a LOR when you complete all of your shadowing. The worst they can do is say no. I didn’t really keep in contact. However, I did email him when I got accepted into my program, thanking him again for the LOR and experience. He said congrats and to email him if I needed a preceptor for a rotation and that he would love to have me. Great way to make some connections!

I applied to one program and got accepted. It can be done.

What’s their mission, vision, goals, etc? Don’t memorize it or anything, but have a general idea. What’s their school schedule like as far as didactic and clinicals? Are they integrated? Are there modules? Do they do anything special like service work, volunteering, free clinics? I would just browse their website multiple times and have a good sense of everything. I also suggest that when they ask if you have any questions, you bring something up that you learned about on the school. For example, when I interviewed I asked them to explain a little more about a mission trip that they take students on. It just shows that you are really interested in the program and are somewhat informed. good luck!

Will there will be more PA to MD bridge programs in the future? Is LECOM the only one so far? Are you for having more bridge programs? What’s your ideal bridge program look like?

I would get your application in as soon as possible, regardless of rolling admissions. I think it increases your chances and gets your application looked at sooner rather than later.

If you retake the GRE, I recommend taking as many practice tests as you can so you can get the timing down. I know there are a lot of free ones out there that you can find with a google search. ETS has a couple that you should definitely take. For quant, there are certain formulas that you should memorize that will be helpful. These can also be found with a google search. My studying consisted of doing all of the questions in the 5lb book of GRE questions and taking as many practice tests as I could while memorizing equations. Good luck!