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12. Power posing - with special guest Kendall T.
126 Plays3 years ago
In this episode we talk about what is it is like being a student-athlete, recovering from injuries and invasive surgery to being part of PA school leadership.
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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.
Balancing Podcasting and PA School
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, A-N-C-H-O-R.fm to get started today.
00:01:32
Speaker
Welcome, everyone, to another episode. I'm so glad you're here. Today we have another great guest with us today. Do you want to introduce yourself to the audience?
Meet Kendall Traultman
00:01:40
Speaker
Yeah. Hi, everybody. I'm Kendall Traultman, PA student, vice president of the PA class of 2022 here at you.
00:01:48
Speaker
Awesome. Well, thanks so much for joining me today. It's been about a month. I know you were like, the podcast is doing so good. And I was like, oh, do you want to come on? And it was just taking so long because I had a backwater of people wanting to do it. And then I had to be gone last couple of weekends, do the family things. It was nice to be able to get back and record and get some more people on the podcast. There's never a shortage of work for us to fill in the time before we can do this.
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. That's, that's one of the hard things about this is I have an endless amount of people I can, I can interview, but the timing and lining up the timing and I forget things and other person couldn't do that different times. So it's kind of hard working out the time, but we're here now. So that's what matters. Awesome. Okay. So where are you from Kendall?
From Rowing to Healthcare: Kendall's Journey
00:02:34
Speaker
I am from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. And I went to college in Boston, Massachusetts. So I'm a born and raised Boston, Massachusetts girl. And I tried really hard to not have the typical Boston accent. But everybody knows once I'm tired, or maybe if I've had a glass of wine, the eyes come out. Where everything I say is just a little bit, a little bit heavy on the accent.
00:02:59
Speaker
That's awesome. Yeah. Sawyer two's from Massachusetts. There's a lot of people from Massachusetts. Yeah, we do. I think it's just it's Connecticut's far from home, but not so far away from home. So it's within the area.
00:03:12
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I'm from the West and 12, six, seven, eight hours gets you to just another state. And I was able to go up to Maine six hours. It's nice to have that. It seems quick to me just by perspective different, but not it's a little far, but not so far. Like you talk about 20 hours to get to where you want to go, which is nice. Awesome. So how was it like growing up for you in Boston area? How were some of the things that happened to you while growing up?
00:03:40
Speaker
I will say Cape Cod is the happiest place on earth. There's no doubt in my mind. You wake up every day and you can smell salt air, like ocean breeze from wherever you are. Even if you're like, you can't see the beach, you're not near the water, you don't know where it's like, you can just smell it. And there's something about salt air that just makes everybody happy.
00:03:55
Speaker
But that is actually how I found my first passion ever in life, which is rowing. So just a sea sport, which got me into a really good high school for rowing, which I got me into a good college for rowing, which ultimately
00:04:11
Speaker
got me hurt and we'll go into that a little bit later. Um, but that's how I think I love home so much is cause it brought me that first passion and then getting hurt myself, maybe want to go into healthcare. So I think it all kind of started there. That's really cool.
00:04:26
Speaker
full circle really that's a really cool sport only you've seen it on the olympics and going here and especially during the summer when we when we go over by sono mall in norwalk you can see the rovers going by it's really cool it's a really cool sport it works your whole body it's the hardest workout you will ever do
00:04:44
Speaker
I think people when you're just watching it things like oh, you're just moving your arms But they don't realize that you're moving your whole body in that boat and there's nothing cooler especially going to college in Boston You're on the Charles, which is like a big famous River and race and you're up before the whole city so you're out on the water and it's quiet and you just get to take in like all of the city and all you just hear is your own like hard work on the water moving Mm-hmm, and I want everybody to try it because it's just the coolest feeling in the world. That's really awesome
00:05:13
Speaker
So where did you go to college?
Choosing PA Over MD
00:05:16
Speaker
I went to college in Boston at Simmons, which is actually an all-women's college. I also went to an all-women's high school. This is my first time going to school as a co-ed since I was 13. Oh man, how about not too crazy of an adjustment for me. No, it's just kind of funny because everybody who I know from my life
00:05:37
Speaker
It's kind of like I said, like, oh, Kendall's finally going to be in class with boys again. Like, boys, they're grown men. But it's just kind of funny. But in Boston, that's one of the biggest nursing and physical therapy schools. And I came in knowing I wanted to do something in health care, but not quite sure what. So I kind of went there under, I could transfer into the nursing program I wanted or maybe PT just because they had really good programs and it was always an option. Ended up being a public health major.
00:06:06
Speaker
because I took one class that was on the nursing model of care and I was like oh that's not me. That's lovely and these people can do it but after literally one, two credit classes like that is not for me and just talked with my advisor and she was like I think you would be a great PA and I knew what it was but not like very surface level. Just started doing a bunch of research
00:06:30
Speaker
and finding out what that was. And then the public health major basically gave me the option to take all the prereqs I would need. And so that's how I ended up on that. Yes, I like love public health. I ended up getting my master's in it, like my first one. I'm so clearly loved it, but in the beginning it was truly like, here's the major that's gonna cover all my bases I need to apply to PA school. Okay, that's interesting that you kind of got steered towards that first. Did you ever think about going to medical school or just that?
00:07:00
Speaker
No, I knew for whatever reason I've never wanted to be a doctor. I like being in charge, as people kind of know from school, but I didn't want to be like God, honestly. Like sometimes I think about doctors like wow everything
00:07:15
Speaker
everything is on you and it could still be as a PA but I liked I knew I wanted to have more to life than just being a doctor just a job and so PA kind of fell into that I could do other other things too not to say you can't but it's just where I ended up seeing myself the best fit.
00:07:34
Speaker
Yeah, well, because I started, whoever has heard the podcast knows that, yeah, I've started medical school routes just because that was the only route that I knew of and to really be a provider in medicine. And then now I get confirmations here. They're like, yes, I'm making the right decision. And I watch a couple doctor YouTubers that are attendings.
00:07:57
Speaker
And just describing their training, their residency, and continuing education stresses me out. I'm glad I'm taking this route. It's hard, but I feel like it's very doable, and I can still practice medicine without being the ultimate responsibility, having the ultimate knowledge, and having people rely on you. But you can rely on the team as a PA, which is very awesome.
Influence of Rowing and Family on Teamwork
00:08:21
Speaker
Yeah, the team aspect was a big selling point for me. I think that also came from my experience of being on a team and rowing. Like I knew that's what I loved. And it just, it makes it just enjoyable. I think is being, I think this also comes from being an only child. You're like forced to make your own friends a lot of the time. So you get good at interacting with people from like a really young age and then transferring that into then rowing and then picking ultimately your career where it's a team-based sport, you know?
00:08:51
Speaker
It definitely was like that's that's the path. That's where it's going. Yeah, I guess that would be pretty and good influence on you and your decision So what was college like for you? Did you have any difficulties with school or studying or or it was it pretty? You're pretty comfortable with it. How was that like for you? What was that? Yeah first I feel really privileged I've always um
00:09:15
Speaker
I've always been provided with opportunities to go to really excellent schools. Starting in high school, I had a really terrible middle school experience. And my parents basically said, in our town area, it was very much a progression. You go to this school, this school, this school, and you don't deviate. And middle school, I mean, honestly, probably terrible for many. But I was like, mom and dad, I can't do it. So they let me pick where I wanted to go, which was actually about an hour and 15 minutes away from where I lived.
00:09:42
Speaker
So that was a lot on them to like have to drive or find someone to drive and a whole thing But I went for rowing and it was the best thing I ever did but it really prepared me for college I noticed it was a college prep school So I came in a lot more prepared than I think some of my peers in college
College Life and Preparation for PA School
00:10:00
Speaker
And I'm a very goal-oriented person. And I knew once I kind of figured out goal one, two, three, four, there's no stopping me. So I knew I wanted to graduate early. I did. I knew I wanted to be working and getting those patient care hours during school. So I did.
00:10:20
Speaker
but it was hard because I was I'm very much put everything on my plate and like failure is not an option so I put a lot of the stress on myself and I when I was done I was tired I was exhausted and immediately started working and
00:10:41
Speaker
would still probably do it again because that's just like my personality but in actual college itself i went to a really small school so like i was one of 13 people with my major i knew everybody by their name like we all worked constantly together all the time and it was very like a small group team based environment
00:10:58
Speaker
It was it was very supportive school So even like they knew like I was really ringing myself into the ground just like Between academics and getting all those prereqs in fulfilling all your major requirements being on a sports team Also, I ended up working pretty much full-time for two out of the three and a half years But I had that they knew I was doing that so I had a really good support system From my classmates my advisor like during that time that was kind of the
00:11:26
Speaker
overview. I learned physics and chem are not for me. I will say I had to take Orgo twice. My first C I ever got in my life was in Orgo and I was so happy I got a C because I would convince myself that I got an F. I was running around the house being like, Mom, I passed. I passed. That's all that mattered. And then I ended up taking it again as like a post-bac class. But
00:11:51
Speaker
I learned O chem and me are not, not friends. That was a real academic struggle for me. I think that's for a lot of people. Yeah. That was the one like, and I think I had a bad taste of my mouth going in because everybody said it was so hard, so hard. I'm like, I was like, Oh, it's going to be so hard. And I, that was the one that like mentally tripped me up.
00:12:14
Speaker
before I even walked in the door. But we made it through because we're here and then took it at another college with a totally different professor and managed to get on ice. So, you know, time and place and stress during that time, I think also played a part of it. But we all have our academic challenges.
00:12:30
Speaker
Okay, awesome. So yeah, pretty high achieving. That's awesome. That's a lot of stuff. I was I was working part time barely. I took just barely full time credits going through college. And I was putting a lot of
00:12:47
Speaker
Tying constraints of me. So that's awesome that you're able to do that. I have a very flexible job. I'll say I was very what job did you have so during The main part of college I worked as a nursing assistant for the was I got hired under one company where it was supposed to be a pediatric like home care and
00:13:10
Speaker
So CNA is coming into the house, but they kind of had, I don't want to say merges with different companies. It was like a big umbrella company. Um, and I was told, okay, like this is your first patient. This is, you're going to Tim's house. Tim is a 13 year old boy. Tim has cerebral palsy, palsy, like a very just basic, you're going to go meet them. They called a meet and greet, see if you kind of got along with the family, the kid, whatever.
00:13:35
Speaker
Well, I showed up on that first day and Tim was not a 13 year old boy with Suri Roquwazi. He was a 34 year old quadriplegic Marine. So somehow the communication broke down. I was sent to the completely wrong person's house and it was the best wrong thing that ever could have happened. I ended up working for him for four plus years.
00:13:54
Speaker
And doing all of his pretty much care. I saw him every single day for four years and it was like a happy accident, but that was a very specialized way to get ours and I had the same patient every single day for four years, so I didn't get really a breath of Medical knowledge there, but I got a lot of health care hours Okay, so you
Professional Experience at Massachusetts General Hospital
00:14:15
Speaker
just worked with him. Do you have any other people that you worked with? Oh
00:14:18
Speaker
He had other people coming into the home for his home care, PT, OT, nursing, NPs, case managers. So I kind of got to see their role in a very specific home care patient scenario. But once I'd been doing that for about three years and I knew I was going to be graduating early and I knew I wanted to work more before PA school, I totally went in a different direction and went into research. And applied for a job at
00:14:47
Speaker
Massachusetts General Hospital, it's a big hospital in Boston, in pediatric neurogenetics, like a very rare disease unit, like hard left turn from working with a quadriplegic adult into pediatric rare diseases. So took a complete left turn there and started actually working there during my last semester that I was doing at college. Pretty flexible just then like getting my feet wet. I had a class like Mondays and Friday mornings.
00:15:15
Speaker
from like eight to ten so those days I would just kind of like say work ten to six or something different they were very understanding especially because as soon as that class was over I was gonna be theirs full time but yeah so I took a big turn there and then worked for three almost three and a half years
00:15:32
Speaker
in pediatric neurogenetics. I worked under a disease mostly called spinal muscular atrophy, which is like pediatric ALS. It's like a crazy rare disease. But in the hospital, that brought me to the pediatric ICU, the operating rooms, orthopedics. It brought me to all these different areas. And that's when I got to meet even more like PAs, nurses, everybody and really see kind of how
00:15:57
Speaker
the other side of age spectrum, disability spectrum, hospital system works versus home care. So that's where my job was pretty specialized, but I got to see like a wide breadth of what it's like to be in a hospital, depending on what unit you are or all that kind of stuff.
00:16:14
Speaker
That's really amazing. I didn't know that was even a possibility. That's really cool. It was a hard left turn. What were some of your roles in that research? So I started off as a research assistant, which basically just meant helping the research coordinator run all the protocols, which means at that point I was like making sure all the consent forms are in the right order.
00:16:37
Speaker
making sure they're all signed the right way, families have copies, making sure the test tubes are lined up in the right order for them to go get their blood taken. And then by the time I was done, I was the manager of the entire program. So I was now writing the research protocols, I was writing the consent forms, I was bringing
00:17:02
Speaker
the patients down save for one of them. We were in the operating room doing lumbar punctures and injections and making sure the protocols were actually being followed in the correct way, doing like some quality assurance that way. The doctor who I worked for is amazing but very much a chicken with her head cut off.
00:17:18
Speaker
So I was a lot of the times being like, nope, you can't put that there. You have to do this here. And coordinating between their care team and their research team, all of their treatments, and making it a little like research less of a burden, I guess for them because they're giving their time and their bodies for science. And so trying to coordinate it with their regular care while they're already here. So it was like a very wide, wide spectrum from when I started to where I ended.
00:17:46
Speaker
That's really amazing. You have so many skills. Were you taking, were you doing your master's at this time too? Yes. Okay. So once I started at Mass General, there was a program, they had a connection with actually my undergrad Simmons to go back and do a master's and it was all online and I kind of.
00:18:07
Speaker
I had done the few post-bac classes I wanted to do in prep for PA school. Like I said, like I said, redo orgo. I ended up taking biochem and like lifespan and development or more of a soft science course. I don't really like being bored and I was like, you know, I am applying to school.
00:18:25
Speaker
That was during my first application cycle, so I applied twice. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to challenge myself. I'm getting a really, really good discount. I loved public health. If it helps me get into PA school, awesome. I mean, if not, I didn't know quite what I was going to do. But to me, it was something that was only going to be a benefit.
00:18:47
Speaker
So yeah, I have my master's in public health with my concentration was in sex education So that's kind of my like niche part of that but overall it was just something to keep me mentally like stimulated and going and wanting to Keep going towards that goal of PA school. Oh, man. That's really that's really cool
00:19:10
Speaker
I have a winding road of a story of how I got here. So let's talk about, so I know that you've injured yourself pretty
Overcoming Health Challenges During PA School
00:19:18
Speaker
badly. Do you want to tell us kind of what the story is about that and how that's impacted you? So I surprised everybody on the first day of PA school here by coming in on crutches. Being a rower, you are, the way it works as a motion is you're basically slamming into your hip sockets every single day. So you do that every single day for a few hours a day for
00:19:38
Speaker
eight plus years plus maybe a little genetic abnormality in there and i just destroyed my hip joint it was just destroyed was it both of them or just really both of them but mostly my right um it's way back i actually broke my leg twice as a kid so they think um it wasn't quite aligned right and that's how it really precipitated the injury more but so in february of 2019 it got my pain was so bad where i would
00:20:07
Speaker
be at work and I couldn't sit and so I got a standing desk and then it was I can't sit long enough to drive to work so I have to pull over on the highway or the like on the train I couldn't sit so it's becoming a danger because there's you know pulling over on the side of the road here just because you can't sit anymore is not good
00:20:25
Speaker
So I had been seen at Boston Children's Hospital, which is just kind of funny because I was very much an adult at this point. But they had been my sports medicine doctors or everything. And I had gone through the gamut through the years of having like minor surgeries, some labrum repairs and doing some PT and cortisone shots. And basically, it came down to the final
00:20:46
Speaker
fix is going to be a massive surgery. We're going to break your pelvis. We're going to break your femur. We're going to put it in the right direction. And then that should be the, your quote unquote cure until honestly, you're probably 60 and need to have replacement. And if you don't do this now, then you're looking more into hip replacement at 30. And I was like, all right, well,
00:21:05
Speaker
This isn't good, but if at this point I had gotten into PA school and I knew we were starting in August, so I was like, it's now or never. Um, so I had my first surgery in February, like 26th of 2019. So like right as the pandemic was just like.
00:21:21
Speaker
putting its little toes in those sand or fuel or the water and everything went well, I woke, you know, was up, I was like fine, started PT, everything was cruising and then all of a sudden it was May and I was like, hmm, I was told I was gonna be walking by now and I'm not and I kind of knew something was wrong but because at this point now the pandemic was in full swing, I couldn't get in to get x-rays or actually see the doctor
00:21:46
Speaker
Um, my actual surgeon had COVID. So at first I couldn't see him. I saw someone else. They were like, Oh no, like, I think it was just slow healing, slow healing. Well, went back.
00:21:56
Speaker
And finally July, so we're like six months later and my femur had just never closed. My hip, the pelvis had, all, everything was perfect. My femur just wouldn't heal. So they go in, make sure there's no infection, take out all the metal they put in and redid it. So I'm like, okay, cool. Starting again. And at this point I'm like, well, I have like a month and a half till we start PA school. Like they said, it's fine. It's going to be fine.
00:22:21
Speaker
Well, what do you know, two weeks before PA school, I'm still not walking. So they had to go in and do another surgery. So I emailed the director of our program and said, Hey, I just want to let you guys know I'm going to be showing up on crutches, but I promise I'll be okay for clinical year. As see you bring those. I have had two more surgeries during die. Oh, maybe you didn't know two more surgeries during didactic. They were like smaller ones revisions. Um, and I was finally walking in March of 20.
00:22:50
Speaker
21 so almost a year of being a disabled person and half of that being in PA school has never made me more thankful for my body and my health ever ever it's um being very much like a go-getter and a person who's independent and can do things on my own and not even being able to shower on my own took a big toll on my mental health i'm a very like strong person i feel and my stress management is like working out and
00:23:20
Speaker
being active and going in nature. And I knew I needed to be able to do those things during PA school because that's the biggest stress we're going to have. So for me, it threw a big curve ball of knowing the one thing I need to do for myself to make myself feel better is work out. The one thing I can't do right now is work out.
00:23:38
Speaker
But ultimately, it came down to at the end of the day, I didn't work out in the sense that I used to, but I did physical therapy for two to three hours a day, every single day. And fitting that into a didactic schedule was a lot. But what was the option? I wasn't willing to
00:23:57
Speaker
I wasn't willing to quit and say, oh, I can't do PA school because, you know, my leg hurts. Because there were definitely days where I would just, from sitting all day, be in pain, it's like, you just can't, it wasn't an option for me. But it definitely gave me a perspective of hopefully, knowing for my patients, I was like, I,
00:24:18
Speaker
I see you, I did it for this one year of my life and some of these patients we're gonna deal with, maybe disabled for forever. And just I had that warm little glimpse and it made me a little bit more humanized, I think, as a provider. But I don't recommend coming into PA school injured, don't. Nobody thinks the crudges are fun. Doing our patient assessments those first few times and hobbling around the room and then having to watch the video after,
00:24:46
Speaker
oh that wasn't fun but overall it just gave me a new perspective on just like treating my body kindly and this could be maybe being a woman where like just we're harsh on our bodies we never we look in the mirror and we don't love them and we will always find something to criticize about them and it just made me like appreciate my legs i'm like oh my god like i can just get up and do something for myself now like it gives you a truly like different perspective on
00:25:15
Speaker
Like our bodies are amazing like just getting us from point A to point B could Could ruin your day if you don't have that so like just making it making it through Mike I now I can look at a patient like you're it's gonna we're gonna make it through Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's a crazy perspective. That's awesome though. So I imagine that you had chronic pain Do you still have pain now?
00:25:39
Speaker
Thank God. No, it made all those surgeries and that, you know, 12 minute saga. I just told you worth it because I can actually sit for this hour conversation and not have to get up, be squatting, moving around the room, doing crazy things. But before that, yes, I would. I could not sit for more than five minutes without being like fidgeting. I have to get at the pain was as it was, I don't know. We would say a nine out of 10. It was, it was bad.
00:26:06
Speaker
So were you just mostly doing physical therapy for pain management? How were you able to cope with that chronic pain? I ignored it for years. But if I was moving I was fine. But I think knowing the surgery was like on the books that kind of or like there was an end goal in sight always helped. But even I think still I
00:26:29
Speaker
I don't even say I coped with it well because I just ignored it. I was like, it's, it's fine. It's going to go away. It's going to go away. I'm super sensitive to medications. So like I would maybe take a Tylenol, but I was offered many times different medications and I just wasn't, I'm so sensitive. I like look at a Benadryl and sleep for four days. So I was like, I'm not even going to try that. But mostly I just kept moving. I just kept moving and was fine, but,
00:26:58
Speaker
again then you get to the point where oh you just have to sit and now rest and heal that's when i it was hard but it was also the middle of the pandemic where nobody else was doing anything everybody else was you know at home in quarantine so i didn't feel too much like
00:27:13
Speaker
Fomal I wasn't watching the world pass by me where I was just sitting on my couch trying to heal everybody else was also in quarantine so I'm thankful actually that it happened when it did because I think if it was a different time in my life and I just had to see everyone like Doing things and I was just sitting there and healing and being in pain. I would have been miserable I'm glad you're able to work through that. I can't imagine that at all
00:27:38
Speaker
especially that pain and the discomfort and also just the dependence. The dependence was the hardest thing for me. My fiance also works in medicine and so he would be all day at the hospital and then have to come home and help me shower.
00:27:55
Speaker
I'm like, I had to wait all day for you to come home to help me shower. Like that's terrible when the week before my surgery, I ran a half marathon for fun knowing, cause I wasn't going to be able to, I never got the runner's high, not worth it. But I was like, cause I knew I wasn't going to be able to do it. And now I have to wait for someone to come home to help me shower. So like that was a big adjustment is being very much an independent person.
00:28:19
Speaker
That took a toll, but eventually it just became part of this is a blip in the scheme of life. And so you just got to get through it. And now we're on the other side.
00:28:32
Speaker
Yeah, well, yeah, it went from the progression, went from crutches to a cane for a while. Yes, oh, that cane. And then you just didn't show up with one, though, one day. Yeah, one day I will say I wasn't necessarily ready to ditch the cane. I just said, I'm not doing it today and left the cane at home. But I never named the cane, but I wish I would have. But we decorated it, as Sebring knows, for every holiday. Oh, I didn't really notice that at all.
00:28:58
Speaker
for Valentine's Day and Christmas, any holiday I would like decorate it up. Cause I was like, I'm the fun grandma of the group. I'm the 26 year old grandma who needs their cane to like go out to the bar with their friends. So it better be cute. That's a great idea, but yeah, I didn't really notice. It's still on the back of my car and I just don't have the heart to throw it out yet. It's like, it's a little nostalgic in the moment I hated it, but now I'm like, Oh, you got me through some good times. That's really fun.
00:29:29
Speaker
So you mentioned your fiance.
Navigating Relationships During PA School
00:29:31
Speaker
I know it's a kind of a long distance relationship. Can I want to talk about that? I don't know if you want to talk about how you met or how that kind of came about and how long you've been together. And yeah. Um, so we met and I'll be
00:29:50
Speaker
Five, six, honey, don't kill me. Years ago, if you guys probably can tell from the interview, I'm a bold lady. I went right up to him at a bar. He was talking to someone else and he didn't look too into it. And so I went right in between them and I said, you're going to buy me a drink tonight, aren't you? Yeah. So I've been together ever since.
00:30:09
Speaker
He's my equal, he has this big energy personality as well. But I moved here to Stanford. We had, I'm from Boston, we live in a suburb called Raynham, which is about halfway between Boston and Cape. So halfway where I'm from, halfway from where we both worked. So it was a nice location, but it's three hours from there to here in Stanford. And we had bought a house about 10 months before I got into this program.
00:30:38
Speaker
And so we kind of had many, many conversations about him finding a job here, moving this way, but knowing we ultimately wanted to end up back there wasn't going to be worth it. So we ended up saying, you have a good job in Boston, our house, our dog, we've worked hard for this life, so you're going to stay there and I'm going to come here and we're going to just figure it out.
00:31:03
Speaker
So that's what we've done and I learned three weeks is my max. That's when I tap out and go, no, either you have to come here or I have to go there. Which was hard when school started because we had very many COVID precautions with traveling and seeing family and always having to get COVID tests and stuff like that.
00:31:24
Speaker
We did a few things I call my like tips and tricks of how we kind of made long distance work considering we'd never done long distance before this is we only text like once in good morning and once you know maybe once or twice during the day if it's like an important need to know.
00:31:40
Speaker
Otherwise we FaceTime at the end of the day and actually talk about our day. I think in modern society It's so easy to just like text with someone all day And it even in school like it's easy to just in our lunch hour do that but I make sure we actually have something to talk about at the end of the day and connect instead of just being like oh like I
00:32:02
Speaker
was texting you all day, I know exactly what you ate for lunch today. And him being in healthcare, he definitely has a little bit of a higher understanding of the stuff I'm learning and going through and why our FaceTime tonight has to literally be two minutes because I have two minutes. And then maybe later this week when I don't have four tests, we can have an hour, you know, a little dinner date on FaceTime.
00:32:25
Speaker
The hardest thing is just not being, I think, in your downtime with them because they're the people you want to spend time with and you make friends here and you try and have like somewhat make connections up here. It's every free minute I have, I want to be home. I want to sleep in my bed. I want to play with the dog in our yard.
00:32:44
Speaker
versus go up to dinner sometimes with people here, and then it's a balance of making it all work. But so far we've done it. I don't suggest trying to plan a wedding in the middle of PA school. They told us not to on day one, but I already had my date picked out, so I was in budget. Well, someone got married in PA school. I hope to have her on in the near future. So you are planning that. Yes. Do you have a date? 10-8-22.
00:33:11
Speaker
right smack dab in the middle baseball sports dance that will be on our like 11th rotation block so it's our last like one but yeah they tell you that during like the first week of school don't plan a wedding in pa school follow their advice because that's just like one more added stress but it also gives me something to look forward to it's something um you know on a week where we don't have a lot going on
00:33:36
Speaker
And it's maybe a weekend where I'm not going home to see him. It gives me something to do and get excited about. I make us feel connected that way to you because it's something we can do together from tech, I mean, just with technology and far apart.
00:33:52
Speaker
That's so exciting that you're getting married. Marriage, I highly recommend marriage. It's great, but it's tough. You have to work hard on it, but that's really fun. That's really exciting.
Reflections on PA School Experience
00:34:02
Speaker
So we're going to transition a little bit now to PA school. How has PA school been for you so far, other than the pain and the suffering?
00:34:14
Speaker
I think this is the most boring answer, but it is truly everything that I expected. And that could be maybe from already doing one master's level degree before that I had a very keen idea of what it was going to be like. But I think this program specifically
00:34:32
Speaker
is why that is, not maybe generally, because here I feel like there's no surprises. They tell you exactly how it's going to be, what's going to be on this. There's really few surprises, and if you plan for it like they basically tell you, then it's not so bad. Is it stressful? Yes. Do you feel like there's 17,000 pounds of textbook on your shoulders?
00:34:57
Speaker
Yes, but I think maybe just coming in I had a pretty good idea of what was going to be expected of me academically. And I knew more, I guess, socially or I wanted to be really involved. So I kind of had that idea coming
00:35:14
Speaker
into the program but that drinking water from a fire hose phrase is the most accurate description. I kind of chuckled at it when people would first tell me that and now I'm like oh we're living it you're right you're absolutely absolutely right.
00:35:29
Speaker
Yeah, it's very true. And like for me, I think the letdown like PS school has been amazing, really good experience for me, but I had friends, I had many friends, I even visited some friends when they were studying and like medical school, I visited one a few years ago, he was like first, second year of medical school.
00:35:48
Speaker
I thought that guy was so cool just like he's a rock star he's super smart am I gonna be a school I don't feel like any of those things imposter syndrome is the most like real diagnosis of PA school I'm very much a fake it till you make it I come out with like big strong confident energy but on the inside I'm like
00:36:07
Speaker
Oh my God, am I going to do this? I'm no way. Every single test I walk out and think I failed. Knock on wood. I haven't yet. And I feel very lucky about that. I also was never superstitious till coming to PA school. And now another weird thing is I wear animal print for every single assessment we take. Oh, interesting.
00:36:25
Speaker
I was never superstitious and I think the third week of school, at that point it only had maybe one or maybe at max like five assessments. And someone said to me, they're like, you know, you wear animal print every single test. And I was like.
00:36:40
Speaker
Do I and I haven't stopped I make it a point like even if it's like a shoelace Something is animal print and that's why I don't feel tests or assessments That's my like knock on wood feel safe. Even if I walk out feeling like I just bombed it. Mm-hmm luckily
00:36:56
Speaker
Hasn't happened yet so I keep wearing animal print. I pray for the day that I'm not the biggest distraction when we take our pants and I'm just like covered head to toe in a crazy animal print outfit so I can pass. I mean I study hard and work hard but it's always that little bit of that fail safe if I just wear that animal print everything's gonna be okay.
00:37:13
Speaker
Well, I feel like there's a power to habits that people don't realize and like almost hacking your brain into a successful outcome. Michael Phelps done this. Everyone else has done this. When you have a successful way of doing things and you do it over and over again, it's a lot more likely for success and you're just brains are okay. This is what we do. This is how long we take it. And that's the outcome. And we see, we see ourselves, but that's a successful outcome.
00:37:41
Speaker
I could not agree more. I am the most regimented person. I think that comes from rowing again, is that every day I wake up at 5am. That's my time I wake up. I study before I personally learn best in the morning, but I really need to study and get stuff in my brain. It's happening in the morning.
00:38:01
Speaker
I'll review at night but I'm learning in the morning. It would always be then gonna get up, study. Obviously we come to school all day and I make it a point every single day when we're done with school I work out for an hour or do something active movement for an hour.
00:38:18
Speaker
because my brain needs a break. We consume just so much and one day I can't just go home and start studying. That's like impossible, I can't do that. So I give myself that hour of whatever it may be if I'm truly gonna go for a hard workout or if I'm just like stretching or doing whatever, review stuff and I'm truly grandma in bed.
00:38:41
Speaker
10 10 30 at the latest like i need my sleep i would never in my academic life have pulled an all-nighter i have no intention to start now but i also do things like power pose in the morning and before every test in the bathroom the girls here will know because they'll see me in the bathroom doing the obama like pose or the captain morgan or something in the bathroom looking yourself dead in the eye and be like you got this you're doing it you're here you're proven to be here
00:39:08
Speaker
There's little things that, habits that add up to success. I try and be, I would say supportive and send out little mantras and stuff to our classmates or in the group me and be like, you know, we're meant to be here. We're surviving. We're thriving. We're meant to be here. Those little habits like affirmations all day long. I think they work. I think you, like you said, it's biohacking your brain into thinking you can do it.
00:39:32
Speaker
That's really awesome. That's really inspiring, too, that you do that. I mean, I look like a crazy person. I'll show you right now. This is the key, guys, power pose. Oh, nice. And look at yourself for two solid minutes. Two minutes. I think that's when your brain finally resigns itself to be like, yes, you got this. I have to try that next test. That's really awesome. You look like a crazy person, but it's still worth it. It's still worth it.
00:40:03
Speaker
Awesome.
Leadership as Vice President in PA School
00:40:04
Speaker
Well, how was it like being the vice president of the PA school club? I think that's what they call it. I don't know.
00:40:13
Speaker
I just know I'm called part of the court four. And that's made up of the president, vice president, secretary, and their treasurer of our class. I knew I really wanted to be involved. I was a big part of different organizations and always kind of liked leadership and management. Once that was part of my previous career role, was managing people. It just seems natural to me. I've always been like,
00:40:41
Speaker
that way, and so I knew I wanted to come in strong to PA school and make myself known to the faculty, to the staff, to the students, and then for the incoming future classes. I think it's just been something always very just a natural part of who I am. I was just kind of wanting that.
00:41:02
Speaker
Um, but here I find I've so far I've liked it the most actually towards the end of this didactic year and Preparing for the next class to come in because of covet among many things We didn't have a ton of events and bonding stuff that we could do as a class and I could help facilitate Um, and so i've really enjoyed having to be able to kind of plan and do that for the incoming class um, definitely a like role model giving back
00:41:31
Speaker
It just makes you feel good at the end of the day. I also love working with the faculty. I like being that connecting piece and some students are just never going to be comfortable going to faculty with problems. And that's fine. That's just how people are. So I like that I can
00:41:50
Speaker
be that person who people are more comfortable coming to me and then I can bring it maybe a problem or an issue or even just a suggestion to the faculty and our faculty are like the most receptive to pretty much everything. So I just like being that connecting person and that's kind of where I see myself later in practice as well. So I figured if that's kind of
00:42:13
Speaker
where I want to be, might as well start practicing it now. That's really cool. Yeah, I didn't really, I like being in the back, the behind the scenes for a person. That's really awesome that you want to be a leadership, but also seem to be able to encourage and to be a role model. And that's really awesome.
00:42:36
Speaker
What kind of a time commitment is it usually or can you talk about most of the leadership roles and how much time commitment that usually is? I would say it's a lot less than you think. Mostly it's every I want to say day to day it just comes down to like keeping your eyes and ears open and listening to see if anybody has any issues or ideas and stuff like that. And
00:43:03
Speaker
I personally found the best way to do that for our class was like a Google Doc, because we all keep different hours. And so that's an easy way for me to kind of keep an idea on how everyone's feeling and what's going on. And once I kind of have that, I have a one hour usually like meeting with the director of our program, or even just stop in five minutes.
00:43:24
Speaker
here and there and that's like the sum of it and then maybe one planning meeting a month with our other core four about what kind of the next month is going to bring or the next trimester or
00:43:37
Speaker
any plans we're actively working on. So I would say like no more than five hours a week and like spread out like very liberally. And that's like on the high end. It's really, it's more of a keep your eyes and ears open and things will come to you, but no, nothing that ever put my like academics in any jeopardy. And the staff here are pretty good too that, you know,
00:44:04
Speaker
You don't plan things like that in the middle of a week that has four tests or, you know, they're cognizant of that. So it's worth it. And you can obviously make it more, make it less depending on what kind of initiatives and stuff you want to run, but it is what you make it. So it could be 10 hours a week if you wanted it to be, or it could be zero. But I think that's like a general idea of it's more just being there every day, eyes and ears open.
00:44:32
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm being efficient to really cuts down on time and wasted effort. Like those Google docs have been nice, just even collecting addresses and other just general administration tasks. That's so easy. And you just remind everyone that group me. And then if they're still not doing it, maybe a one or two person, like actually go up to them and say, Hey, do you mind doing this or that? Cause that's, I think that would probably really help too.
00:45:00
Speaker
I'm always team work smarter, not harder. That's my general rule and many things work smarter, not harder. So that's just one easy way where I can get a good glimpse of what everybody's feeling. And so I don't have to meet with every single person, you know, once a month to say,
00:45:16
Speaker
How are you feeling? What do you want, blah, blah, blah. And if that person wants to, then absolutely. But just kind of like a snapshot to kind of get a good gauge of how everybody's doing. It's just the most efficient way. And it's anonymous, so people feel much more compelled to.
00:45:32
Speaker
share the good, the bad, the ugly when it's anonymous. And some people who just don't want to come up and maybe share that information face to face, it gives a good, I think, opportunity to still share their thoughts, especially if they're not so comfortable in like a one on one conversation.
00:45:50
Speaker
Awesome. Well, there's everyone's pitch for going out for leadership if you're wanting to. So if you're wanting to, we really think you'd enjoy it. Go for it. It's not as crazy as you might think. And for us, it wasn't like usually there's a, there was a vote and I guess I could get heated if you wanted to.
00:46:11
Speaker
But we kind of just the people that wanted to really did it in our class a little backwards and I think they'll probably write a rule now saying we can't do what we did how we kind of already decided between us and through our group me before the elections even started who was going to run for what so there was no opposing there was really no get up here's my rah rah speech pick me.
00:46:33
Speaker
But I would have done it anyway because clearly I'm not as shy to the mic. Fun fact for you, Throninger, on the side I do stand-up comedy. So I'm not afraid to just get up and improv it and go. So I was prepared that day for anything, but I think there now is definitely a rule in the PA School Handbook of you have to give some kind of vote for me speech and not just do a Google poll like we did.
00:47:03
Speaker
Awesome, well thanks so much for talking with me and talking to the audience.
Advice for Pre-PA Students
00:47:10
Speaker
I'm sure they'll appreciate your words of wisdom, also your experience, so nuanced and different. The great thing about this is getting the diversity of all of everyone's different.
00:47:22
Speaker
backgrounds, perspectives, and hopefully someone could relate to an athlete, injured herself, but highly motivated wanting to go into healthcare. And that's, that's the goal of this and this podcast. Do you have any last words of wisdom or anything you want to tell pre PAs or PA students?
00:47:42
Speaker
I would say for sure like don't give up like I said I applied twice the first time I got some interviews just didn't quite make the mark and the second time got into five schools so just like don't give up and also on interview day power pose get your confidence up and
00:48:08
Speaker
do one thing to make yourself stand out that day. For me it's I wore a shirt that had bananas on it and it was still like a dress shirt professional but had bananas on it and someone asked why do you have bananas on your shirt and I said because I work with kids and I distract them by saying things like
00:48:23
Speaker
Can you count how many bananas on my shirt and little things? And I think sometimes that one little weird thing I did that got me in because it was something memorable. It was a random little thing. So just kind of like be yourself. But if the random thing is you wore bananas on your shirt the day, like don't be afraid. Like put yourself out there, be you because they want you here.
00:48:46
Speaker
You're more interviewing them than they are you. You want to make sure they're the right fit. So just don't give up and be weirdly you. Wear the bananas. There you go. That's awesome. Well, thank you so much. I learned a lot of things and I hope other people learn lots of things. And thanks so much for taking your time out to talking with me. Of course. It's been really joyful.
00:49:10
Speaker
Okay well thanks so much for joining us on this week's episode and I hope it's been very informational for you and don't forget to write and review the pocket so other pre-PA's and PA students can see this because it really does help kind of get it out there especially on Apple podcasts. So don't forget to do that and I'll talk to you guys next time.