CCEMPA Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 Hey everyone, Just looking for some reassurance that the frustration I am feeling in the early stages of school is normal for someone with decent healthcare experience. Literally feeling alone in my class in this regard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted September 5, 2014 Administrator Share Posted September 5, 2014 What, like you're the only one who knows what's going on in a sea of n00bs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CCEMPA Posted September 5, 2014 Author Share Posted September 5, 2014 I was afraid somebody would take my question as such. Not quite. More like having experiences that other people cannot relate to. Or having a few pieces to a part of the puzzle, and wanting to contribute but feeling it wouldnt be helpful at this point. Even an over eagerness to start tying things together and building on my knowledge base. I don't know if I can really artculate it all that well, guess thats why I posted to begin with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinntsp Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 I don't get it. Are you saying you feel like you already know what's being taught so far? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurac Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 I a second year PA student who came in with some halfway decent healthcare experience. Enjoy those things you know a lot about, because you will have to learn about things you know nothing about and care nothing about as well as things you know a bit about but will have to know much more about. Try not to gross out your relatively inexperienced classmates by talking about nasal intubation or supra-pubic catheters or whatever. If you're older than your classmates with significant work experience (not just HCE) that can also make you feel alone. Get used to taking 3-5 tests a week, learn all you can about whatever you want to do after school, get through didactic and clinical and go on with your life. Best of luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnson2018pac Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 I dont start PA school till January, but I have a feeling that I will be able to relate. I have been doing cat scan, x-ray, and some ultrasound for nearly 8 years and many of my future classmates whom I've already met have mostly CNA type experience. There is nothing wrong with that I don't feel that I'm going to be superior in any manner, I just think it's going to make it difficult to fit in with the rest of the class. I am optomistic that I will enjoy it and mesh fine, but it has crossed my mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted September 8, 2014 Moderator Share Posted September 8, 2014 everyone feels this way about the parts of the curriculum they know and feels stupid regarding the stuff they don't know. The medics in my class flew through the EM class, taught the ACLS course, and rocked trauma surgery rotations but were behind the xray folks on diagnostic imaging, the exercise physiology folks on doing treadmill tests, the surg techs on intraoperative stuff, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G. Davenport Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 Be careful. You are not in a competition. You may not be a white belt in diagnostic medicine, but you aren't a black belt either. Relax and seek YOUR PR in each academic area taught. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsfelder0417 Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 As related before, even with significant HCE, there will be plenty you will not know. I rolled in with the background of being an Army Medic for 6 years. Still plenty I didn't know. My previous patient population was 18-35 year old males that worked out 8+ hours/week, and had current physical exams. They needed me when something broke, so I killed Ortho and EM. However, when these dudes developed a chronic condition like DMII, I had to learn just as much as everyone else about their long term management. Just take it one step at a time, because I promise that no single person can know the entirety of medicine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbrothers98 Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 Several areas of frustration in school. Ranges from some of your classmates who you will have to be patient with due to their idiosyncrasies including what they have for a background and their performance compared to yours. There will also be frustration with your program ie I have to read 10 medical studies, interpret them and then write a paper on the whole thing? And this is contributing to my goal of being a PA how? Or why are we stuck in this classroom listening to someone blah blah blah, I should be in a clinic doing stuff, that's how I learn!! Then the personal frustration of I know this material, cant we move on or I am having a hard time understanding while everyone around me gets it, what's my problem? All understandable real frustrations, some of which I experienced personally over 2 years of PA school. The reality is that you have to put that aside and focus on getting through the hours, days, weeks and months. Your goal is to graduate, be competent and pass the PANCE so you can get a job and work as a PA. This is a process and the sooner you subject yourself to it and let go the little things, the better. Then when you start working you will see that frustrations are not just a school thing but an everyday fact of life that you will have to deal with till the end. Good luck and remember, there are plenty who would like to have your opportunity. Make the very best of it. G Brothers PA-C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterallsummer Posted September 11, 2014 Share Posted September 11, 2014 Whatever you think you excel at, I guarentee that many parts of your school, didactic and clinical, you will be humbled. So whatever profession you are coming from, unless perhaps you were a foreign doc, I would take your attitude down a notch. Also it is not a contest, yes some people (your peers) think it is, but that is a bad mentality in life and will leave you unhappy even if you "win". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CCEMPA Posted September 14, 2014 Author Share Posted September 14, 2014 I would like to thank you all for your insightful responses. I would further like to reiterate that this was in no way supposed to be a "I'm better" than everyone post as many perceived it. After thinking about it further, I suppose what I was really trying to say was speaking towards the apparent shift that many programs have taken from life experience to GPA. Perhaps I came in with the wrong expectations, but I was very much looking forward to learning from my fellow classmates who had honed their skills and knowledge in their perspective fields prior to the start of school. I learn much better if someone can provide me with anecdotal evidence or provide me insight to the bigger picture of something we are learning if it doesn't make sense in the short term. The collaborative learning process was one of the main draws to this profession and education. To be perfectly clear, that is not to say I haven't learned things from my other classmates thus far. Gbrothers perhaps articulated the other part of what I was trying to say far better than I ever could. Just the initial adjustments we all have to make as students. As many of you have posted on this forum from your own experiences, the whole process can be overwhelming and at times uncomfortable. As for those of you whom I inadvertently offended. I can do no better than to offer you the reassurance that I am certainly no master in the field of medicine. I am the guy who sought out the PA's, doc's, nurses and techs after every call to learn something from each and every one of them. I have been humbled more times than I'd care to admit during my time in medicine, and this experience has been no different. It is a wealth of unimaginable information thus far, but that's what I signed up for. Again, to those who understood what I was trying to say better than I could articulate it, thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardLPeeA Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 1. Past healthcare experience is not necessarily predictive of how well you will do in PA school or how you will do on the PANCE. In my program at least the people with the most HCE were not the best academic performers. 2. You can learn from your students who got accepted for their GPA, because being an academic in its own right is "life experience". They're experts in knowing how to learn new material, and how to pass exams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balsam88 Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 I honestly don't think the amount of healthcare experience matters that much, not everyone with lots of experience knows everything. People are good at certain areas. I'm a former MT so I was good at hematology and ID, others in my class were good at ER stuff, or ortho, or imaging... And people with the least amount of experience probably did the best on exams... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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