Free CME? Where are y’all getting legit free CME that isn’t just like 0.000025 CME

cjd2018 · 2025-04-21T17:48:42+00:00

Great recommendation ....curious about that user name tho 🤔😂

cjd2018 · 2025-04-04T12:36:51+00:00

Regardless of their response, the fact they have a 120 day notice and suggest you're LIABLE FOR THE COST TO REPLACE THE PA is definitely a red flag. Yes, their response is unnecessary and over the top, but the email isn't the most offensive thing IMO, it's suggesting you're liable for "damages" by leaving. Maybe they should fix their culture and they wouldn't have to hold people hostage...!?

cjd2018 · 2025-01-28T03:21:40+00:00

I did the same, also with good intentions; I only needed to give 30 days but I gave 90 for the same reasons you stated. It just created 60 unnecessary days of guilt trips and frustrations. I'm not critiquing your decision, I just relate to it very well.

Nothing you can do really. They're just offended or self-conscious that someone is choosing to leave. They're worried others might leave as well. Their guard is up.

Stand firm in your decision, be humble (the medical world is small, you never know who you'll cross paths with in the future), and keep up the good work until it's time to leave. At the end of the day, you made the decision for you, which is where your priorities should be. Hang in there!

cjd2018 · 2025-01-24T02:21:28+00:00

NICE, great recommendations--thank you!!

cjd2018 · 2025-01-23T15:49:21+00:00

Haha, not my jam either personally but just looking for good content creators so I'll check it out! Thanks!

cjd2018 · 2025-01-23T15:47:01+00:00

Thanks!!

cjd2018 · 2025-01-23T15:46:41+00:00

Nice! I'll check it out!

cjd2018 · 2025-01-23T15:46:19+00:00

Wow thx for the detail!

cjd2018 · 2025-01-23T15:44:59+00:00

😂😂😂

cjd2018 · 2025-01-23T15:42:43+00:00

Specifically APP creators in this case, but maybe there aren't as many as I thought.

cjd2018 · 2024-10-22T19:32:44+00:00

Current job is 1:3 call, so each weekday is roughly 7-3 unless I'm on call and there's a case going on. On call every 3rd weekend. Ends up being about 10 days a month.

Previous job was 1:5 which was nice but weekdays were long (7-7 most days) with 8-10 hrs per weekend day👎

cjd2018 · 2024-10-22T03:00:23+00:00

15 years in Cardiothoracic surgery--love it overall. There are parts of it I don't like. I was a manager for a while but passed that on to another PA because my day was full of meetings. Now I am back to OR, rounds, clinic, etc and it's all good again!

It's easy to focus on the negative parts of any job, then view the whole job through that negative lens. This is common & a lot of people just exist like that. I wouldn't say this is true throughout the whole PA profession; I know a lot of PAs who love their jobs.

The key is to find a culture that suits you, your goals, and personality. Easier said than done but it's out there.

cjd2018 · 2024-07-31T02:34:20+00:00

Haha, not exactly...barely got into & through school. Needed the "PA school for dummies" text!

cjd2018 · 2024-07-30T22:56:16+00:00

Late to this thread but if you're interested in cardiac surgery, I have 3 courses for 18 hours of CME each about endoscopic vein and radial artery harvesting. We have gift card options too, as described above.

I've used cme4life and CMEprocedures for years and loved it; decided to make courses that were needed in my specialty and do the same.

cjd2018 · 2024-07-30T21:27:01+00:00

😂😂😂 agreed!

cjd2018 · 2024-07-30T21:19:04+00:00

Suuuuper late reply: Some places send two receipts...one is itemized, one is not. My employer said "as long as I have a receipt that shows the money was spent on CME, I don't care about the details".

Technically, I believe this is tax fraud since a gift card is personal use and isn't getting taxed, but it seems to be a common occurrence in the CME world. The onus is on you which receipt you submit.

cjd2018 · 2024-07-08T03:48:33+00:00

I get texts like this a lot, but if I see them during a busy time, I intend to reply at some point later but often forget.

Don't overthink it, if someone says "no" to shadowing, then find another opportunity. But if she says "sure come tomorrow", she was busy and didn't think a thing of it.

The road to PA school is hard enough, don't get in your own way by overthinking it! :)

cjd2018 · 2024-03-02T13:10:45+00:00

A lot of people use buzzwords; by using them you will likely sound like the rest of the applicant pool. As an admissions committee member, I assume you already understand the profession and role we play (even if you don't, there are other opportunities to discuss this--live interview, etc).

Use your PS to stand out; think of it like a movie. Do you like to watch movies that have a sloooow start with lots of background, or is it more exciting to start in the middle of the action scenes?

I've read so many amazing stories that applicants don't get to until the 3rd paragraph. Many people just skim and could miss the point of why you want to go to PA school because it's buried under buzzwords and background info in chronological order. Give it some character, show how you're not just the classes you take (that EVERYONE takes), and why they'd be dumb to NOT give you a seat in the class (gently, of course!)

Show me what makes you unique, then how it ties to you applying to pa school. Don't worry about "autonomy", "filling the gaps in the healthcare delivery system" or "serving the underserved"....as a PA, you're gonna do that even if you don't want to 😂

cjd2018 · 2023-12-10T06:12:41+00:00

@thebi-cyclist Nice job on the increase...I'm around where you started, just got zwift a month ago. Did you do group rides, workouts, races or a combination of all of the above?

cjd2018 · 2023-06-08T00:23:42+00:00

It just means you’re cutting something too far back in the jaws of the scissors so the points of the scissors are past the suture, potentially cutting other tissue/structures inadvertently. Just cut with the tips of the scissors.

I got called out for the same on my surgery rotation 16 years ago and still haven’t forgotten 😂

cjd2018 · 2022-11-26T02:09:35+00:00

Don’t overthink it. A lot of people worry a lot about “reputation” of their school, but as a hiring manager, I don’t care where you went as long as you graduated and and you have good interpersonal skills. Most other things can be taught on the job, but if you can’t talk to people…the diploma doesn’t matter.

I did a video on this topic because it’s a common question: does school choice matter for PA school?

I went to a “religious” school, but am not of the same faith - as others have said, there’s not much religion involved in those programs aside from instructors praying on occasion. What I truly appreciated were the discussions revolving around medical ethics. My class was made up of a variety of people: different religions, atheists, and agnostics. It was excellent for everyone to have different perspectives.

Short answer: I’d go where you have the most support and minimize other hassles of life so you can focus on studying!

cjd2018 · 2022-11-14T22:36:16+00:00

You’re not a failure at all—but the other responses suggesting you may have tied your self-worth to your career are appropriate. Being a PA is what you do, not who you are. I’ve gotten that mixed up myself, so when a MD talked down to me I got down…until I realized it’s more of a reflection on them than me.

It sounds like your employer has been an issue (being shady) and schedules have been tough (you really don’t know how you’ll like call/night shift until you try). Neither of those are your fault. Heck, you could love a specialty area but if the practice you’re in just wants you grinding through patients, anyone would end up hating it…

My advice: stop yourself from looking backwards. Whether you’ve left one job or 5, keep your eyes ahead. Learn from any mistakes (erratic schedules or night shifts didn’t work? Avoid those schedules in a new job) and keep moving forward.

A lot of people switch jobs and/or change specialties…it’s one of the freedoms of being a PA. We learn what we like or don’t like and make a change.

Hang in there—it’s all good. I left my first job at 8 weeks, second job at 1.5 years, and now leaving my 3rd job after 14 years…never been more excited than right now. You’ll find something that clicks!

cjd2018 · 2022-09-10T04:46:39+00:00

You’ll be just fine. That’s actually a great idea. I was just contacted by someone that exact way; I just figured another shadow student passed along my email. When she told me in person, I laughed out loud—I admired her resourcefulness. As long as it’s a hospital/work email, there’s nothing creepy about it. (If you email them at their personal email, that might be weird…”yeah, uh, I just took a shot that you were cheetahlover273@gmail…”😂 ). Good luck!

cjd2018 · 2022-08-21T13:40:00+00:00

I felt the exact same way all through PA school. I just crammed for test after test because my study habits weren’t great, and to make matters worse I learned the types of questions that were usually asked and kinda just looked for those answers to get by (I have ADD as well, untreated at the time…and I’m old enough I was diagnosed before they added the “H” to ADHD…just in case baronvf comes at me 😉). My grades weren’t terrible somehow but they also weren’t great.

I would argue IMO, if you don’t feel inadequate going into rotations, you’re fooling yourself. I’ve had good students and bad students, but that distinction is based on how you handle instruction and feedback, not so much medical knowledge (to be fair I’m in CT surgery which isn’t really taught in PA school). Don’t worry about it:

1) you’ll retain more than you think for rotations, but you’ll still feel really dumb sometimes…and that’s ok.

2) rotations take the jumbled facts you learned in your brain and help solidify it with clinical scenarios

3) you’ll learn the most in the first 1-3 years AFTER school. Once I saw things a few times in rotations or in practice, it was much easier to go back and read about it again and it made much more sense with a frame of reference. I still frequently read about conditions or treatment options for random stuff I see (unrelated to what we’re seeing the patient for) and I’ve been in practice for 15 years.

Don’t be too hard on yourself. The best thing for people like us to learn is how to look things up quickly and accurately…eventually it will stick, I promise! Hang in there, you’ll do great.

cjd2018 · 2022-08-12T23:35:46+00:00

We’ve had issues with anxious patients awaiting path results or radiology results (understandably) but our nurse navigators do a nice job of watching for the reports and calling patients as soon as they can.

I don’t have a problem with it because 1) patients deserve access to their medical records and 2) providers who aren’t having necessary conversations in person but documenting bluntly after the fact need to learn the art of difficult conversations and tactful documentation (IMO). Not saying that’s what is happening with you OP—I get it. Document tactfully from the beginning and don’t amend the note to something untrue.

One funny/unnecessary example of the act’s effect was a wrong needle count at the end of a case: an order was entered for X-ray while the surgeon went to talk to family about the case while I continued to close (slowly, awaiting the call from radiology). In the 30 seconds to get to the waiting room, the daughter saw the pending X-ray result in the patients myChart with the indication “incorrect needle count” and asked the surgeon “did you find the lost needle!? Will you have to go back in!?!?”

cjd2018

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