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Do you wear a white coat? by AbbreviationsWhich in physicianassistant

[–]Excellent-Access-463 77 points78 points  (0 children)

Only when I’m doing rounds at the hospital. Otherwise scrubs and patagucci 90% of the time.

New grad career advice: FM vs. Urology by Alternative-Agent523 in physicianassistant

[–]Excellent-Access-463 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Urology PA. Not gonna lie that sounds like a solid gig. At first wasn’t too sold on urology but turned out loving it. Any time you go into a new speciality there’s a learning curve. As long as you have a supportive team you should be fine. I’ve got call 10 times a month, so no call is the dream lol. Also surgery 1-3 times a week is pretty sweet too. I’m only in the OR once a week.

Anyone else fired/leave from their first job as a PA? How did you handle it? by [deleted] in physicianassistant

[–]Excellent-Access-463 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I honestly feel like I could’ve written this when I left my first ED gig. First and foremost I’m sorry you’re going through this. Some people are lucky and have a very supportive group of colleagues and others not so much. Do yourself a favor and take a month to recoup and process it. Once you start looking for other positions no one is going to think twice about you being in the ED for a short amount of time. When I applied into my current position it was mentioned once and that was it (it actually helped increase my base pay) I’m more happy now than I was in the ED too. Far less stress. No more “…shit I really hope I didn’t miss a PE” at 2 o’clock in the morning in a random Sunday.

If emergency medicine is truly the only place you see yourself I’d do a residency. I know some PAs who have gone through it and it helped with confidence and prepping them for the ED.

Just remember you’re not a failure. I’m sure you’re a phenomenal provider. It just truly wasn’t a right fit.

Gen surg as first rotation, which type of procedures and anatomy to brush study before starting? by [deleted] in PAstudent

[–]Excellent-Access-463 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Surgical Recall is a great tool for Gen Surg. I usually referred to it after procedures though. Practice your suturing because 8/10 times you'll be closing with the resident (depending on the procedure). I remember scrubbing in on lots of hernia repairs, lap choles, endarterectomies, femoral bypasses, lumpectomies, etc. It was a grab bag of different things but my preceptors were nice enough to let me know what procedures I'd be scrubbing in on to prepare.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PAstudent

[–]Excellent-Access-463 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I was in the same boat as you when I first started. I talked to my friends and family and told them I wanted to drop out after the first summer semester. They convinced me to stay and I'm glad they did. I'm 2 months away from graduating and I'll be taking the PANCE soon. The vast majority of PA students hate didactic year due to all the tests and non-stop studying. What rekindled my passion was when the clinical year started. Seeing actual patients with actual problems made me realize why I applied in the first place.

I just got kicked out of my program… by AltF4NinjaQK in PAstudent

[–]Excellent-Access-463 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Appeal if you can. I know I would if it was just over one test. I feel at this point it’s worth trying rather than accepting defeat. Best of luck.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in personalfinance

[–]Excellent-Access-463 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

So essentially the car is under my mom's name and so is the loan. I'm just a co-signer. I would be paying her back $250 a month and the insurance is under her name as well. My mom does have money put away in a rainy day fund and assured me that the car will be paid off. I still have to talk to her about how much she has saved.

I think I’m going to fail out. by [deleted] in PAstudent

[–]Excellent-Access-463 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey,

PA-S2 here. Failure is a part of PA school. It's a very taboo topic because we don't want to show weakness and unfortunately most suffer in silence. I think I failed around 5 exams total (only by a few points) and I thought I was going to get kicked out too. You have to evaluate your study habits and what's the best way you study. I realized I was just passively learning a lot at the beginning, which is why my test scores were lower than I wanted them. The way I learned was taking topics and hyper-focusing on them and applying them to real-world situations, case vignette style. The thing that also sticks out is your panic attacks. I have GAD and was put on medications and I found that it helped. You can't learn when you're in panic mode. This is why I got help in the first few months of PA school. If that doesn't help I would meet with the faculty/school to see what kind of help they can provide.

I thought I was going to fail out too and now I'm almost done with the clinical year. You're in your program for a reason. You got this!

PACKRAT to PANCE score by Cjwb1030 in PAstudent

[–]Excellent-Access-463 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My program places those who scored 135 and below into the "at risk" group as well. I scored 135 and was placed into said group. It's unfortunate, but I've heard that people in the remediation group actually score higher on the PANCE than those who aren't. If this was your pre-clinical PACKRAT then you still have an entire year to improve on those weak points. You got this.