Is this normal?

[prepastudent1995]

Is this normal?

I attend a PA school that is a few years old. I am in the second semester of my didactic year. My class has experienced some frustrating things this year, and when we talk about them with the faculty, a lot of it is instantly reduced to "well this is PA school and it's hard for everyone." However, our issues are not with the volume or complexity of material, but with the administrative side of things. I hope to get some feedback from people that go to other schools to see if they are experiencing similar things. 

1. We have lots of tests on back to back days during the semester, which I am sure everyone does, but our semester finishes with 12 straight test days, including both regular tests and finals. We have a test every day for the 7 days before our finals week even starts, so we really have no time to study for finals until the day before each one. Does everyone have a schedule like this, or do you find things are better spaced out? 

2. Our classes do not match up in terms of when we learn material. For instance, we are currently covering diabetes in our pathology class this week, and in about 8 weeks we get into rheumatology. Currently in our pharm class, we are learning about rheumatology. We learn diabetes in 9 weeks. When we are learning about diabetes in our patho class, we are learning about rheumatology in pharm, and when we finally learn about rheumatology in patho, we then get to diabetes in pharm, which we covered weeks earlier in patho. Is it normal to have classes not line up very well at all (or in some cases completely opposite) in terms of when material or systems are covered?

3. We get different information in different classes, and a lot of times we have to remember which definition or lab values are for each class. We will learn about normal lab values in one class, and the next class learn a lab value for the same exact thing, but they are different. Learning the brain was also awful- we would learn in one class about what all the parts of the brain do and their functions, and then in the next class we would learn that they do something different, and we had to keep track in our brains of which roles and functions for each particular structure were for each class, not just "this part of the brain does this and influences that." Recently, we learned about criteria needed for a preeclampsia diagnosis in two classes, but they were different. This happens a lot, and it seems like the professors do not look at each others lectures or powerpoints to make sure they are on the same page. 

4. There is a lack of communication between faculty and the students. We have a professor that often doesn't respond to emails at all- our one online class started a week later than it should have because no one could reach him to tell him to put the content up for us. Another time, we had been told a meeting was optional until the day before, when we were told it was mandatory. There is also a complete lack of respect for our time. We have guest lectures in the week before finals where we have tests every single day, and the lectures are all mandatory. Our guest lecturer even asked what our schedule was like, and when we told him, he said, "I can't believe that. Why am I even here talking to you guys? Why are we doing this?" He was shocked, even more so when he realized he was lecturing us on things that we have never covered and would not be tested on. He let us go early.

I am not trying to ramble on and on- I just can't tell if these things are normal, or if there should be something done on our end as students. 

 

Edited February 15, 2023 by prepastudent1995
mistake

[Boatswain2PA]

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. Kind of.  Specialists/subspecialists may have different values they are looking for.  For example - normal K might be 3.5-5, but in the ED i'm not overly worried about a 3.2 or a 5.3.  However it's poor form for a school to teach different normals. 

4. Sounds like a $hitshow.   Welcome to medicine, most of it is a $hitshow.

Edited February 15, 2023 by Boatswain2PA

[SedRate]

44 minutes ago, Boatswain2PA said:

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. Kind of.  Specialists/subspecialists may have different values they are looking for.  For example - normal K might be 3.5-5, but in the ED i'm not overly worried about a 3.2 or a 5.3.  However it's poor form for a school to teach different normals. 

4. Sounds like a $hitshow.   Welcome to medicine, most of it is a $hitshow.

Agree with all, especially #4

I remember the stress of finals all too well -- I think it was something like 11 exams/tests. It was brutal. 

[ohiovolffemtp]

Only exception I've seen is in PA schools where the didactics are organized into clinical medicine modules, e.g. derm, GI, cardio, etc.  In this design, students are taught the A&P, patho, pharm, clinical medicine, physical exam, etc. all for each module over the space of several weeks rather than have separate pharm, medicine, etc classes that don't have matching schedules.

[rev ronin]

On 2/15/2023 at 5:56 PM, ohiovolffemtp said:

Only exception I've seen is in PA schools where the didactics are organized into clinical medicine modules, e.g. derm, GI, cardio, etc.  In this design, students are taught the A&P, patho, pharm, clinical medicine, physical exam, etc. all for each module over the space of several weeks rather than have separate pharm, medicine, etc classes that don't have matching schedules.

This is how I did it at Pacific. It really worked well for me, but in retrospect, I didn't learn the earlier modules as well as the latter modules, because I didn't have as many other systems to integrate with.

[ventana]

Fact of the matter is it is almost impossible to take someone off the street and teach them in 6 semesters enough to no kill someone.

 

Yes programs have challenges, yup they could be better (And they could be a LOT worse!)

 

In reality you see a person and they have a problem, and then a few more problems, and you are all over the place.  Some of it is just a "sh&* show" as Boats said....

 

Buckle down, study study study   

 

The gods honest truth.....  PA school is merely the Ticket to get on the train of medicine.  if you can't purchase the ticket well then that is beyond this post....

[CAAdmission]

PA school tends to be a good deal more chaotic than most people would anticipate. A lot of schools are also probably still not 100% back on path following Covid disruptions. 

Keep plugging along - it will be over before you know it. 

I will warn students, though - my absolute worst days in PA school (in terms of stress, workload and general aggravation) turned out to be about equivalent to an average workday as a practicing PA. 

[SedRate]

3 hours ago, CAAdmission said:

PA school tends to be a good deal more chaotic than most people would anticipate. A lot of schools are also probably still not 100% back on path following Covid disruptions. 

Keep plugging along - it will be over before you know it. 

I will warn students, though - my absolute worst days in PA school (in terms of stress, workload and general aggravation) turned out to be about equivalent to an average workday as a practicing PA. 

All this and especially this.

[TeddyRucpin]

The programs using modules may do a better job with getting the relevant info together and making it palatable in a short timeframe. This is your pharm, anatomy, physiology and so on. It's hard as we have only been to one program. 

Your program may try and push the "PAs are flexible" statement. Nevertheless, this can be used as an excuse too when things are not organized effectively.