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By CornellSPA
Volunteers from the AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF SURGICAL PAs, the first PA professional organization to host Pre-PA events, will be hosting an engaging and informative PRE PA COACHING SEMINAR in TAMPA FLORIDA
WHEN JAN 18 2020 4-9:30 PM
WHERE: USF CAMLS center https://camls-us.org/
Faculty, students, and lecturers from Cornell University, USF, Stony Brook University, Loyola Marymount, Touro, and others are all presenting or planning to attend.
Opportunities for mock interviews as well as critical CASPA essay reviews available
You can not miss this seminar...amazing admission tips, mock interviews, essay reviews, cutting edge PA news, and networking, shadowing, and volunteer experiences! WOW!
You will:
*meet PA leaders & admission advisors
*learn first hand tips and tricks to become a successful PA Program applicant.
*Understand the amazing & rapidly growing PA career field. *Get new info on CASPA!
*Earn a certificate of attendance, great on a CASPA application!
This event is hosted by AASPA and given by Surgical PAs, PA school faculty members, and admissions experts! All volunteer their time to give this seminar.
Come and learn amazing admissions tips & tricks! Understand the process from the inside and find out why PA school has become so competitive to get into and what admission committees look for.
CNN, Money Magazine, US Dept of Labor list the PA profession as one of the fastest growing & highest paid careers.
AASPA is proud to be THE FIRST PA organization to offer Pre-PA seminars, which have become more and more popular.
*Seating is limited
*Dress is casual, but not too casual (you may meet a future PA school interviewer!!)
This amazing seminar will include:
-Overview of the PA Profession
-PA Profession news that all applicants need to know
-Essentials of academic prerequisites
-Health care/patient care prerequisites
-How to deal with CASPA
-PA-wanna-be essays
-How to stand out as an applicant
-Tips for the returning student
-One on one and group Q & A session
-and much more!
Registration/donation ($25): aaspa.com
Since AASPA is a non-profit and the faculty are volunteers, it makes a great tax-writeoff! **For groups of 5 or more, you save $15 on each registration, email ceo@aaspa.com for info!!**
QUESTIONS??
aaspa@affinity-strategies.com or
Corrine Marconi, Executive Director corrine@affinity-strategies.com
HOT TIPS
*On the same day, Saturday January 18, AASPA is hosting an ultrasound workshop with SPOCUS...volunteer opportunities to be an ultrasound model ...what a way to build your CASPA application.
*BRING YOUR RESUME, BUSINESS CARDS, AND SAMPLE ESSAY!
To volunteer to be a POCUS model: aaspa@affinity-strategies.com
*Discounted hotel rates will be available for Friday and Saturday nights for those flying in and/or volunteering at the ultrasound session. AASPA.COM for info (coming soon)
AASPA Pre-PA FLyer 2020.pdf
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By Briannaarroyo
Hello,
In my pre-pa club a member asked a question about surgery for PA’s. The question was “Is it true that in order to assist in surgery you need to do an extra year of schooling after your PA program? Do this require you to pay more for school? Is this included in your PA schooling years or would you need to reapply for that surgical year?”
I thought it was an excellent set of questions, which I would like more answers for.
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By KarlyLM
Hello,
I’m currently taking a gap year and preparing to apply for PA school when CASPA opens up in April 2020. I have a question regarding direct patient care hours. I’ve been working as a home-health CNA for the past 3 years, racking up 2000+ hours. With that being said, I’ve always had this anxiety eating away at me that home-health CNA’s are looked down upon in the terms of what they’re able to do as opposed to CNA’s working in SNF, hospitals, etc.
I’m often misrepresented as a home-health aide even though I have my CNA license. I’m always afraid this will hinder me when applying to PA programs simply because I’m viewed as more of a “maid” than a healthcare professional. However, I do more CNA tasks than what people assume. I have bed ridden clients I care for, I have clients that require lifts, and I have clients that are on ventilators. On the other hand, I do have my fair share of clients that are on respite care and my time is solely spent there as a comforter and person to talk to.
At a recent open house for a PA school I’m interested in, I voiced my concern for this and they assured me that it’s quality over quantity and as long as I was caring for someone it would suffice them. However, that’s just one of the many schools I’m interested in. With this being said, I also have some volunteer hours working as a CNA in a free clinic in my hometown where I’m doing more of the assessing and treating PA schools are looking for. However, majority of my hours are from my CNA job.
I chose home health because I knew the company I was going to work for was very flexible with hours and I needed that while I was in college. I’ve been with them for so long and grew so close to patients that I haven’t thought about leaving and going to a hospital or SNF to get more/different exposure.
I guess my question for anyone reading this is: would you consider my home health CNA job direct patient care?
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By pursuitofPA
I am currently finishing up my didactic portion of PA school and considering the amount of loan debt I will have, I am considering enlisting into the airforce or navy after completing PA school in 12/2020. I was previously an Occupational Therapist though I am not sure if that will matter regarding pay etc. If anyone has advice regarding this process and details on loan repayment, I would greatly appreciate it.
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By taecson
I don't really comfortable speaking this frankly to my colleagues. None of my close friends or family are in the medical field so they don't truly understand. I am still a somewhat new PA and I am already considering a new career path. I went to PA school 2 years after graduating college, so I don't have any experience in any other fields besides healthcare. But I've been having serious thoughts about quitting my job and quitting the medical field altogether. A little background about me, I am in my late 20s and I have been a practicing PA for about 4 years. During this time I have been at the same practice, a specialty and internal medicine office. There are several physicians, but I am employed by one. I see patients in the clinic, in several acute care hospitals, and at nursing homes. Although I like the variety and the types of patients I see are very interesting to me, there are downsides to the job that just become more apparent every day. I work M-F 9-5 and 2 weekends per month. I have to take round at the hospitals and take calls on those 2 weekends, plus take calls 3 weekdays out of the week. I often work 3 weekends a month, and occasionally even 4 when my contract technically says 2.
My supervising physician is retirement age and he refuses to retire and instead delegates more and more tasks to me. For example, sometimes if he is too tired / lazy he will tell the staff to just transfer patient appointments to my schedule. Patients are understandably upset when they made an appointment with the doctor they've known for years and get switched to the schedule of a PA they don't know. I feel like "as the PA", and an employee of the doctor, I pretty much get saddled with all the grunt work and undesirable tasks that he doesn't want to do. I know in other settings PAs are treated with a little more respect and not just given the busy work to do. There are some upsides, I do like my SP, we work well together, and I feel like I can honestly and freely discuss patients with him without judgment. I also know that he may retire in a few years so this job won't be permanent either. I don't know if getting a new job will help.
I applied for two separate jobs that I did not get. One was a family practice M-F with no call/weekends and the other was an allergy practice M-F with no call/weekends. Getting rejected for both of those jobs really discouraged me and made me feel trapped at this job. It won't be easy to find a new position.
I get frustrated with patients too. It just feels like there are so many patients who are med seeking. Some providers in my area were recently sentenced to prison time for overprescribing narcotics. They were reckless with their prescribing and I am quite careful, but the fact that jail time is in the realm of possibility for our profession constantly looms over my head.
Patients also often want to be on disability when they clearly do not need to. There are so many patients wanting DMV disability placards and getting irate when I tell them they don't qualify. In addition, patients whose licenses get revoked want me to sign off on them being safe to drive when there was a clear reason the licenses were revoked. Again, I am on the receiving end of the brunt of their frustration and anger when I say they need a specialist clearance. There is just so much liability in our career field and so much stress involved. Liability is always there medically too. YOUR decision can affect whether a patient LIVES or DIES and it's so much stress that I have actually developed my own health issues secondary to the stress.
I have had a patient stalk me and become obsessed with me. He wrote me unhinged letters and made many calls to the office describing my car, etc. We had to get the police involved and I considered filing a legal restraining order. I know this is possible in any profession, but it feels like healthcare can be personal and intimate and patients can get the wrong idea. I again contemplated quitting the profession at this time.
I have looked into other careers such as being a pharmaceutical representative, working in research, being an accountant, ANYTHING other than this. I have contemplated quitting and just living off my savings until I figure it out. I have talked to some colleagues to an extent, many are much older and have been PAs longer than me. I sometimes question if I'm just being an entitled millennial who wants life-work balance early on in their career until I realize that it's not normal or common to work 24-25 days in a row. It's not normal to only get 4 days off a month (if that. Some days I would get 2 days off a month.) I actually finally told my SP I was considering leaving because I was too burnt out. He trivialized my concerns and said "Why are you burnt out? You're young. I have been doing this for 40 years." Which is true, but this wasn't the life I envisioned for myself. After talking, he did acknowledge my concerns, and he hired an NP who can help me with the workload and guaranteed that I will only have to work the 2 weekends a month as outlined in my contract and I did get a raise. (I still feel like I'm underpaid which is a whole separate story.)
Sorry for the essay, I just really needed somewhere to air out my frustrations with other people in my career field. Thanks in advance for reading.
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