Why Yale PA (in-person)?

[prepa2224]

Hi everyone, I was wondering if current students/incoming students could share why they like the Yale, in-person, PA program! Thank you!

[buzzlightyear]

Most important to me:

• PANCE pass rates
• Location and proximity to home
• Interprofessional collaboration (ILCE) with med students
• Different opportunities to hone medical interviewing/assessment skills (free clinic, ILCE)
• Quality of clinical rotations (Yale New Haven Health is huge but at same time not too far (BH, GH, YNH), electives are cool too

 

Less Important:

• Prestige and history as a program that started in 70's (networking, reputation)
• Cost (seems to be the best valued program in Connecticut, others ive seen are more expensive)
• International rotations (I speak Spanish and would love to perfect medical spanish by time I graduate)
• Quality of clinical rotations
• Facilities and cadaver lab (I applied only to schools with cadaver labs)

 

Least Important (at least to me):

• Ranking
• Curriculum

Edited December 10, 2021 by buzzlightyear

[prepa2224]

@buzzlightyear thank you so much for your insight!! I really appreciate it!

[NewPAS2019]

Hello, I am a graduate of this program. The following is a list of my personal pros and cons:

*PROS:*
*- *Very supportive. We are not ranked so there isn't any sense of
competitiveness. Therefore, my classmates and I are very open to helping
each other. In addition, the program offers remediation for students who
are not passing certain courses. Overall, I really like how
my program is very accommodating to their students when unexpected
situations arise. For instance, one of my classmates came down with the flu
and was sick an entire week right before an exam. They accommodated her by
allowing her to take the exam at a later time (something not all programs
will do for you).

- The program curriculum is system-based. What that means is that each
module/block in the curriculum is based on a particular organ system and
you are taught everything you need to know about that system. For instance,
during our GI module we would also learn the relevant pharmacology,
pathophysiology, diagnostic studies, etc. I know some programs don't do it
this way. Personally, I like it this way because it makes learning medicine
easier for me.

- We get to dissect our own cadavers.

- Each semester there are only around 5 exams (around every 3 weeks). Some
of my friends in other programs tell me that they have like 3 exams each
week (yikes!).

- We have something called the Interprofessional Longitudinal Clinical
Experience (ILCE), which is something for first year Yale PA, MD, and NP
students. You are assigned to a group with other Yale health professional
students with a coach or coaches (can be either practicing MD, NP, or PA).
The whole purpose of this is to foster interprofessional
collaboration between the different health professions. Another good thing
about this is that you get early patient interviewing experience (right in
your first semester). Overall, this is just another opportunity for
students to practice their interview skills with real patients. However, I
will say that not all students will get the same experience from this
depending on who the coach(es) are.

- Attendance is generally not mandatory. Only certain classes are.

- We are not required to buy any textbooks. We have online access to all
the textbooks we need via the Yale Medical Library. Plus the program provide Rosh Review and Emory PANCE review subscriptions to help you prepare for the PANCE. 

- Quality and quantity of clinical rotations; I got to train with some of the brightest physicians and PAs (one of the reason why I decided to stay to start my career so I can continue to train and learn from them). You have around 14 different rotations of which 4 I believe are electives. The clinical team works diligently with you to make sure they can accommodate your requests (granted they tried their best with all the COVID restrictions but we are still very appreciative of them). Plus with Yale being a huge health system, you are more likely to find clinical opportunities in niche area. 

- Student-run free clinic (HAVEN); this is a great opportunity for students to gain additional clinical experience while giving back to the local community. You work alongside other health professional students and attending to deliver care to uninsured community members.  

*CONS: *
*- *The program emphasizes self-directed learning. This means that they
will provide you with the resources but ultimately it is up to you and how you want to learn
the materials. This can get frustrating at times because the lectures
delivered to us don't necessarily match up with the learning objectives so
you will have to spend time to learn or relearn those objectives. In my personal opinion this mode of education adds less structure (which some students thrive in and others struggle with). 

- Our lecturers are either researchers or practicing providers with
experience on the topic. Therefore, we don't usually have a set lecturer
who teaches a module from start to end. This becomes a problem when there
is a lack of communication between lecturers. For instance, one lecturer
may assume another lecturer will cover a specific topic but in the end no
one covers it. 

- The program can be non-respondent on certain matters. Sometimes, it just
takes a longer time to get them to respond to our questions or communication is poor. 

- Lack of case studies or opportunities to put clinical reasoning to
practice. The thing about medicine is that you are always coming up with a
differential diagnosis and narrowing that down to determine the most likely
diagnosis. We don't get a lot of practice with that. It would be nice to
have more case studies seminars so that the students can work through cases and develop their clinical reasoning skills. I believe the program is working on building more of those into the curriculum.