Just Steve Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 Final exam of finals week. Happy Spring Break!! Spring term is rumored to be a total of 10 weeks long. One of those weeks is a clinical rotation. Another week is finals. Quick math job leaves 8 weeks of lecture. My abacus is telling me that's 40 days of didactic lecture. Minus a few more days for field trips here or there, mid terms plus a few days up in Toronto as the student AAPA rep for the conference...then it's summer break. Couple of months cruising the country with my family on holiday holy cow I'm staring down the approach of clinical year. Guess I better start ironing my nice clothes and polishing my shoes. What a ride. Has PA school been smooth and flawless, full of ponies and rainbows? Nope. Has been horribly boring? Nope. Has it been a soul crushing experience that makes me want gouge my eyes out with a rusty spoon? Only the parts where I sit at a desk for 12 hours a day..which as readers of my ramblings know, doesn't happen that often. What PA school has done is GONEBYINAFLASH!!!!!!! I swear to you that I sat down yesterday to begin the spring quarter of on line A&P, marking the start of the program. Next thing I know summer, fall, and winter is under the belt. Spring quarter is looking like it's gonna be a flash in the pan. Am I starting to get nervous? It would be uncharacteristic of me to admit sweaty palms. I have always prided myself on the ability to "fake it until I make it". It may behoove me to start taking some acting lessons. I do love a good challenge. This'll be a hoot! So I gotta remember not to put the cart in front of the horse. I still have spring quarter to get through. There are about a million things that can go wrong. I may have said it before but this is like swimming to the middle of the ocean. Congrats. Now I have to get back to land. Keep vigilant, keep focused. But for now... it's Spring Break :;;D: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IdahoPA Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Wahoo! Have a good Spring Break! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Steve Posted April 10, 2012 Author Share Posted April 10, 2012 It's been awhile since I've posted. My apologies but such is life. Spring break then our first week back into spring quarter has been a bit busy. This quarter is a short one and things are coming fast. Classroom is starting to buzz of talk of the Packrat, AAPA conference, end of didactic year party, the tedium studying...yes, it seems everyone, including myself has lost a bit of focus on the upcoming scholastic material. It is just really pretty damn hard to keep focus. Starting in 2007 I started working 12 hour night shifts while living 60 miles away from my job site. In 2009 I got changed to day shift and immediately starting taking classes, still while commuting 600+ miles a week. Finally in 2011 I quit work and stuck with being a full time student...living at school during the week and going home on weekends. Strangely, this time has been the most consistent family time I have had in several years. Now with little clinical weeks here and there, holiday breaks from school, those sort of things I am getting a taste of what it is like to have a "normal" or "standard" family/social life. These teasers are freaking killing me. I can't WAIT to be a regular "Joe" for awhile. Pull my 40 hours during the week, have a family/social life when my family and friends are actually off school/work. I am so tired of being spread so thin. When I leave the house at 5:30 Monday mornings to be back in the class at 9, my thoughts are nowhere except driving back home on Friday afternoon. Time cannot go by fast enough. I am so grateful that there is a summer break. Then, in September, clinicals. An immersion experience in exactly what I want to do. Patience is a virtue... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToppDog Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 I'm sure it will go by faster in the grand scheme of things. When you stop writing here so much, we'll know it's because you have better things to do with the wife & kids :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IdahoPA Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Wait, there's summer break? Something to look forward to! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Steve Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 l.a., for the bachelor students. Masters are working on their capstone project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IdahoPA Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 That's what I thought. Bummer for me. Yay for you! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Steve Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 Well I realize I haven't updated things in a bit. Truth be told, it's all turning into a blur. Crossing t's, dotting i's, reading, regurgitating, repeating. I have moments in class of "wow, that's really neat information" then I forget it minutes later as more information is crammed into my already full brain. At this point it's about getting the work done at the highest caliber that I can manage and just make it a few more weeks. I am hanging my hat on having a good clinical year and applying all this reading into hands on application. I am soooo much a kinesthetic learner and look forward to seeing patients once again. After seeing patients for over 20 years via my military and ems career, I miss it. I wasn't quite aware of how much I missed it until I realized during the GU workshop, halfway through performing a prostate exam that I wasn't wigged out by it. The person I was examining actually had clinical findings and would benefit from care. It drove home that I am a clinician at heart. Not really sure what to keep posting except that y'all are going to be in for a super fast paced ride. I've had a lot of fun and have enjoyed the process. Life as a student has been the most predictable my life schedule has been in for over a decade and I've appreciated every moment. But it's time to get back in the saddle and start applying what I've learned. 19 more days of lecture left in didactic year. Not sure how much more I'll update this thread in the near future. I'm sure I'll drag it from the archives once in awhile because i do like to listen to myself type...I'll be attending the AAPA conference in Toronto over Memorial Day weekend so I may have a thought or two about that. Then of course I'll try to paint a picture or two about clinicals. So have faith folks, you can do it. Persevere. Work hard. Match your personality with the focus of the school. There are almost 160 programs out there. There is no need to be shoving a round peg into a square hole. Make a good match and enjoy the journey. That positive attitude will go home with you to your family and keep the peace there as well. PA school can be a blast. Have fun with it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bike mike Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Thanks Steve, I have enjoyed reading your posts and as someone who starts PA school in a few weeks your writings give a nice insight to what I should expect. Enjoy your rotations! Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Steve Posted October 19, 2012 Author Share Posted October 19, 2012 Howdy howdy! I thought I would drag this up from the past with a couple of new thoughts as the clinical year has begun. I am done with the first month of family practice in rural Washington. 90% of our patients are on either state funded medicade or are uninsured. We see on average 25 patients a day, give or take five or six. I have three more months with this practice and I am having a blast. I am very fortunate to have a very patient, even keeled preceptor who is more than happy to let me have as much leeway as I desire. This allows me to push my own limits without feeling hampered. Conversely, she also doesn't let me avoid the more foreign things to me such as discussing birth control options with 17 year old G3 P1 patients or 65 year old with new onset vaginal bleeding. Being a guy who did most of my medical experience in the military or in the back of a medic unit, my woman/child health skills are not shiny and sharp. That is changing though. :-) I live about 25 miles from the clinic that I am working at. So as it is, there are VERY high chances that I see these patients around the local area. (In rural settings, 25 miles is like 5 blocks in the city...it ain't nothin') When I stop for a snack on my way home it is not uncommon to see people in the store that I just saw in clinic an hour earlier. It puts an interesting spin on things, that's for sure. On the other hand, my familiarity with the area means I can start talking about the local salmon run, how the hunting season is going, the local sports..so on and so forth which is a GREAT ice breaker with patients. They are told a student is going to see them and they expect some college aged kid from the big city...what they get is a 40 year old who lives just down the road. It makes my life as a student so much easier when breaking the ice and gaining their trust. I wanted to bring up the issue of "supervision" here in the clinic. We are part of a medical group, two offices, 20+ miles apart. My preceptor and I only have a physician in the building with us about 1/3 of the time we are working. Sometimes there is another PA or NP, sometimes we are the only provider working that day in the clinic. There is no doc to bounce off of things real quick or "run something by them". The doc that is here sometimes has a very full patient panel himself and to be frank, doesn't really want to hear about our problems. He's a nice enough fella but the one time we presented a patient, he only half listened and then said "do what you think is right" and went on with his day. We have called down to OHSU to talk to hematology and endocrinology a time or two but those conversations happen well after the patient has left that office visit...sometimes that conversation doesn't take place until the next working day. What is my point? Those of you wishing to be more of an independent practitioner without "The Boss" critiquing your every move...those opportunities exist. Those of you who are working on PA because you prefer a team based approach, where you have ready access to other "brains to pick" and don't have to make decisions on your own...look for a larger institution where the resources are plentiful. The rural medicine thing that everyone espouses so eloquently...how you're going to serve the underserved in Small Town America...it has a romantic appeal but the reality of it all can be quite challenging. Most of our lab work gets sent out, we are doing our own microscopies on urine, closest x ray is 25 miles away. There is a very limited amount of meds available to us (the $4 med list from Wal-mart), there is no physical therapy option (no money, not covered by insurance). Pain management is done in house with home made narcotic contracts. Mental health is medication management with VERY limited counseling through the county (but most of the patients don't like the counselors, so they don't go)...the list goes on. This place fits me like a tailored suit and I'm loving it. Hopefully you'll find your match as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsoprano Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Thanks for this thread. Read thru it all in one sitting. Great stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjl12 Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 There is no doc to bounce off of things real quick or "run something by them". The doc that is here sometimes has a very full patient panel himself and to be frank, doesn't really want to hear about our problems. He's a nice enough fella but the one time we presented a patient, he only half listened and then said "do what you think is right" and went on with his day. I started cracking up reading this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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