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16. Let's talk about clinical year
127 Plays2 years ago
Join me on this episode where I talk with some of my 2022 cohort mates all about clinical year.
--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
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Transcript
Introduction to the PA School Experience Podcast
00:00:13
Speaker
Welcome to the PA School Experience Podcast. I'm your host, Sebring Sands, and I take you through the behind the scenes look of PA School and explore what it takes to become a PA.
Creating a Podcast with Anchor
00:00:33
Speaker
If you have been wondering how I could do this podcast in PA School, I'll tell you, I use an anchor. This is the easiest way to make a podcast. Let me explain. First, it is a free hosting platform which allows anyone to start a podcast with no upfront cost. It has built-in tools which allow you to edit and record a podcast. You can even record it from your phone.
00:00:56
Speaker
Anchor will distribute your podcast for you so it can be heard on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and other major podcast platforms. You can make money from your podcast with no minimum listenership. Anchor has everything that you need to make a podcast. They make it so easy for you. Download the free Anchor app or go to anchor.fm to get started. That's anchor.fm
Inspiration for Diverse Content
00:01:26
Speaker
Welcome everyone to another podcast. I'm just pumping them out now. I've had lots of inspiration and lots of things I want to do before the next school year kind of comes around, at least for our program. So I wanted to get a lot of different types of
00:01:41
Speaker
programming in, a lot of groups to talk about different things. And today we're going to talk about clinical year with some of my peeps.
Introduction of Guests and Their Clinical Year
00:01:47
Speaker
I'm going to have them introduce themselves and we'll go from there. Okay. My name is Sawyer. I am a reoccurring guest here on the PS school experience podcast. And most importantly, I am Sebring's capstone partner.
00:02:03
Speaker
Hi, my name is Molly. I'm 26 years old and I'm originally from Massachusetts and I am a classmate of Sebring. My name is Tricia. I'm from Maine and I'm also a classmate of Sebring.
00:02:17
Speaker
Cohort 2022 baby. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining me guys.
Flexibility and Challenges of the Clinical Year
00:02:22
Speaker
We're going to talk about clinical year, um, kind of some of the struggles we've had, the positive aspects of it, things to prepare for when you go into the clinical year and what we've enjoyed so far, all of the things. So let's talk about how we love it about clinical year so far. I like the flexibility. Um, like with didactic year, you're very like,
00:02:47
Speaker
you have to be there every day from like eight to five or eight to six. Um, and there's really no like flexibility, but with clinical year, like certain rotations, you work like more hours, but sometimes if you do like three twelves, like you just have a lot more like flexibility. So it's kind of nice to like have a little bit of free time and like time to study, but time to like do other things.
00:03:10
Speaker
I liked applying what we learned from didactic gear in the real world. I think we put so much work studying and learning all the material and being able to see it in person in real life was very rewarding. So I think that was one of my favorite parts of clinical year. I agree, especially towards the end of didactic gear. You just get so used to looking at a book. It's very hard for the information to stick, especially how much information you have to go through during didactic gear and the pace you have to
00:03:40
Speaker
move at once you get to clinical year you get pretty much five weeks just to study one topic at a time and then you really get a chance to take a deeper dive into things and get like more of like a proper understanding of it versus didactic year when you were just kind of you know just flying constantly.
00:03:57
Speaker
definitely the application like lab test didn't make sense of didactic here, imaging didn't make sense didactic here, so all that kind of really when you see it applied makes a lot more sense. And yeah the flexibility is so nice, you're not on a rigid and sometimes the preceptors or whoever you're working with sends you home early so that's nice and
00:04:20
Speaker
A lot of times we have weekends, some rotations don't, but a lot of times you do and that's really nice too. For me, I think my favorite thing was working. That sounds weird, but it was like some rotations are just, it's just drudgery and you're like there for so long. But as a, as a provider, I feel like a lot of it doesn't feel like work, work.
00:04:44
Speaker
I just liked being helpful and working and being with patients and like, this is what we're going to do in
Adapting to Rotations and Preceptor Expectations
00:04:50
Speaker
our job. We just do it for free and not quite do as much, but yeah. So that's really fun. Awesome. So what were some of the things that you guys didn't like about clinical year? I don't like like going off of like the.
00:05:08
Speaker
flexibility being like a positive thing. Like I don't like how sometimes like if you're a preceptor doesn't give you your schedule like until like a few days before you start or they only give you like a few weeks at a time. Like I'm a major planner so I didn't like I didn't like that at times because it was like I need to know what I'm doing like in three weeks or like it was just hard to like plan things like with your friends or make appointments because
00:05:34
Speaker
every five weeks, like your schedule is like completely changing. And so depending on like how on top of it your preceptor was, like sometimes you wouldn't know like where, like what your hours were going to be in like three weeks. And I think that was like hard at times.
00:05:51
Speaker
Yeah, I think you also had to get used during clinical year to being uncomfortable. You always have to go into a new rotation, don't know anybody, introduce yourself, meet the staff, kind of gain their trust and allow them to do more. And then finally, after five weeks, once you're very comfortable and you're doing everything, you have to switch it up. So I think it is getting used to being uncomfortable and being the new person on the block every five weeks. Yeah, it's kind of challenging to figure out exactly what the expectations are for each rotation because sometimes
00:06:21
Speaker
Um, there are some rotation sites that are very strictly run and very regimented. You have like one preceptor that you follow. Um, and they kind of give you a clue as to like what the expectations are and what they want you to do. And there's other ones that are more open-ended and that can be good and bad. Um, it's, it's good sometimes because you can just kind of do what you want. And so if there's like a particular thing that you really want to see, maybe a particular, like if you're doing a surgery rotation, a particular procedure that you want to see, um, you can see what you're interested in.
00:06:49
Speaker
But at the same time, that can be bad because you never truly know if you're doing the right thing. So if you ever find yourself in that situation, whoever you're most closest to, whoever you think your preceptor is, just try and ask them what their expectations are and what students usually do and how you should move on a day-to-day basis.
Working with Stressed Residents
00:07:09
Speaker
Yeah, that was always troublesome for me, like expectations. I didn't really want to, I felt like I didn't want to outright say like, what are my expectations? Because if I ended up going against the expectation, I could say, I didn't know. But yeah, that's always like what the preceptor wants from you. And like, because some preceptors have been like,
00:07:32
Speaker
Do you feel like you're doing great, but like they give you really bad reviews? I've had that happen or you feel like you're like doing good But I think you do really amazing on the end of the evaluation. So that's kind of hard to That's happened to me where I like I poured my heart into a rotation I thought like I gave really good effort like I thought I came off like really interested really motivated Yeah, and then you get a feedback and it's like completely different from what you were expecting and it's like Oh, you know, I'm surprised that happened
00:08:01
Speaker
Yeah.
Favorite Rotations and Specialties
00:08:02
Speaker
And like what Molly is saying, like, yes, having to explain your name, every rotation, it stinks. I have to do this new people, constantly new people. Luckily, like I've been in at Stanford hospital for like four or five rotations. So a lot of people know me a little bit, some cross.
00:08:21
Speaker
cross knowledge of my name and everything. So that's been nice. But for me, I think the thing I didn't like, I liked that I had had this experience, but these were my least favorite rotations. It was when I worked with directly with residents. They're like highly stressed and they have high expectations and also they have you work their hours, which is like,
00:08:49
Speaker
It's crazy and all that stuff. So that was my least favorite thing. Um, I also spent time working with residents. Um, the one that like, like burnt in my brain most was my first rotation, my surgery rotation. Um, and that, cause it was just a big culture shock, right? So you open didactic gear when you're only looking at stuff from the textbook, only looking at PowerPoints. And then not only like, are they releasing you out into the wild, but you're doing surgery, which like, we don't,
00:09:18
Speaker
like delve too deep into during didactic here. Um, and you're around that culture, um, where surgery is very intense. You get there very early in the morning. Everyone is very knowledgeable. So I understand where you're coming from with that. I also think that that's something that I needed because like everyone, like all the surgery residents, they were like around my age, they were maybe like, like maybe like five years older than me most, but like kind of in my ballpark and like they knew so much. They were so knowledgeable.
00:09:46
Speaker
It kind of showed me how much I needed to learn. And if I wanted to like to get somewhat to that level or at least move in the right direction, I really need to apply myself each and every day. So I guess it kind of showed me how much I needed to learn and that kind of get me motivated. So it was a positive and a negative experience as well. Okay, very nice. That goes to show of
00:10:07
Speaker
Even with the same rotation, with the same people, if it's a different student, even at the same time, you can have completely different experiences and takeaways. And that's the thing with the clinical year. It's just so different from person to person. That's why I don't like Reddit, but I'll get into that rant later. It's nice to ask students that have been to rotations before for advice and stuff, but you can't really rely on it too much because
00:10:36
Speaker
Like every single person's experience is different. Like even like me versus like my closest friends, like doing the same rotation, like we felt differently. So it's like, I don't know. It's like helpful to get like advice, but like, I wouldn't like take what someone says about a preceptor and like take it to like heart because you don't know exactly like how your experience is going to be.
00:11:01
Speaker
I ended up not even like my last few. I haven't bothered to really reach out to the person because like, I'm like comfortable enough to figure things out. And a lot of times it's been amazing rotation for me. I didn't want it to have that bias going into it, but sometimes a little warning of some, some, you know, people in a rotation are problematic or a little toxic. So avoiding that's nice, but yeah, I just kind of stopped asking for.
00:11:31
Speaker
Um, tips and stuff for the rotation, just going in kind of blind and open-minded has been, has worked for me. What has your favorite rotation been? Just overall, not, it could be including like your favorite, like specialty to work in, but overall favorite rotation. I liked my emergency med rotation the most. And it's actually kind of funny because when I was going through it, I felt like I didn't like it much at all. It was one of those things where.
00:11:59
Speaker
It's like in hindsight, not only did I end up enjoying it, but I really needed it. Cause emergency room is just a great place to learn. There's so many different patients that have come with so many different types of issues. And there's so many opportunities to perform a lot of clinical skills, which is much different from maybe an internal med rotation where there's a lot to talk about, but not all that much to do. You can't really get your hands dirty too much in a rotation like that. But emergency med, my background is emergency medicine. I started off as an EMT.
00:12:30
Speaker
So I was familiar with the line of questioning, but I got to see a lot about how to communicate with different types of patients,
Value of Hands-On Experience
00:12:39
Speaker
and especially in a very frantic environment. It's very easy to be a good PA when maybe it's a doctor's office or something like that, and you can close the door, talk to the patient one-on-one in a nice, quiet environment.
00:12:54
Speaker
emergency meditation in the Bronx and so there's always a lot going on sometimes there's a language barrier so I got to deal with a lot of adversity when talking to each patient and I had to learn to overcome that while like learning a lot of these skills for like the first or second time so it was very difficult very stressful I was going through it but I came out better for it.
00:13:14
Speaker
I have two rotations that are probably tied for my favorite. I did my elective in dermatology and it was at the office that I worked previously before PA school as a medical assistant. So I knew the staff really well and they really trusted me and I think that allowed me to do a lot more hands-on things with performing biopsies and suturing.
00:13:36
Speaker
And I really felt like I gained a lot of experience because of that background and dermatology was always a specialty that I was interested going into before PA school. And then my other favorite rotation was probably orthopedic surgery. And it was very surprising to me because before PA school I think ortho was the rotation that I was probably dreading the most because I thought I was going to get
00:14:00
Speaker
honestly, like, wheezy with all the dislocations and broken bones. And I think that one surprised me the most and I ended up falling in love with ortho surgery and definitely could see myself going through that specialty as well. So also another lesson to try not to have any preconceived notions before going into different rotations and being open minded. But those two are probably definitely two of my favorites.
00:14:23
Speaker
My favorite was also emergency, like Sawyer. I actually did two because I did emergency as my elective. But my first one I'd say was my favorite. And I think it was because one, I like love emergency, but also like the setting was just really good. Like I was the only student, it was very busy. They like let me do like as much as I was like comfortable with, but they were always like supportive.
00:14:51
Speaker
They're really good teachers. I think that in addition to liking the specialty, the setting had a lot to do and the preceptors had a lot to do with it as well. That was definitely my favorite. Awesome. My favorites, I have two too. One was my pediatric inpatient rotation was surprisingly fun.
00:15:18
Speaker
The hours are great. I was able to work with doctors. I worked with one resident at a time, but during my rotation, there's a couple weeks, like most of it, where there was no residents because they were covering their short because people had COVID. And they let me do a lot. And I love that. They treated me like a resident almost. I was able to do write notes. They trusted me to do exams.
00:15:47
Speaker
also got to, you know, see the babies, which I loved. And, but, you know, probably not going to go to pediatrics because kids are hard and the parents are harder and just not like cup of tea, but, and, and also orthopedic surgery, Molly and I went to the same place and yes, I fell in love with orthopedic surgery. Um, that was my third surgical rotation at that time. And I felt very comfortable in the OR, but the, the coolest thing about it was the, the,
00:16:15
Speaker
I was with a PA team the whole time. I didn't really deal with any attendings, no residents. It was amazing. And they really, a couple of them really like took you under the wing. There's one of the older people in the team had a daughter in PA school. So like, she really liked to show you things and let you do things in surgery. She was my favorite to do a surgery with because she would pretty much let me, she would step aside and let me do everything as a first assist almost. So that was really fun.
00:16:44
Speaker
Yeah, I've realized that the more I was able to contribute and actually work, those were my favorite rotations. I hated being pimped or quizzed with knowledge, but yeah, I could work, I could suture, I could do all those things. I'll do it, but those were definitely my favorite way to do clinical year.
00:17:05
Speaker
Yeah, rotations like that, where they have you doing a lot of hands-on stuff, and they treat you like as if you're a practicing PA almost. It's good for the soul. It's good to know that, to be able to develop that confidence, where it's like, hey, maybe I can do this one day. You know, because there's some rotation where maybe there's just not as much going on, and so maybe you go to the library and spend a lot of time studying. It's great to be able to take time to learn that medical knowledge and be able to study while you're on your rotation.
00:17:31
Speaker
But nothing feels as good as when you're walking out after like a long day, you know, maybe like, like you're doing a lot of surgeries, maybe you saw a lot of patients in the ER. And you can kind of see yourself being able to like work in those roles as a practicing PA one day.
Lessons Learned and Advice for Future Students
00:17:46
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. That's, that's really awesome to be looked at as a peer and not looked because sometimes as I felt like as a student, um, they really treated me like with good gloves. And, um, sometimes that was okay, but sometimes that was really annoying because I could do things and actually contribute. Or a lot of times I had policies where, you know, your stuff didn't count. So you just had to, you do it for practice, but you didn't feel like you're contributing to the team, which I didn't like as much. So yeah.
00:18:16
Speaker
Student, student life sometimes isn't for me, at least wasn't my favorite. Okay. So now that you guys were, were two rotations away from finishing our, our PA school experience, what would be some things you would do differently starting clinical year? If you knew, if you knew what you knew now, I would not, I would be less afraid to make mistakes because when
00:18:45
Speaker
I started my clinical year. I felt like I was walking on eggshells at times, part of it because you just don't know what the expectations are. Um, and so like, you don't want to do too much. You don't want to do too little. Um, so it's kind of difficult to find the balance and also like there are evaluations that we get from our preceptor. Um, they're like a big part of our grade. And so I felt like I was afraid to make mistakes at times. And because of that, you know, I didn't like in, like in,
00:19:14
Speaker
Instead of running into the fire and being excited and looking forward to try some hands-on skills, I maybe avoided more things than I should have. And I sat back and observed more than just going in and doing it myself. And in hindsight, I don't know why I was like that, because your preceptors, as long as you have a good attitude,
00:19:43
Speaker
You show up on time, like you take care of all that stuff. You show that you're interested, you're respectful of everyone else. You're going to get a good evaluation. When you're a student, that's your time to learn. That's your time to make mistakes. So just try and see where you can get involved when you can. And if you make a mistake, it's OK. Just try and learn from each and every opportunity.
00:20:05
Speaker
I think I would have to say the same thing as Sawyer. I think I probably would try not to put as much pressure on myself to be perfect and really embrace the fact that I am a student and I'm here to learn. I'm not a full-fledged PA yet. And like Sawyer said, it's okay to make mistakes and try to put yourself out there, try to do as much as possible because this is the time that it is okay to make mistakes.
00:20:28
Speaker
Um, where once you graduate, it's not necessarily okay to make mistakes. So ask questions, try different procedures, um, and just try to learn as much as you can. And it's okay if you're not perfect. You're not meant to be perfect at this point. Yeah.
Building Confidence and Reducing Stress
00:20:43
Speaker
I think it's just important to like, if the, if there is an opportunity to do something, like just ask, like, can I do it?
00:20:51
Speaker
Cause I feel as though like I was, I've been very like enthusiastic on all of my rotations, but like sometimes if like your preceptors like suturing and maybe they don't like offer for you to do it or they don't say like, Hey, I'm going to do one. And then you do one. Like it's okay to just be like, Hey, like, is it okay if I do this suture? Um,
00:21:13
Speaker
And just like those times when you're like thinking in your head, like, Oh, I wish they would ask if I want to do it. Like just ask for yourself and be like, can I do it? And the worst they're going to say is no, but like for every like 10 times you ask, like you'll get a lot more experience.
00:21:30
Speaker
Yeah, I think for me was just not to worry about the rotations, because for me, I tend to catastrophize a lot, especially going in like, I don't know a lot. I was worried I was on Reddit a lot. So here are these horror stories of people getting pimped or quizzed. I thought that was going to be my experience. But just going in there and realizing like these guys, like these health care providers are just people.
00:21:59
Speaker
They're not anything special. Yeah, they have a lot of knowledge and skills, but they're just people. And it's amazing to realize sometimes we think these guys or these people are putting on a pedestal or something like that, but they're just people. And just working through it and doing your best.
00:22:21
Speaker
And just not worry. And then every rotation, just not worry. I'm worrying about just going in there with the open eyes and getting the lay of the land. It's okay to not know what you're doing and not know where to go. And then things just things start day by day, week by week.
00:22:38
Speaker
they get better. And by the time your confidence grows too, I felt like mine definitely grew after the third rotation.
Resilience and Handling Feedback
00:22:46
Speaker
Every rotation is like, okay, I know how to do these things. I'm more comfortable doing these things. And it just gets better. And just not to worry, just relax. That's my life. And it also happened with me where I thought that like, if I made a mistake on rotation, that it was going to follow me for the rest of my career. And so I would
00:23:08
Speaker
I would want to be seen in the best possible light by my preceptor for a lot of reasons. But I've also had experiences where maybe I'll have one rotation, maybe my second rotation of clinical year, and I'll go back to that same hospital for my fifth rotation, just for a different specialty. And I'll see my old preceptor in the hallway. I'll go and say hi to him. And they'll look at me like I have five heads, because they don't recognize me.
00:23:37
Speaker
And so that's not to be disrespectful, but everything about their disposition is you're the student. That is your experience. You only have 15 months to be a student. You only have one surgery preceptor. You only have one family med preceptor. But a lot of those people, maybe they have five students a month, maybe even more than that.
00:23:58
Speaker
So your experiences mean a lot more to you than does to other people. So there's just one more reason to not be afraid of making mistakes and don't worry about what the people around you are gonna think if you do.
End of Rotation Exam Strategies
00:24:09
Speaker
Okay, that sounds like some wise advice. Okay, so how have you guys navigated EORs? I know this is a big talk on a clinical year, because these things suck sometimes.
00:24:23
Speaker
So that's why this is really the reason why I wanted to bring on Molly and Trisha because I feel like they got it figured out. But how do you guys navigate EORs from maybe the beginning to now and maybe some of the things you do that you felt like have helped that have made it so that you are successful with those and reducing the stress around them? I personally like just use Ross Review and Smarty Pants.
00:24:53
Speaker
Um, every time, like I don't use any other resources. I know like a lot of people use like you world or, um, like hippo ed or like some of the other ones I like only use Ross review and smarty pants. Um, the smarty pants questions I think are like quite a bit easier than the EOR questions, but I love like how it has like the blueprint and it, you can like see like, um, a little like description of every single condition.
00:25:22
Speaker
that's going to be on the exam and a lot of times you have to like look using a textbook or another resource to look in further but I like how it just gives you like a little summary of everything. So those are like my two big resources and they've helped me like every time I've luckily been successful using just those two so I think that
00:25:44
Speaker
For me, like those have been great, but also just like looking up the topic list on PAEA and seeing like the percentages. So like for family med, like it'll say like, how much is going to be like cardio, how much is going to be, um, GI, et cetera. And I think that that's helpful too, because if you do have to like cram a little bit, you're like, okay, um, like my focus is going to be on cardio or. So I think that that is really helpful.
00:26:13
Speaker
I think EORs get a little bit easier each time you take it just because you know what to expect in a way. I think they are kind of a little bit of a little difficult when you first start. And the more you do it, the more you kind of know what to expect. I use similar resources as Tricia. I use Rosh and I use SmartyPans.
00:26:32
Speaker
and I also use pants prep pearls. I think something to make it less stressful is just to kind of start don't wait for the last week to study. Study a little bit each night and something that I think is helpful to do is I'm someone who likes to apply what I do that day to my studying. So if I see something on my rotation I will look up that topic
00:26:55
Speaker
when I go home and look about the treatment options of presentations. And I think that kind of solidifies that topic in your head when you've seen it actually in the clinical world. So definitely look at the syllabus, what's going to be on it. And practice questions are key. Just keep doing practice questions over and over. And if you get them wrong, read through the explanation about why you got them wrong, just to try to help you in the future.
00:27:22
Speaker
Yeah, so I think the biggest thing to know when you're going into an EOR, especially if you're new to them, that from my experience, the question is from didactic year to your clinical year. For the EORs, they're way, way different. I feel like during the didactic year exams, it's more kind of black and white. They're not really trying to trick you. So if you just study from flashcards, that's what I did to get the didactic year, that really helped me. For these EOR exams, you really have to be able to apply the knowledge
00:27:50
Speaker
And so what I would do is I would just kind of like try and memorize Pants Prep Pearls. And like that can only take you so far, right? Because like, there's only so much that they can put into a book. And I realized that like, not only was I having trouble applying the information, even if I like had like an image of Pants Prep Pearls burned into my brain when I was answering your question, not only would I not always be able to apply it,
00:28:17
Speaker
Um, but there's also, there's a lot of information that I would just miss. Like I would get crushed on like all the health maintenance questions, just cause they don't really go too deep into it in pants for pearls. And so there's no like one source that you should look into. Um, I would suggest is try and get your information from as many places as possible. So you have all your bases covered. So like pants for pearls was a good foundation. We're actually does a really good job of, um, like teaching you how to take exams. Like, uh, like Molly said,
00:28:44
Speaker
don't just answer the question as I read the explanation. Because a lot of like a lot of the information can be very nuanced. And so in order to be able to answer questions, you have to know like, like why an answer is correct. And like why like even like the incorrect answer choices, like there's a reason why they chose those individual choices, like they didn't just like make up like random incorrect answers, like they're starting to sound like they're trying to trick you just to make sure that you actually know what you're talking about.
00:29:11
Speaker
Um, so I would just try and practice as many questions as possible. And if you have like some free time, watch YouTube videos. I know, uh, for the other episode, you guys are talking about using osmosis. Like that's a great source as well. There's a lot of YouTube videos that you can go into just as like a third or fourth source of information.
00:29:30
Speaker
Yeah, smarty pants for me, just I found out that it was just very condensed and very high yield. Everything I needed to know for like for the medical knowledge for the URs was there and was really nice and the questions I always did them.
00:29:45
Speaker
kind of helping me with solidifying the knowledge. The ROSH review questions were the ones that helped me prepare, get prepared the most. Because I almost sometimes, some rotations I felt like ROSH was harder than the EOR. Just some of the questions were a little more, the question answered
00:30:03
Speaker
the answer choices were more more obscure sometimes than the the EOR but yeah those are questions definitely helped me. And another thing I started doing to just reduce the anxiety I feel like it was half the battle is mental and I would get so I'd almost have many panic attacks
00:30:24
Speaker
Like a couple days before, like, man, I'm going to fail. This is not going to be good. If I fail, either have to redo it or potentially get kicked out. And that's not an option. But I have gone and created myself kind of a morning routine. I do affirmations. I took what Kendall talked about in previous podcast episode.
00:30:51
Speaker
Also, I've been, I would talk to myself logically. I would talk myself out of these very unlogical worries that I had, like, I'm going to fail this rotation. Why am I going to fail? Have you failed your previous ones? No. Did you study any less than this other ones? No. You probably studied more and feel more comfortable. And all these things you're telling yourself that like our truth to, to
00:31:18
Speaker
get away the false things you want to believe, your brain wants to believe in. And also just relaxing. I just stopped studying really before the EoRs, the morning of and just, I created a playlist for myself.
00:31:33
Speaker
to help me kind of get into the mindset and the mentality to take a test. And that's been a very nice and very soothing. So that for me has changed the game for EORs and it's been pretty successful so far. So I keep doing it. You don't look nervous before the exams. I see you like you're saying that you have your legs crossed. You're reading like a non-fiction book or something like, well, everyone else is freaking out. So you bring up school comp collected. I'm like, let's go home with him.
00:32:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's that Spotify playlist. It's real good, real good. I'll have to share it with us. Well, you might think it's weird, but whatever it takes. Yeah, so definitely, I definitely suggest it's EORs, the mental preparations half the battle. So that's my two cents.
Specialties and Career Aspirations
00:32:25
Speaker
Awesome. Yeah, you guys have some really good stuff that you guys do.
00:32:30
Speaker
When I take the exam, I tend to take my time. I go through everything and then look at the things I'm not quite sure. I use up all the time. That's what I do for the UR exams. Some people are really smart and get done.
00:32:52
Speaker
half the time or they're done with both sections at the halfway mark and just relax. There's, luckily there's several of us that we're the, we're the, to the last minute of the exam. That's totally fine. Totally fine. So what wrote, what specialty do you guys think you guys, you guys are going to go into if you, if you're going to apply today? I want to do emergency
00:33:18
Speaker
I loved emergency before. I worked as an ER tech and an EMT. And then I kind of told myself going into like school, I was like, I'm going to like have a fresh start. I was like, I think I want to do emergency, but I think that's because it's really the majority of my experience. But then I did my first ER rotation. I absolutely loved it. And then I did it again.
00:33:42
Speaker
my elective in ER and I loved it. And so I feel pretty confident now that that's what I want to do. I'm definitely open to other things, but that's definitely number one for me. And how was that picking the elective? Did you know you wanted to pick that as your elective? What rotation did you take your first ER rotation at?
00:34:08
Speaker
So my ER rotation was block two. Okay. And then I did my elective and ER last block. So are we at 10 now? So I did it nine.
00:34:25
Speaker
And actually, when I was picking my elective, I was still open. I was like, maybe I need to just try something else. I've always thought that GI was really interesting, but it's not one of our core electives. But then I was like, I don't know if I want to work in GI. But I did want to get an ER experience in a different setting because I did my first one in Norwalk, Connecticut.
00:34:49
Speaker
And then it was a great experience. I absolutely loved it. It was in the Bronx, New York. So I was like, I think this will be really good for me because I will kind of get a different community and just see different things. And it helped solidify for me what I want to do.
00:35:09
Speaker
Did it change the way you did the rotation, knowing like, I'm going to be doing this after school. Um, did that change the way you interacted? I did things, took things upon yourself during that rotation. Well, I think one thing was just kind of funny. Like when I started, I was with a student that was his first rotation and I did feel kind of.
00:35:33
Speaker
I just wanted to do stuff. Because the first week, they kind of ease you in because they don't know where you're at, what you've done, what your experience is in. And you could tell them, oh, I already did an ER rotation. And some preceptors would be like, oh, great. She knows what she's doing. But most of the time, they want to feel it out and see if you actually do. So I think I was getting a little stir crazy at the beginning because I was like, I already did this. I know what I'm doing. But I'm still a student at the end of the day.
00:36:02
Speaker
I needed like I hadn't done ER for seven blocks so I think that it was good to kind of like ease into it but I definitely was like I'm ready to go like this is what I want to do and it was cool too because
00:36:17
Speaker
when I was going to see patients, I was like, this is what I want to be doing in five months. These few days I'll be in the ER until hopefully I get a job in the ER. So it is cool when you know what you wanna do and you're kind of in that setting and you're just kind of going through it and you're like, okay, is this actually what I wanna do? I have five abdominal pains in a row, am I sure this is what I'm interested in? So that was cool.
00:36:45
Speaker
Awesome. Thanks for that Tricia. I think if I had to apply right now, I probably would apply to the same specialties that were my two favorite rotations, which are dermatology and orthopedic surgery. It's always hard to pick. I feel like I haven't had a rotation that I haven't liked yet, but I can see myself more in some specialties than others. So I definitely think I would apply to dermatology and orthopedic surgery and then just kind of
00:37:13
Speaker
see what the job market is out there. Look at the pros and cons of each specialty and kind of go from there. But those two were definitely ones that I really loved. So I've narrowed down to three, I think. I'll do a quick reveal now. So number three, I believe, is psychiatric medicine.
00:37:32
Speaker
I'm also doing that right now and I'm having a really good experience, really good preceptor. So I'm trying to make sure that like, like, do I actually like psychiatric medicine or do I just really like my preceptor? Do I really like this experience? I'm trying to figure that out so I don't want to like put that like number one and number two, because I still have to do some soul searching and you know, figure that stuff out. Number two, I believe is emergency med just because my background isn't that everyone, like every preceptor that I've had,
00:37:59
Speaker
tells me that I would enjoy Bernstein Med. So I will take that into consideration as well. And like I said, that was probably my favorite experience for any rotation. And number one, I think is internal medicine. I just like internal medicine because it's a chance to just to sit down and look at everything that's going on with the patient. You're not necessarily worried about one thing. It's you're learning how every organ system interacts with each other.
00:38:28
Speaker
And so you have to know so much, but I feel like that's a, that'd be a great place to have a first job. Cause again, you, you, you learn how everything interacts with each other. Um, and also just from personal experience when I was on rotation there, we had a lot of really, really sick patients that we weren't sure if they're going to be able to make it out of the hospital.
Insights into Orthopedic Surgery and Emergency Medicine
00:38:43
Speaker
And then you figure out what's going on. You have like a certain treatment plan and within four or five days, um, you know, they're on the way out of the hospital, you know, not only are we leaving the hospital, but they're able to go back home to their own houses. Um, so I had a lot of really positive experiences.
00:38:57
Speaker
And a lot of patients and family members are really appreciative of the care that my team gave. And so that was really cool to see. And I think that that's something that I would enjoy doing in the future.
00:39:09
Speaker
Very nice, very nice. So yes, so me. So I'll give you a little background. It all started on the fateful days of surgery rotation, freaking out and figuring out like, this is actually not too bad. Luckily, I hadn't had only one rotation where I got really pimped.
00:39:31
Speaker
The rest of them, very chill, very chill preceptors in the same way with surgery, very chill. So, and I was able to do a little bit of the things, but I got familiar with the OR. So I, I, and I went a week with the PA team, the surgical PA team was like, I could probably see myself doing surgery. Never would have considered it beforehand. And then I did women's health and that's half of its surgical. I did more surgery, I feel like in that rotation than I did in my surgical rotation.
00:40:00
Speaker
And I was able to do more, you know, being in between, you know, legs is very difficult. And with three people, the ergonomics is not good. That I didn't like, but the preceptors were great. They were very, the attending surgeons were amazing. They didn't feel pressure.
00:40:20
Speaker
really at all, gave me more experience in the OR. Then I did orthopedic surgery on recommendation of someone else's one site. And I was like, okay, you got surgery and you got, you got, you get to hit things and retract things and you could do, I felt like I was able to do a lot more and fell in love with orthopedic. I love the trauma, love splinting, all that stuff. So that's what I want to do. But I'm in the EL right now and actually
00:40:50
Speaker
It's a really enjoyable rotation on its own. I could see myself doing the ER, but the one thing I don't like about the ER, it's almost kind of not quite as bad as the urgent care, but the stress of getting notes done and seeing patients.
00:41:06
Speaker
Cause that's always a struggle and there's like, I'm able to see a couple of new grads and they kind of struggle with that a little bit. That's the only thing I don't really like about is the, the, the stress of just trying to get everything done. But I love the procedures, a lot of suturing, which is fun and a lot of that stuff. Um, so that's me. That's what I'm wanting to focus on. Yeah. One, one thing that I heard someone say, actually, uh, shout out Matt Rone. Um, he said that.
00:41:32
Speaker
When you're in surgery, that is the only thing in the hospital that you gotta worry about. It's just the patient in front of you. And so there's something nice about that versus like the ER or urgent care when you see that line of people stacking up and they're gonna be waiting there a long, long time unless you move as quickly as you can. So yeah, there's a beauty in surgery only having to worry about one thing at a time.
00:41:57
Speaker
I liked also the felt like I have aptitude for it and very hands on. I could, you know, three or four surgeries. It's hard work, but you don't feel like as drained as I do in like the urgent care, even in the ER sometimes gets very draining. Just, just running around, seeing so many patients and the stress of it all.
Building Confidence Through Rotations
00:42:17
Speaker
So yeah, that's, that's me. And the answer you guys want to talk about before we finish.
00:42:24
Speaker
Um, is there one particular thing that you're like, you're proud of yourself for, for the past like year, two years, like something that like you didn't think that you would be able to do or like something you've seen yourself that wasn't there when you started either clinical year PA school.
00:42:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think the greatest thing for me is seeing my confidence grow. I felt like I took the pack rat and I got annihilated by my advisor. So I started pretty low and I was like, crap, I don't know anything. And then I had my third rotation and got blindsided by the preceptor. I'm still kind of bitter about that. So I'm like,
00:43:09
Speaker
When the new year, I was like, I don't know what to do. I'm going to fail. No confidence. But I had that rotation and in really awesome attendings kind of kind of built in a resident that really helped me with no pressure of being evaluated really helped me kind of build up some.
00:43:27
Speaker
some basic skills. And then every rotation just kept getting better and better. And I think after those couple of surgery rotations, I'm like, I can do things. I have skills. I'm able to carry myself around patients and other colleagues. I have a little bit more situational awareness just in general.
00:43:53
Speaker
And, you know, some things they quiz me on, I get wrong, but a lot of things I do kind of remember from previous rotations is nice. And to be able to, um, talk to patients. Well, I feel like that has been a skill that has grown during my clinical experience. And yeah, that confidence really snuck up on me. I wasn't expecting that. So it's, it feels nice though, to not to have confidence and.
00:44:23
Speaker
and clinical year. Yeah, I think that one thing that I'm proud of is that I feel like I'm just much more able to deal with adversity now that I was like back when I first started. And I think it's from like a combination of having like some great like amazing preceptors that were really encouraging and really supportive and wanting me to get some hands-on experience. And then some other preceptors that, you know, kind of gave me a hard time, you know, kind of like challenged me a lot
00:44:53
Speaker
And I promise you like for people that are beginning like their clinical year is that you need both kinds of preceptors because it's very easy to be a provider like when when everyone rubs your back and tells you how pretty you are and what a great job you're doing.
00:45:08
Speaker
Um, you know, what happens when the working conditions aren't all that great? Like I'm in psych now. So I've been studying like when patients go through alcohol withdrawal. So what if you're in the emergency room and the patient is withdrawn from alcohol and you know, they're having a seizure. Um, and you know, maybe the attending doctor is having a bad day. So he needs someone to yell at or, you know, maybe the nurse wants to give you a hard time.
00:45:30
Speaker
Um, you know, are you going to need to, you know, take 10 minutes to breathe into a paper bag before you can treat the patient, or are you going to be able to like look at the situation and say, you know what? Like, yeah, this, this, this stinks, but I've been in situations like this. I know how to treat the patient. Um, and it's going to be
Study Methods and Scheduling Challenges
00:45:47
Speaker
okay. I think that's something that I struggled with at first, um, is that.
00:45:51
Speaker
You know, I was like, whenever I would get asked like, like, like a piping question for my preceptor. Um, you know, like, I wouldn't know how to respond or like, like if I was going to get it wrong, like I would get nervous about it. And then I got to a point where I was like, you know what, how many times am I going to get nervous? Uh, when my preceptor asked me a question and I don't know the answer or how many times when I have to present a patient, is my heart going to start racing? Or I feel like I'm going to start sweating.
00:46:14
Speaker
Um, you get to a point where it's just like, you know what, I, I, I've made it far enough and I've done this enough times. Even if it's not perfect, I know I'm trying my best and I know it's going to be okay. Like I'm still here. Like I'm still in the program and still moving forward. We're going to get through this and you have that confidence in yourself. Um, and it's going to help you going forward, but you, you don't get to that point unless you're a little bit battle testing. That's very true. Any last minute rants anyone wants to talk?
00:46:43
Speaker
Spoiler, I'm going to do one with my wife and she has lots. So about what? Mostly just a schedule because. As a student, I feel like.
00:46:55
Speaker
If I ask too many questions specifically for like my schedule and things like that, I felt very much like, am I complaining? Are you trying to like get out of work kind of a thing? So that's an impacted thing. I wouldn't ask like my whole orthopedic surgery rotation.
00:47:15
Speaker
No one told me anytime they told me the time to get there. They didn't tell me time to leave. They just sent me home. And I just assumed his money through Friday, things like that. Um, and a lot of other rotations too, have not been very clear with the schedule. And I'm just like, okay, well, I'm just not sure. So that's going to be a good episode because you haven't had like that kind of setup where you had like perspective of,
00:47:41
Speaker
someone who isn't in PH school, a family member, you haven't done that yet. So I look forward to that. I'm banking on that. It's going to be very hot with like a hundred, hopefully. You're mixing up lately. You did a finance episode last time. Yeah, that was really awesome.
00:48:03
Speaker
Yeah, hopefully that gives people reduced to some anxiety. It definitely does for me every time I hear like, that's going to be okay. There's so many, there's so many. I just, I just liked hearing like the different study methods. Cause I mean, like we got like 39 people in our class, but I feel like we, like, like we just, um, like people do their own thing on, they have their methods that work for them. We don't like share all that much, like, like, like study tips between us, or at least if we did, I would, you know, I was outside the book, but
00:48:30
Speaker
So that really helps. Like you said, I wish I had that episode a year ago when we were going through didactic, but that's going to help a lot of people for sure.
00:48:40
Speaker
I was surprised how well they did groups. I wish as my main regret I was like maybe I should have maybe tried a little bit harder to do a group because I never I always felt like I had to know everything in order to contribute because in the groups I had in the past it was only beneficial if like I knew everything so I can be quizzed on it rather than having to like I don't know anything guys I can't contribute but yeah they had a really cool way of doing that which is pretty awesome but
00:49:07
Speaker
But like when it gets to clinical year, I feel like you either kind of know what you're doing or you've already failed out of the program, but it is a lot harder to like study tips. Sometimes I kind of ask a couple people how they did on a rotation because like orthopedic surgery, it's not a core rotation. So there's no PAEA exam. It was like, how do I even study for this thing?
00:49:33
Speaker
But it ended up being pretty easy just because it was made up by the program. So don't say that. Don't change it. Don't say that. It was very, very challenging. No, it was the question answers were awesome. Like the, the STEM was normal, like normal difficulty, but the answer questions were very, like, if you knew it, like it's just knowing it and like, yes, I know it. I don't have to be like, oh man, it could be this or this. So that was very nice. But, um,
00:50:01
Speaker
But yeah, sometimes from rotation to rotation, you just don't know because it's completely different sometimes. Like pediatrics is way different because you're little people and there's a little bit more different things with that one. And like women's health too, like you get a little bit that didactic here, but it's very focused on women's health and women's health issues. And that's way different than like.
00:50:26
Speaker
other things. So yeah, it's very, it's very niche. Um, and that's like, actually just beginning that, that rotation was like tough. Like I wish I had spent more time, like maybe like the weekend prior, like, like figuring out like what kind of questions you need to ask patients like that. Cause you're going to be with like that. This actually goes back to the whole resident team thing was you're with people that have been doing the same thing over and over for maybe like three, four years. If you're with attending, you know, even longer than that.
00:50:53
Speaker
And that's their focus versus us when we could have had an exam on ortho like three days prior and now all of a sudden we're thrust into this, you know, this woman's health environment. So yeah, so that's something that I would do. I mean, like it kind of stinks because like you gear up to take that exam on a Friday and then the last thing you want to do is go over and review anything. But there are some rotations where you benefit from just at least like going over like a little bit that weekend prior just to get yourself in the right frame of mind.
Maintaining Balance and Leisure
00:51:21
Speaker
Okay, we have a couple of minutes left. I do want to briefly touch upon on this. Like what do you guys do for fun during clinical year? What do you do for fun? Because you're not studying all the time. Typically you're working and then you may have a weekend off. What do you guys do for fun?
00:51:39
Speaker
For me, if I am not studying or not working, I'll try to make plans with friends, meet up with them, catch up, or even just try to travel, do like day trips. We're in Connecticut right now. We're pretty close to a lot of different great areas in New England. So if I have time, I'll go home or go to Maine, New Hampshire, kind of check some things out, but mostly just try to do something that's not related to PA school to kind of decompress, whether friends, family,
00:52:10
Speaker
just kind of enjoy what time you have. I agree with Molly. I feel like I try to like catch up with people and like spend time with like the friendships that I've been neglecting cause I've been like so busy. So I'm just trying to like see people like whether it's family or friends or just like take the time to like get to spend with the people that I haven't been able to really like do things with. I've been trying just to do a little bit of everything. I mean, of course like the studying and stuff comes first, but after that,
00:52:39
Speaker
Now that it's sunny and I can go outside, like we live here in Stanford, how many times are you gonna be in like a city like this where you can like walk or like around and it's nice. So I try and get sun. There was a park that I just discovered that's like right next door. So I've been going there. I'm just trying to get as much sun as possible. Maybe get like an outdoor workout or something like that. Trisha, you know that we had, Trisha used to live in the same building as you.
00:53:07
Speaker
But yeah, there's a park right next door to where the apartment is. Scalsy? I think so. But yeah, I've been going there. What? Oh, really? He didn't tell me about it. That's lame. Betrayal. But yeah, so anyway, so I've been going there and then playing video games too. My 2K team is doing very well. I think it's because, you know, we've got a little more time to play now.
00:53:35
Speaker
Um, but yeah, so that's pretty much it staying busy. And as the guy with a family and very, those lucky 60, like I read actually, I've, I've deleted all my social media because it's just way my life. And I sworn off you too. That was, that was my, my addiction for a while.
00:53:58
Speaker
What's it like on the other side? It's so great. I'm like, I'm not stressed at all. It's amazing. I like zero stress. And it's just very nice. And I go walking a lot now. It's great life. Reading lots of, I never, I don't like, here's a secret. I do not like reading nonfiction. It is so boring.
00:54:24
Speaker
And so I'm trying to catch up on all my fiction reading, all my fantasy reading.
Closing Reflections and Gratitude
00:54:31
Speaker
So yeah, I've been enjoying that. Okay, thanks guys for talking with me. It's been great. You guys are a swell bunch of people. And we're coming up with our last week and then it's like almost three weeks of summer vacation. This is gonna probably air
00:54:52
Speaker
probably close to when we're done with this rotation. So it's going to be amazing. And then we're going to be two rotations away from graduation. And then we're done. We just have to pass the pants and try and get a job and try to pay off debt and the rest of our lives. Also just before, before we go, see your viewers that they only, they only know you as a podcast host, but I have to say as your, as your classmate, as someone who has had a lot of the same rotation sites as you,
00:55:21
Speaker
every preceptor that I've had, if they've had you before, they work, you went to the conversation, they ask how you're doing, they ask who I know you, they say how great you are, how interesting it is to work with them. So ladies and gentlemen, he's more than just a podcast host. He's a star student. At least that's what they say anyway. You'll get that too. It always is nice to like, oh, that one person, he was so awesome, but not to my own heart, but.
00:55:50
Speaker
That's awesome, thank you so much, I really appreciate that. Okay, well, thanks guys, have a great weekend, and CEO, and a few days, where are you, where are you?