winterallsummer Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Hi. Three questions for PA students who have the time to spare: 1) In retrospect (or in your current shoes), how important was your didactic year? The reason I ask is I'm trying to compare to schools I was accepted to - one I thought had a nice didactic year (Pace), the other I was extremely impressed with (PCOM). How much should this influence my decision? 2) How important were your rotations? Pace has rotations all over NYC, I would think this is probably the best scenario for rotations you could find, as far as patient diversity. PCOM has them all over the nation, which is diverse as well, wondering what your opinions are on this? 3) What are your opinions on systems approach? Also, how much of an advantage is it to get a full cadaver vs prosected anatomy? Thanks as always all!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaston Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 1. If your didactic year was weak then you will be unprepared for your clinical year. If you are unprepared for clinical year you will be very frustrated on your rotations. So will your preceptors. Many pre-pa's are so concerned about the clinical year that they fail to realize the didactic material is what makes it possible for you to perform well during clinical rotations. I was very well prepared for clinical year and I still spent a ton of time studying. I don't want to think about what life would have been like had I been poorly prepared by my program......... 2. Rotations are extremely important. But for the most part, they are what YOU make them. I had some amazing preceptors that provided excellent learning atmospheres, but only if I worked hard. I know for a fact that some of my classmates hated those same rotations, mainly because of how they approached it. Remember, you are not entitled to anything in a rotation, you have to work to earn their respect. So a rotation close to your school vs. in a different state really shouldn't matter. Unfortunately you cannot escape the occasional bad preceptor, every program has them. 3. I like the systems approach. Also, I was the last class in my program to have prosected cadavers. Everyone after me will have full dissection. I can honestly say there has never been a time during the entire program where I wished I had done dissections. That's my experience though, others will inevitable disagree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterallsummer Posted January 3, 2012 Author Share Posted January 3, 2012 Can you please expand on this: I can honestly say there has never been a time during the entire program where I wished I had done dissections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaston Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Keep in mind that my opinion is based on MY experience. I worked very hard in Anatomy. I can't tell you how many hours I spent in that lab studying the cadavers. I studied structures, the layers between structures and everything around them. If I couldn't find it I would ask someone that could. The pro-sections that were done were high quality. I honestly don't believe that my knowledge of Anatomy would be significantly improved if I had been the one performing the dissections. There were many times on rotations that my anatomy knowledge was tested/pimped (Gen Surg, Ortho/Trauma Surg, EMED, Interventional Radiology/Cardiology) and at no point during any of those did I feel like I was lacking. I have never experienced anything that made me wish I had dissected. In fact, I know that the program I attended now offers dissections. So, in addition to the already very difficult curriculum, these students have to fit in 20+ hours of dissection each week. It definitely increased their stress levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterallsummer Posted January 4, 2012 Author Share Posted January 4, 2012 Ah I see. Thanks for the feedback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karri4040 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Another perspective on dissection vs prosection.... When you dissect, the majority of your lab time is spent working on one cadaver. You get to know that cadaver very well, but the different variations of "normal" are staggering. In our program, the med students dissect and we study their dissections as they go. We had a total of ~40 dissected bodies, along with a few professionally prosected bodies. Since we weren't dissecting, we were able to spend our time studying all the cadavers, and we were able to see many variations of normal. We felt just as prepared, if not more prepared, for our lab exams than the med students. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenmood Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Dissection can be not so great for the reasons already mentioned, but if you're going to choose a program that does not offer it, make sure you know exactly what you will be doing. The situation karri4040 described sounds great to me, but what if the cadavers were old? Even one that is cared for properly will dry out after a while on the tank. What if there are 60 students trying to learn from three prosected bodies? Too many people touching will destroy delicate structures. When I did dissection I learned real quick to get in, get out, and get around. Meaning, read ahead so you know what you're doing, find the thing you're looking for, and then take a field trip around the room to other students' cadavers to see some anatomic variety. I do think dissection is valuable. Until you've done it, it's hard to describe how difficult it can be to find something that sounds so easy... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAAdmission Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 The PA curriculum is so time compressed, essentially everything is critically important - both didactic and clinical. There is little space to insert any "fluff." Our anatomy instructor did prosections, but always offered his time to anyone who wanted to come and help out with dissection. Turns out that no one ever took him up on the offer. You can use those precious hours for more vital things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HopefulPA Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Both are important. Didactic bulids the foundation. Clinicals builds the walls and practicing builds your roof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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