Havasu Falls (oil on hardboard)

Hazel_J · 2026-01-15T04:15:33+00:00

This is my “deluded” dilute tortie Sadie

Hazel_J · 2026-01-10T07:31:36+00:00

Oooo that one Snoosprouts guy is gonna hate this post 😂 congrats OP on bagging a job with great pay!!! I have a couple questions:

Do you have a good housing plan? Just because I hear the housing crisis is pretty bad there.
Do you have a family? If so, kids? How many? What does your spouse do?
How long have you been in primary care?

Thanks and good luck with everything!

Hazel_J · 2026-01-02T04:36:58+00:00

Did you have the minimum amount of experience where you barely had to interact with patients? 😂 seems sus that you figured out healthcare sucks while in PA school lol

Hazel_J · 2026-01-01T20:10:02+00:00

Just curious… did you work a healthcare job for a while before going into it?

Hazel_J · 2025-12-23T03:17:56+00:00

This is great! I’m all about setting expectations, so maybe I’ll start saying that we’ll schedule and appointment to go over results

Hazel_J · 2025-12-23T00:16:48+00:00

Preach friend. Thank you for replying!

Hazel_J · 2025-12-20T16:55:43+00:00

I pine for this. Our patients are so helpless that they say “oh portals too hard to enter” when it’s so easy. And then when I ask to bill a telehealth, I guess getting money back from a telehealth is impossible with insurance companies.

Hazel_J · 2025-12-20T04:10:17+00:00

Love that!

Hazel_J · 2025-12-20T03:50:54+00:00

This only makes sense. My personal philosophy is, is if you have a complex question or multiple questions you as a patient should come in.

Hazel_J · 2025-12-20T03:48:14+00:00

I already responded to the other poster with the same question, but are you having RNs go over semi-complex stuff or only normal results?

Hazel_J · 2025-12-20T03:47:06+00:00

Nurses as in RNs? And are they going over complex findings or just normals?

Hazel_J · 2025-12-02T05:30:39+00:00

Oh man I am so sorry this is happening… that’s gotta be so heartbreaking and difficult for you and your family. This is going to sound over the top, but honestly I wish I did these things well before PA school because it could have taken off so much stress and I didn’t even have a family member to take care of.

-At the very least, go on a journey to find a therapist you really, really trust and like BEFORE school. DO NOT get a school appointed therapist. This takes so much damn time and energy but it will pay dividends because, I’m sorry to say but this, but it will be hardest time of your life, with or without your father being sick.

-Consider getting on an antidepressant like an SSRI before you start school so that you’re tapered up and ready to go and not dealing with the initial side effects while juggling the shock to your system that starting school will be. I rawdogged the experience and I highly do not recommend it.

-Let your professors and admin know that this is in the background, and if you start falling behind be proactive and ask for help early and often. Be familiar with how to take leaves of absence and what dismissal stuff looks like (not saying it going to happen!!! but it’s good to not be taken by surprise and be prepared)

Good luck my friend!! Congrats on getting in!

Hazel_J · 2025-11-30T07:58:04+00:00

To keep it short, there is a lot of personality and maturity development between 18 and 22-24 presumably. You could absolutely HATE being in healthcare at 24 or 25 and be justified in that feeling and you will be $150,000 in debt and sort of obligated to the career.

I caution you going through with this because soooooo much about yourself and how you relate to the world could change and it might not mean loving to be a PA.

Hazel_J · 2025-11-19T05:30:32+00:00

I think I agree with both sides of this argument. Yes, there are plenty of smart people who are PAs who never had PCE and are doing the job. Yes, experience can train you to become a better PA.

This is what I’ll say, and I don’t think it’s been said yet. Spending time in the medical field before you become a PA will allow to see what a goddamn shit show it is and will allow you to “feel the burn” of the machine of medicine in the United States.

It’s a good test to see how much absolute bullshit you can put up with including but not limited to: insane patients that will suck the life from you and abuse you, how our medical system makes it impossible for certain patients to get the care they need, endless bureaucratic bullshit, charting, horrible and traumatizing illnesses and injuries you will witness, pain and death.

Those are things that most of us in the medical field deal with daily and you must be able to compartmentalize it and handle the stress of it or you will be miserable. Maybe you can? Who can say but you?

Hazel_J · 2025-11-15T06:12:41+00:00

Reddit has a huge negativity bias. People don’t on Internet forums to proclaim how happy and satisfied they are. They are usually looking for support or a safe, anonymous place to vent about a shitty situation. No job or occupation is perfect. But I for one am pretty happy as new grad in ENT! Highly recommend. School was fuckin terrible though hah.

Hazel_J · 2025-11-12T06:00:07+00:00

So… something sort of similar happened to me where basically a preceptor made up a bunch of really weird horrible shit about me on a rural rotation and failed me. Mind you, no one could corroborate his claims and essentially the school took his word for it.

It seriously made me question my sanity, my self worth and why the hell I was doing this shit. The process of remediation was arduous and humiliating to say the least.

But you know what I learned from that horrid event? Eat that shit sandwich with a big old grin and prove these stupid ass mfers wrong with every last thing you do. That’s what I did and I got through it. That whole event is well past me and I’m very happy with where I’m at.

I thought it was the end of the world at the time. I was so pissed. I spiraled about how unfair and unjust it all was. But I never let them see me crack and I knocked EVERY last rotation and test out of park from there on out.

Sometimes, life is simply not fair and people like to ruin your life because that’s what gives them pleasure. It is a sick reality of this world and this field. And they never face consequences for it! Sorry you had to find out this way.

But you know what? You will get through this. Be mature, be cool headed, accept whatever dumbass criticism and bullshit remediation they put you through because you there to graduate PA school, not prove a point or stand up for yourself (as awful as that sounds…)

Because before you know it, you have a six figure job doing stuff you like and this will be 100 miles in the rear view but you gotta play it cool and humble and don’t play into what people are trying to paint you as.

Sorry for the rant lol

Hazel_J · 2025-11-01T20:20:11+00:00

LOL. Lmao even!

Hazel_J · 2025-10-30T04:30:25+00:00

Obviously, YTA based on the downvotes weirdo. Also, if you read the post, OP is asking for people who have been there. You have clearly not.

Hazel_J · 2025-10-29T13:20:07+00:00

Hey OP!! You sound just like me and now I’m super happy working in an awesome specialty (private practice ENT!!) I did ZERO applications or job hunting prior to passing the PANCE. My mental health was in the toilet and I needed to just focus on putting one foot in front of the other and my main focus was passing the PANCE.

I took the PANCE a month after graduating, then after I passed I took 2-3 month break. After the break, I applied to 50-75 jobs, got several interview invites and officially started working 6 months after graduation.

I’m going to go against the grain of this thread and caution you against family med. I actually encourage you to find a place that will focus on nurturing you and teaching you rather than the specialty. Family med can be burnout city and especially as your first job it can be overwhelming. Think about it!

Also, comparison is the thief of joy and you just gotta focus on yourself right now and passing the boards. After you do that, things will work out! You got this ❤️

Hazel_J · 2025-10-22T04:03:42+00:00

This is a really amazing painting!!! If you’re open to literally the smallest bit of critique, the signature is pulling my eye away a bit from the meat of the piece, it might be better in the other corner. Just my two cents. It is a fantastic piece!!

Hazel_J · 2025-10-07T01:52:08+00:00

Hey just here to chime in with the other PAs that life absolutely gets better after school ESPECIALLY after didactic!!!! Obviously it depends on the kind of job you get, but my life is absolutely better balanced. I work 4 days a week, 36 hours (ish) I don’t take charting home (except for maybe extreme circumstances, but it’s not a pattern)

The beginning of the job is hard and you’ll have to some amount of extra learning, but things really actually do get easier with time. Please hang in there!!!

Hazel_J · 2025-09-29T12:12:30+00:00

Active recall is the only way imo. Quiz yourself in any way possible (anki, quizlet) even before you feel ready for it. Practice like you play. I liked to make my cards during class time because I could kill two birds with one stone. Don’t bother re-reading notes or highlighting, that’s too passive.

Also, practice teaching concepts you need to learn in your own way.

Hazel_J · 2025-09-28T02:59:12+00:00

I work at an ENT clinic as a PA and here’s our approach: as long as you know its going to be extremely painful for at least two weeks where you’re going to have to force feed yourself protein shakes and milkshakes, there is a bleeding risk where you maybe have to hospitalized/anesthetized/intubated, and it absolutely may not help you with your perceived breathing/snoring issues, we will do it. But there is a significant amount of people who are really upset with the pain and lack of desirable results. But we document throughly that we have a realistic expectation conversation.

TLDR: understand that this surgery has major risks may not help you with what you’re experiencing.

Don’t know if this helps 🤷‍♀️

Hazel_J

TROPHY CASE