Tell me it gets better....

[dezhorst]

I know lots of people have already responded, but I want to reiterate that IT GETS SOOO MUCH BETTER clinical year!! It's more relaxed and job-like! I too was an OR tech who went back to PA school at 31. My didactic year was killer. I felt like I was drowning. Thankfully, my school didn't have an attendance policy (or dress code), but it was really hard and I skipped many classes to study on my own as I learn much better that way. Don't give up and press on through the next few months. It'll be so worth it next year. 

AND…you'll rock at your surgery rotation, which is considered one of the hardest rotations of clinical year! 

Good luck and PM me if you need any advice from a fellow OR tech :)

[monk1280]

Thanks for the replies still. Much needed. Didactic has very much felt like drowning for me as well. I am staying afloat as the frequency in tests are about to ramp up. My school has a dress code as well. We are required to dress business casual every day. The AA and Pharm students don't seem to have this stipulation and I have wondered why. The school I attend seems to be very concerned with building a good imaging. They are not in the top 25. Far from it. So I tend to feel that there dress code policy along with the absence policy is an effort to make the program seem very "professional" and "strict." I personally would like to dress down more often. 

 

The absence thing still bothers me the most though. I feel like I am more of an "ends justify the means" guy. So as long as I pass these tests, it should not matter if I come to every class or not. Case in point, my very first class this morning I am about to attend is a waste of time. What will I be doing in it?? Studying for a test Thursday. Something I could instead do from the comfort of my home lol.

[PACdan]

Thanks for the replies still. Much needed. Didactic has very much felt like drowning for me as well. I am staying afloat as the frequency in tests are about to ramp up. My school has a dress code as well. We are required to dress business casual every day. The AA and Pharm students don't seem to have this stipulation and I have wondered why. The school I attend seems to be very concerned with building a good imaging. They are not in the top 25. Far from it. So I tend to feel that there dress code policy along with the absence policy is an effort to make the program seem very "professional" and "strict." I personally would like to dress down more often.

 

I'm convinced the dress code line-of-thought is "our PA students, in belted slacks and button downs, standing next to med students in jeans and flip-flops conveys a stronger message". And they aren't completely wrong. I'm sure some wary patients/practices/medical laypersons have been won over by the sharped dressed PA-S. Appearances do factor into peoples' perception of your qualifications. But they should really let us dress down when we're not going to encounter outsiders. :)

 

The absence thing still bothers me the most though. I feel like I am more of an "ends justify the means" guy. So as long as I pass these tests, it should not matter if I come to every class or not. Case in point, my very first class this morning I am about to attend is a waste of time. What will I be doing in it?? Studying for a test Thursday. Something I could instead do from the comfort of my home lol.

 

Again, I'm convinced they are doing this to catch the small percentage that would flunk out if given this freedom. So instead of losing a few individuals every cohort (and their irreplaceable tuition), they force everyone into strict mandatory attendance and retain maximal numbers.

 

I'm counting down the (long) months until clinicals too. Everyone I've talked to at my program enjoys that year best, so you're almost there! Best of luck.

[monk1280]

Appearances do matter..... but still!  The med student wearing jeans is still becoming a doctor in the end. That person could be the next House for all I know lol.

 

Also I can see the sense in catching the few, very few, that would be lost of given the freedom of coming to class as needed. Again, I wouldn't say that we should have unlimited absences. I do wish I had more to use though. I'd still come to the majority of classes but there are always a number of lectures I have to sufer through when I can learn the material on my own. Before the internet age and the multiple ways to gain knowledge, I'd agree with coming to school as often as possible eing a very important thing. However, now, between books and the internet (youtube, Google), I can learn much of what I an in class which lessens the importance of mandatory attendance. I graduate in 2016 as well. March of next year and freedom will ring!

[PACProvider]

I can appreciate the feeling that Monk1280 expresses about being efficient with time management. Everyone has their own styles of learning that works best for them. I would just suggest that the process of PA school might be trying to accomplish more than transfer information and skills to the student. I believe that medicine serves patients best when clinicians work and collaborate well in team settings. You will always be surrounded by folks with a wide range of intellectual capabilities including those with less training and others with far greater training. Developing a gracious and effective style of collaboration with the members of the hospital staff is just as important as your own clinical judgment and competence. So, I'm just theorizing here but perhaps the mandatory attendance is a form of indoctrination into the collaborative environment of the hospital. Remember, all of the brilliant folks that you sweated bullets over the possibility of beating you out for a seat in PA school are now sitting next to you. Maybe they have something to bring to you ( and you to them).

[gbrothers98]

There is a fine line to tread for a program concerning attendance.

 

With only one didactic year to transfer knowledge to a student, the only way to ensure they are exposed is to have required attendance.

The alternative is to require more instances of ensuring there has been knowledge gained. That means more quizzes, exams, papers. Quite honestly, it is easier to say to students, a%% in seat and listen. Have insight into the fact that PA programs have 2 masters to answer to, ARC-PA and the sponsoring institution. The program faculty has to prove their means leads to a successful end. This can be in direct conflict with what a student needs/desires/wants in their education. In the midst of this, there is the reality of budgets, staffing and available resources. Not to mention the concern that if PA education becomes mainly a streaming, stay at home, series of self study modules, what occurs with the physical plant, faculty and staff that make up that program? 

 

Comparing to med school is apples to oranges. One has to consider the overall pathway of GME which is 4 yrs med school, 3-5 yrs residency. While it may seem that medical colleges let their students tralala through 4 years, residency is another animal, with the mantle of responsibility obtaining a chokehold even with the changes concerning hours over the last decade. Hate the classroom? Try being a first year resident off service. Not. a. lot. of. fun.

 

I agree that a certain amount of mandatory attendance will tend to lead to class collaboration and cohesion. But there is also a need for time away from the pressure cooker or just a couple hours to take care of life. Overly restrictive or paternalistic policies stem from a desire for control that is not founded in adult learner education. Unfortunately if you are being currently held to such a policy, the likelihood of change is low and prolly not worth time and effort spent better elsewhere. Best to know what you are getting yourself into prior and make your peace with it. 

 

Remember, you could be back at that shitty job you left to go to school.

 

G Brothers PA-C

[taotaox1]

Didactic year= Prison

Rotations= Prison work release

PANCE-Parole Board

 

 

I absolutely HATED my didactic year and could not stand sitting and listening to 8 hours of lectures.  In a profession that prides itself on using evidence for best practice I was/am shocked that they require students to sit through 8 hours of continuous lecture.  Studies show that nobody can learn or listen that long.  I counted once and we had 57 lecture in 17 days.  That was not helpful.  On top of that, PAs tend to have much more life experience and maturity and it is mad that MD students are allowed to go to school like adults and most PA students are forced to sit in mandatory lectures (often worthless).  By the second half of the second semester I stopped listening almost entirely and just studied on my own at school.  I would have gotten more out of getting an extra hour of sleep and taking break on my schedule, but it was what it was.  

 

   That said, my school (Duke) stopped making regular lecture mandatory for the class below us.  We were so jealous!  Whenever they complained we always gave them hard time about how much worse we had it (uphill 10 miles barefoot in the snow....).   They apparently did very well on their packrats and Duke is sticking with most lecture not being mandatory.  Hopefully this spreads.

 

 

 

As for your situation, it really, really get so much better when you get to rotations!  Remember you went to school (i am guessing/hoping) because you loved working with patients not because you are a masochist with a lecture fetish!  You are about to get to do some really amazing stuff...   

That said, it gets EVEN better once you get out.  Rotations are a huge improvement in enjoyable work and overall free time.  Despite this I was still not sure I was going to like being a PA during rotations.   Now that I am in practice I can say I really love it.  I get my whole brain engaged all day at work, get some really satisfying patient encounters most days, and get paid a TON of money for only 2 years of post grad education.

 

 

 

Finally. If you have been studying, don't worry about that feeling of not knowing anything. Did you take a PACKRAT yet?  If your score is fine you have done your part. Pretty much everyone feels like they just spend a whole year and learned nothing after didactic. .  And in many ways it is true!  You are going to relearn almost EVERYTHING you learned in the first year, but this time with real patients in front of you and in a way that will stick in your head much more viscerally.  You also remember way more than you think you do.   The only thing the first year does is prepare you to be able to learn in the second year.

[BruceBanner]

Great posts above. 

 

Agree on didactic year----I hated most of it. Especially the first and last couple of months. You're required to sit in class up to 8 hours a day and take 1-3 stressful exams per week. Instructors can be d!cks (at our program), you start to not care about the content anymore, and you feel like you have no clue what going to work is actually going to be like. It's true, you don't.

 

Clinical year is like work release. Hours vary but usually aren't too bad. No teachers breathing down your neck. The exams are curtailed. You get to go home and just be a normal person---work out, relax, etc.

 

After final exams there is big crunch before PANCE, then once you take that you are home free.

 

Never once have I longed for the days of school again. And I've had some jobs that sucked WAY worse than being in school.

[monk1280]

I can't wait until work release comes around then. We have 5 more weeks and then finals and this torture will be over. I agree with the previous poster about the irony of a profession that is evidence based would require one to sit through 2 hours of "instruction" (reading off powerpoints). I think I recall that after 45 minutes to an hour, the brain retains less. Typically, that is around the time I check out too, around to one hour mark.

 

Nevertheless....light at the end of the tunnel is coming. Let it not be a train!

[roger777]

Powerpoint is a dangerous narcotic and the bane of higher learning. The less the better.

[roger777]

"I kinda miss the days of chalk boards lol." Check out the YouTube's of Eric Lander at MIT. Father of the Human Genome Project. Nothing but chalk and talk. The gold std. as a lecturer imo.