USC_PA3 Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Hey All, I'm sure many of you have heard that the didactic phase of PA school is a compressed version of medical school. Would you say this true? If this is the case, what topics do medical students cover that PA students do not? Do you think these topics make a difference with regards to the complexity of patients that you are able to treat clinically? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted December 9, 2014 Moderator Share Posted December 9, 2014 Hey All, I'm sure many of you have heard that the didactic phase of PA school is a compressed version of medical school. Would you say this true? If this is the case, what topics do medical students cover that PA students do not? Do you think these topics make a difference with regards to the complexity of patients that you are able to treat clinically? PA school is about 1/3 of MS1, most of MS2, and all of MS3. they get more path, physiology, histology, embryology (basic medical sciences) that we do. each of these has value to a specifixc medical specialty. In PA school you learn a lot of the what and how, but not a lot of the why. If you really want to know how hmg coa reductase inhibitors work to decrease cholesterol, go to med school. if you just want to know when to prescribe them, go to pa school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primadonna22274 Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Pretty decent description above. In med school I got much more detailed biochemistry, immunology, molecular and cell biology, microbiology and genetics taught to the microcellular level...pathology much more detailed. Pharmacology sucked (seriously, I will be forever grateful for the outstanding pharm instruction I had in PA school 15 yr prior). Medicine in general was quite similar but more emphasis on atypical presentations of common diseases and you couldn't ace a test without knowing the minutiae that distinguished various zebras...often I was content with a solid B since that minutiae took so much darn time to pack into my older brain lol. Histology had almost no value but I liked it--particularly our coloring book sessions ☺️ Neuroanatomy was the hardest class I ever had and also one of the most enjoyable in that kick-your-butt-and-ask-for-more way. Personally I loved embryology (had a fantastic teacher, the best teacher I have ever had hands down) and many of those concepts helped me nail anatomy (in fact at LECOM embryo and anatomy are taught concurrently so there's significant overlap and repetition.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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