Accepted to PA School. Summer Prep.

[emergencyG]

 I'm an incoming fall 2014 PA-S. I wanted to ask if you anyone had any recommendations and/or references for preparation of the didactic year. If you have any documents that would help me review for Pharmacology, Anatomy, etc., I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for your consideration. 

[tunafish]

just enjoy the summer and get some rest. you will not have any for the next year or two

[rev ronin]

This is an FAQ.  Since you asked what to study, anatomy and medical terminology are safe bets.  I highly recommend studying to get or keep yourself in the habit, because in PA school, the information comes fast and furious.

 

For anatomy review, I recommend Netter's various flash card products.

 

Some people are going to post off-topic and say "don't study, enjoy your freedom, it'll be the last you have for a while".  Fact is, you won't ever have any real freedom again, or at least until you've paid off all your student loans and can write your own ticket, so you might as well get used to immersing yourself in medicine.

[cinntsp]

There are tons of threads about this.  Most(including myself) will tell you to enjoy the time you have before school starts.  Take a vacation, spend time with family, etc.

[Dynamo24]

This is an FAQ.  Since you asked what to study, anatomy and medical terminology are safe bets.  I highly recommend studying to get or keep yourself in the habit, because in PA school, the information comes fast and furious.

 

For anatomy review, I recommend Netter's various flash card products.

 

Some people are going to post off-topic and say "don't study, enjoy your freedom, it'll be the last you have for a while".  Fact is, you won't ever have any real freedom again, or at least until you've paid off all your student loans and can write your own ticket, so you might as well get used to immersing yourself in medicine.

 

Personally, I agree with this. Its 3 months of your life preparing for 2.5+ years which prepares you for the rest of your life. Small price to pay to have a job making 75-80K/year as your basement the first day on the job. Take advantage of the time you have and study what you can. Anatomy, EKGs, etc. You can find all of this stuff on YouTube to help you if you feel that just sitting down and reading a book is difficult right now. Its more about keeping your brain limber. 

[Guest RainbowUnikittyPAC]

I'm in the same boat...some things I'm studying:

 

-my school requires that you are prepared to take a medical history before school starts and provided us with a template to work from.  PM me if you want it, I'd be happy to share.

-my school also has us take a med term test before starting.  So I'm brushing up on med term, although I've taken the class twice so I'm pretty solid there.

-I've been coloring the anatomy coloring book...a little bit more low-key way to brush up on anatomy.

-University of Utah has a great EKG tutorial that I'm working my way through. http://ecg.utah.edu/

[PACdan]

Many schools (including mine) have a med terms test the first week. It's to make sure students aren't gonna get lost in the language of medicine. That seems like your safest bet.

 

Other than that, I'm keeping with my habit of reading obscure medical cases and diseases for fun. One day it will pay off, I swear.

 

 

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[patachok]

 I'm an incoming fall 2014 PA-S. I wanted to ask if you anyone had any recommendations and/or references for preparation of the didactic year. If you have any documents that would help me review for Pharmacology, Anatomy, etc., I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for your consideration. 

I strongly recommend Physiology review (can try BRS Physiology - many people in my class loved it). Physiology hit me in the face, like a fast upcoming train. 

From personal experience, I do not recommend EKG. We took it as part of the class in January, and I did great. Two months later I missed almost every single question on EKG in my ER course... :( You just forget this stuff so quickly without everyday practice.

Enjoy some of the summer as well. It will be a tough year!

[dmdpac]

This is an FAQ.  Since you asked what to study, anatomy and medical terminology are safe bets.  I highly recommend studying to get or keep yourself in the habit, because in PA school, the information comes fast and furious.

 

For anatomy review, I recommend Netter's various flash card products.

 

Some people are going to post off-topic and say "don't study, enjoy your freedom, it'll be the last you have for a while".  Fact is, you won't ever have any real freedom again, or at least until you've paid off all your student loans and can write your own ticket, so you might as well get used to immersing yourself in medicine.

 

 

Good suggestions on what to study.

 

However, every student who has been accepted into PA school has spent years preparing him/her-self for the medical immersion that is to come.  If taking a couple of months off to relax before PA school is enough to derail any student entering a program then that student is not likely to have made it so far as to gain acceptance. 

 

Suggesting that a soon to be PA-S study the insides of his/her eyelids, bottom of a margarita glass on the beach in Mexico, or the finer points of whatever hobby s/he enjoys is neither irresponsible nor off topic.  The foundation for success in PA school has already been built by the time a candidate is accepted into a program.  Taking the time to enjoy one's freedom before losing it to school, career and the tedium of loan repayments is often the best use of that freedom.

[rev ronin]

Suggesting that a soon to be PA-S study the insides of his/her eyelids, bottom of a margarita glass on the beach in Mexico, or the finer points of whatever hobby s/he enjoys is neither irresponsible nor off topic.  The foundation for success in PA school has already been built by the time a candidate is accepted into a program.  Taking the time to enjoy one's freedom before losing it to school, career and the tedium of loan repayments is often the best use of that freedom.

Actually, while we can debate the merits of whether such a recommendation is responsible or not, it is very clearly off topic.  There are two ways the question might have been phrased:

 

1. "Should I study or relax before matriculation?" In this case, a "relax!" is clearly ON-topic.

2. "What should I study before matriculation?"  In this case, which a paraphrased version of what our OP said, saying "Don't study, relax!" is clearly off-topic, interjecting the poster's own belief system to answer a question the OP never asked.

 

It's also possible, though I don't recall seeing one, for a poster to ask "What should I do to relax before matriculation?" In which case a response of "Study!" would be likewise off topic.

[dmdpac]

The OP asked for "...any recommendations and/or references for preparation of the didactic year".  A response that includes the recommendation to not study anything and relax in order to prepare for the coming didactic year is clearly within the bounds of the query posted by the OP and is, therefore, on topic.

[rev ronin]

Wow, I hope you don't actually believe that, and you're just arguing to try and not lose--or at least tell yourself you didn't lose--an online disagreement.  You've picked one sentence out of context, when the next one ("If you have any documents that would help me review for Pharmacology, Anatomy, etc., I would greatly appreciate it.", emphasis mine) clearly does not support your interpretation of what the OP actually asked for.

 

I find that interactions like this, with "relaxation" advocates who use every conceivably relevant thread to push their agenda, have only served to reinforce my opinion that such advice is counterproductive at best.

[dmdpac]

It was the "and/or" that did it subsequent sentence content not withstanding.  That other people responded with the "take time off" commentary doesn't point to such a clear cut interpretation that you'd like to believe exists.

 

Furthermore, I don't care about internet arguments.  I just think it's funny watching you get so torqued about it... you know... the internet argument.

 

Have a good night.

[zoopeda]

Can someone recommend:
1) A concise medical terminology review textbook?

2) A concise introductory text to basic pharmacology and major drug classes?

 

Also, It sounds like Netter's and Rohen A&P materials are awesome for A&P.  I would also kind of like access to an electronic copy of a real gross anatomy lab list.

 

Thank you!

[JohnnyM2]

It is unlikely that any studying you do will help much to prepare for your didactic year. Unless you have lots of money, get a job or keep working on your current one to save money, which means you will have even less time to study. PA school is expensive! If you love medicine, just study medicine for fun. Also, you may want to start looking at PANCE reviews. That will tell you what you really need to learn in PA school and you will learn a lot to boot.

 

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[taotaox1]

I am not sure how this topic became so contentious. 

 

 Most people, myself included, will say take some time off from any real studying. Why do I say this? I struggled much more with burnout issues during my first year than I did with not having enough base knowledge. I don't handle 80+ hours a week of study and lecture with as much grace as I wish I was able.  That being said, I knew this about myself.  I am a 30-40 hour a week kind of guy.  I didn't go to med school because I knew 7 years of 80hrs a week would burn me out beyond return and I would have quit.  I like my outside life too much.

 

As such, no amount of studying over a summer would have changed the trajectory of my learning curve in any significant fashion or have been enough to make PA school any easier.  I did all the work and prep that i needed for sucess in my undergrad and HCE.  I was better benefited by stocking up on good memories and relaxing times.   For some types of people they might benefit from extra studying, but my guess is that is a personality thing.  If you are a 50+ hour a week kind of person, start studying now as burnout won't be as big a worry for you.  If you are like me and need 3 day weekends or shorter hours to feel sane and happy, I suggest relaxing. 

 

Both types of people do fine in school, but you just need to know yourself.  If I WAS going to study, I would have studied physiology because I like it and the course you get in PA school is pretty abbreviated.

[scparker2015]

I agree completely with taotaox1! I'm almost finished with my first year, and my base knowledge was not a problem at all. I majored in English, I wasn't SUPER strong in science anyway, but I've digested the material during PA school just fine! It's the burnout/stress that's KILLER. If that's you, relax! I would NOT have benefited from studying at all, it would have only made me more stressed.

[taotaox1]

*English major fist bump*

 

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[zoopeda]

Wow, amazing how hard it is to get a few book titles on this forum.  I'm not looking for anyone to protect us from our own studying.  I'm just looking to brush up on medical terminology and gross anatomy and basic pharmacology.  If you can offer book titles, great.  If not, stop distracting from the original poster's point...

[Deanj59]

Wow, amazing how hard it is to get a few book titles on this forum.  I'm not looking for anyone to protect us from our own studying.  I'm just looking to brush up on medical terminology and gross anatomy and basic pharmacology.  If you can offer book titles, great.  If not, stop distracting from the original poster's point...

This post has the most comprehensive list of books and advice for students gettin ready for their programs.

http://www.physicianassistantforum.com/index.php?/topic/12-advice-to-beginning-pa-students/

 

As for titles, Lippincott pharm or the 'made ridiculously simple' series is often recommended. For Anatomy, netters is a go to for a lot of people. The link I provided has med terms book recommendations as well, can't remember the one I used in my prerequisite class.

[bike mike]

Agree with Dean regarding the "Ridiculously Simple" series especially the Clinical Pharmacology Made Ridiculously Simple. Pharm drove me nuts in my first quarter of PA school.

[taotaox1]

Telling someone that that you think their approach to a situation is incorrect is not off topic just because it does not give op the answer they directly asked for. You can disagree, and state your case why, but silencing opinions you disagee with by attacking them as "off topic" seems a bit like bullying to me.

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[Maynard]

Agree with Dean regarding the "Ridiculously Simple" series especially the Clinical Pharmacology Made Ridiculously Simple. Pharm drove me nuts in my first quarter of PA school.

 

This is what I'm studying right now (Pharmacology Made Ridiculously Simple). I was looking through a PANCE review book and could sense that pharm and imaging are the two major areas I'm totally clueless about. My plan is to take each drug in the book and memorize the class, basic mechanism, and indications, so that I have a good object-oriented anchor to attach new knowledge too. Does this sound like a good approach to preparing for pharm?

 

I can also vouch for the quality of the "Ridiculously Simple" series, particularly Pathophysiology Made Ridiculously Simple by Aaron Berkowitz. These are books you can actually use to teach yourself the rudiments of the subject at hand. Most biology and medicine textbooks strike me as being more like reference material since they contain far more information than you could ever hope to digest in an appropriate time frame.

[zoopeda]

This post has the most comprehensive list of books and advice for students gettin ready for their programs.

http://www.physicianassistantforum.com/index.php?/topic/12-advice-to-beginning-pa-students/

 

As for titles, Lippincott pharm or the 'made ridiculously simple' series is often recommended. For Anatomy, netters is a go to for a lot of people. The link I provided has med terms book recommendations as well, can't remember the one I used in my prerequisite class.

Wow, excellent thread.  Thank you!

[rev ronin]

Telling someone that that you think their approach to a situation is incorrect is not off topic just because it does not give op the answer they directly asked for. You can disagree, and state your case why, but silencing opinions you disagee with by attacking them as "off topic" seems a bit like bullying to me.

 

No one's silenced anyone here--nor is anyone trying to coercively do so.  Calling something "off topic" is akin to saying "you really should wear a tie to this restaurant": it's an opportunity for people with good manners to take a hint and conduct themselves appropriately.  The silencing is left as an exercise in good manners for the off-topic posters.

 

The various people who haven't done so, and instead interjected their own opinions about the merits of studying when the original question was about what and how to study obviously think their way is sufficiently better to justify the obvious butting in, or else they wouldn't do it.  And, to be sure, we do that to patients all the time.  Every day, I butt into other people's business and tell them they should start doing something they aren't doing (exercising), or stop doing something they are (smoking)--if I didn't, I wouldn't be a good family medicine PA.

 

But when I butt in on my patients' bad habits, or lack of good ones, I only do so on the basis of medical evidence.  I don't tell people they should watch Doctor Who, or avoid Country music, or any of a thousand other things I could, because even though I am fully convinced in my own mind that my opinions are superior to theirs, there is a limited domain where I have any authority or standing to interfere with patient autonomy by advocating a lifestyle change: that would be, again, evidence-based medicine.

 

To the issue of burnout: I specifically agree that it is a very real problem, but I differ with you on the methods to avoid it.  I advocate developing a habit of study-as-daily-routine.  I get that people think that the best way to start out PA school is to start with zero stress so you have more distance between starting point and burnout, but I contend that the best way to handle PA school is to set and keep a sustainable pace.  Once accustomed to that sustainable pace, plowing through PA school studies becomes a constant level of stress, not an unfamiliar and unwelcome increase from the blissful baseline of pre-PA-school vacation.

 

To put it in Aesop's terms, I favor the tortoise's approach, rather than that of the hare, springing ahead so he can nap.

 

And yet, in the absence of any real evidence of which approach is better, we still have plenty of forum participants so vehemently devoted to their own interpretation--which may indeed fit their preferred style of study--that they refuse to allow a question which presupposes a different answer go unchallenged. This thread is not the first time, and I strongly suspect won't be the last, when the original question is mostly lost in arguments over the underlying assumptions.  Does no one else see the tragic irony in the fact that we're even having this meta-discussion?