Clincial Year

Hello all,

Clinical year has been so much different than didactic year and I have to say I AM LOVING IT!!...My first rotation was in surgery and the first week I cried just about everyday. I didnt know what to do, who to talk to, who to follow it was a mess. I began to question so many things especially why Shenandoah thought it was a good idea to put me in surgery first. Then that first weekend of my first rotation I called my clinical coordinator and told her how I was feeling and what was going on and she gave me a little pep talk and told me how to be assertive without being aggressive and I prayed about it and I wouldn't believe the change my experience was after that. I actually am considering going into surgery now which is a dramatic change for me but we shall see.

Currently I am in my family medicine rotation in moorefield, wv and so far I just love it. I get to teach diabetic education to everyone and you really get to know your patients on a different level than surgery. Its pretty challenging because you have to know EVERYTHING, however it keeps you on your toes and forces you to continue to read as you should be doing anyway. All in all I am learning so much and clinical year is where you really start learning what you need to know for the "real world". I can't believe I finally made it this far. Ill be back soon to tell you all more about my clinical rotations :) Stay in touch!!

Finally getting to say the line Hello my name is Taneisha and Im a PA-S. Now I am just waiting for the day to turn that PA-student to PA-certified...AAAHHH in due time!!

Toodles,

Taneisha

It's fun putting letters behind your name...

Well, here I am; here we are. The class of 2010 is finally on the other side – calling ourselves colleagues to the faculty. No longer students! (not that we get to stop learning as everyone will continue to remind you) Nonetheless, we are now healthcare providers and partners to all those practicing in the field of medicine with a common goal to improve lives and help people to the best of our ability.

We are now a part of that special privileged group of individuals who get to call themselves Physician Assistants – it means a lot more today than it did sitting in that seat during that Friday afternoon seminar 2 years ago. It’s real now.

A majority of us have passed our boards and set out into the work force, PA-Cs, with jobs in fields such as orthopedic surgery, emergency medicine, urology, family practice, orthopedic trauma surgery, Air Force & Navy family practice, and many more. Others are interviewing, working on resumes or spending time with family before they take their boards.

In any case…we are all very proud to have accomplished finishing the program and being eligible to sit and take an exam that means more than just a score on sheet of paper.

I just finished my first 3 days on active duty in the US Air Force as a 1^st Lieutenant and new physician assistant as a part of the 628^th Medical Operations Squadron in Charleston, SC.

I am excited for this new chapter as a healthcare provider, a physician assistant, and a military officer. Likewise, I am excited for all of my friends and colleagues who are working as PAs all over the country.

Class of 2010 Graduation

Photo taken by: Tony Miller, SUPA program Director

(One classmate has already been on a medical mission trip to Haiti as part of the Bless Back Worldwide movement. – Already out changing the world. J)

Good luck to the class of 2011 on your clinical year!

Josh Adili, MPAS, PA-C

Finals, OSCEs, and Packrats OH MY!

Well I know it has been awhile since I have written to you all and man oh man has life been so hectic...Well let me first start off by saying congrats to the class of 2011 as we are finally to our clinical year. Man we have all been waiting for this and it is finally here HOORAY :-)...Before I get into all that let me recap on a few things. The Fall of 2010 was filled with chaos. Many of my classmates were under the impression that this was the semester that everything slowed down and got easier, but I knew better. It is true that this semester was filled with everything sort of coming together and making sense, however, there was a lot of work to be done. We had clinical medicine 2, clinical therapeutics, Behavioral medicine, OBGYN and Peds, and Humanities. Humanities was one of the fun classes that forced you to remember the humanistic side of medicine. It was also great because of the open discussions that we were able to have about topics that ranged from abortion and illegal immigrants receiving vaccinations to Complementary Alternative medicines and Acupuncture. The semester in general was more time consuming than it was hard. In addition, with coming off the quickest semester of your PA life ( summer semester), its kind of hard getting back to a regular 15 week semester. Regardless of it all, we all got through it and are starting our rotations tomorrow.

Before we had to come back for rotations we had a 3 week christmas break. I had a great time. I went to a Pittsburgh steelers game vs the carolina panthers. After you see my photos it will be clear which team I was rooting for and we did win 27-3...GGGOOOO BLACK AND GOLD NATION. It was quite an experience. I spent the rest of my break visiting family and friends and doing ALOT of traveling. Its just what I needed before starting the rotations.

We all have so many emotions concerning rotations..Are we going to remember how to do an interview? Are we going to do something wrong? Will we know all the answers? Will we like our preceptors? and the answer to all those questions are who knows. We have been taught the skills and they are somewhere deep down in us. Now we just have to apply it. Sounds easy enough right? I sure hope so.

My first rotation is surgery at a Veteran Affairs medical center in West Virginia. I am so excited to do surgery first even though my anxiety is kicking in. The worse part so far about this facility is the paperwork. When you do anything military they want to be sure you are legit and send you through the ringer. I had to get fingerprinted and everything. It was definitely a process that I am happy is over. Its a little intimidating that I will be working with the chief of surgery but that just means I have to do a lot of extra reading and stay current which isn't a bad thing at all.

Well I will have lots of fun stories for you all I am sure of it. So until next time..HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL :-)

Taneisha

Why does it feel like life is slowing down the closer we get to the finish line....SHEESH!!!

Hello all,

Well I don't have much to write about just yet. Its still pretty early in the semester and things feel like they are going so so slow. We still manage to throw in some fun though which is always a fun thing. We recently threw a surprise going away party for one of the staff who we all loved dearly and will miss tremendously. It was a wonderful day and her reaction was priceless. Two weeks later, we decided that our 2 brides in the class deserved a party as well so we surprised them with a bridal shower and gift cards from the whole class. We had SO MUCH FOOD, and desserts and we even got them champagne glasses and filled them with sparkling grape ( yes not alcohol cause we had it in the hospital suite :-) )...Ill be posting a few pictures once I get a chance.

Other than that we are just pressing on and praying that we all pass the PACKRAT so we can start our clinical year :-)

Well thats about it for now...until next time!

Taneisha

Summer Winding Down....

Hello Readers..

It has been HOT and it went extremely FAST.... I'm talking about the temperature outside and the time going by this summer...

It has been a very fast paced summer for all of the students in the PA program (as well as the faculty, but we don't worry about them so much :-), haha).

The first year students (now second years) finished the summer semester and went on vacation. The second year students (that's me and my classmates - now happily called, 3rd years) have finished rotations 4 and 5 and are over half way through rotation 6. And the new class (now the first years ..I think you're getting the point) has finished orientation and are well underway taking first semester classes.

Most of the now "second years" enjoyed their 2 week vacation from PA school by going to visit family and friends outside of Winchester as well as going on various trips/vacations.

This would be Second year PA student Ricky (on right) at a Phish concert:


Some of the now "third years" got engaged!

Taylor and her fiance Adam:

Jessica and her fiance Shea:



Some third years decided to join in the political debates and headed to DC for rallies...(I didn't say I agreed..just sharing)

Megan (far right in the picture, haha) and some friends in DC being all political:


And here is an update on Mike (third year) and his new addition...

The picture speaks for itself:

Maybe next time I will have some pictures of the new class.

So the third years are about to have a 1 week vacation before the start of the "home stretch" to graduation which is on December 11 (and yes, we are counting). Before graduation, we have to finish our scholarly projects (fancy term for research paper); do some community work; and head out for 10 weeks of primary care ...and then we begin the process of taking the board exam and getting our license!

The second years are into their final fall semester before clinical rotations begin (and yes, they are all excited to be out of the classroom)

And the first years ..are just getting started.


I'll be back with pictures after our vacation time in a few weeks!

Enjoy.

We're BACK :-)

Hello to my million of followers ( okay probably less than 100 followers but who's counting lol),

So first I want to congratulate the class of 2011 ( my official wonderful class :-) ) for making it to the last didactic year before clinical rotations :-) Hooray.....It's been a rough battle but the majority of us pushed through and made it to the fall of 2010 where it will be the last time we ever have to sit in a classroom with a class schedule as PA students ( Lord willing :-) )...... Also welcome class of 2012. I look forward to being a mentor to any of you who feel as overwhelmed as I felt the first time and well the second time as well that I went through this program :-)....It seems impossible but YOU CAN DO IT :-)......Well readers I must admit that I missed you all very much ...I use writing as an outlet for all the experiences I'm going through so it always feels good to get back to writing!

So summer is over as you all probably could have guessed by now and we are so happy that we finally made it through that chaos without losing any of our classmates ( to personal problems or academic problems) which is a blessing in itself :-)...Now we are in our final didactic semester until we finally do get to say to real live patients, So what brings you in today?....Man that has an awesome ring to it :-)......So before I get into how laid back this semester is compared to the summer, let me back track and tell you a little about my break. Over break I did a lot of SLEEPING...I honestly think I went to bed, ate, watched TV and fell asleep for at least 3 days straight :-)... I also caught up on my favorite shows like Grey's Anatomy, True blood, Will and Grace, and the office ( all on demand of course :-) ) After that was all out of my system I went out and visited family and friends that I hadn't seen for the entire summer because of how intense and fast pace our semester was. I also went to Jersey to my family's annual block party which was so much fun and I went to one of my best friends Precious' game night where I got to see a few faces from the past (undergrad) who I missed terribly....All in all it was just what I needed and Im sure my classmates needed!Catching up was wonderful and the whole break in general was just something that re-energized and remotivated me to finish this last didactic semester.

Back to this semester.....Its already getting hard to get used to because every time I go home and don't study for hours upon hours as I did in the summer, I get concerned that Im not doing something right. However, I quickly remember that I am allowed to relax because I don't have a test every Monday and Friday and it puts me at ease!....Just like every semester I already see the main thing that is going to help me and that is FAITH. Our bible study group that we have here is amazing. It helps so much to be prayed for and be able to be open about things going on in your life pertaining to school or just personal things that others can pray about for you or with you. Man God is amazing I tell you...He put me in this situation to meet the people I have met and to be this awesome PA that I believe I can be if I continue to study and keep my bubbly, people-oriented personality :-)

So Im sure I will have much more to talk about in regard to this semester however Im only on day 3 so there isn't much to say........I will be back soon to let you all in on my life...Be blessed :-)

Keeping my head above water,

Taneisha

Its summer semester already...NNNNNOOOOOO lol

Summer count down

Sunset!

A night on the town :-)

Studying for the Labs Exam in Diagnostics :-)

The view of the water :-)

Us at Va beach for the 4th of July...IT was so hot and lovely for the beach!!

Hello guys,

I know I am always starting off apologizing for waiting such a long time to write to you all and its because I truly am. You all are just going to have to please understand that its the nature of PA school...My life is unpredictable and I write whenever a free moment permits :-)....So with that being said...HHHEEEYYY :-) :-) Another reason I had to wait so long this time to write is because I couldnt find the time to turn in my tax papers so I wasn't allowed to write until I got that handled :-)...

Let's see where do I begin...Well lets take it all the way back to break...After spring semester we were all on break in which I had a fabulous time...I chilled out with my family, caught up with many many friends and literally sleep for the first week lol...Man it was wonderful...I contemplated maybe picking up a book to get ready for this hectic semester we know as "summer from down under" BUT I just couldnt bring myself to do it...I really just needed a real break that did not involve anything that had to do with a muscle, a bone, a disease, a drug, a nothing PA SCHOOL RELATED lol...But now we are back and already we are half way through the semester!!!.

So far class of 2011 finished Emergency Medicine and just started Diagnostics and Therapeutic Class. Pharmacology runs the whole summer but we have already taken 2 tests and been through 2 quizzes so we are half way through that class as well. This is the class that most of us find to be the most difficult because its constant memorization of drugs and mechanisms of actions and side effects etc etc and at some moments your brain literally just hurts!..But I can honestly say that our bible study group on Tuesdays ( not mandatory so dont worry :-) ) gets me through the hard times when I really just feel like quitting. I know I have come to far though so thats really not an option just the devil doing his job with his mind tricks...I have adopted a new motto and it just states that I will remain positive even in the most negative situations :-) It has proven to be beneficial for me to chant it to myself when I feel the "debbie downer" thoughts creeping into my mind lol

So anyway of course its summer time so you didn't think that all we did was just study..NEVER...first off we greeted our new class 2012 a few weeks ago with loads of different food dishes that each of us made for them. We met our buddies ( I explained this in an earlier post) and probably scared them half the death with our stories and our recommendations and everything else we talked about. Some of us ( me) even had our pharmacology notes studying because I had a test the next day!....One of my buddies Tamika and I went around town for a few hours looking for apartments so that she could be squared away for the upcoming semester. We finally found one after hours of searching & she loved it :-)...

Another fun thing a few of my classmates and I did was go and see Twilight: Eclipse at the Alamo drafthouse. Now this movie theater is pretty neat. You can order food, popcorn, candy, and eat & drink alcohol while watching the movie. You write it down on this little paper, post it up and they just bring it to you. Its like watching a movie in your living room with a personal butler :-)...Of course there are about 100 other people in the "living room" with you, but its still great lol...Its really a nice experience. That gave us a moment to relax for a second and get re-energized for this second half of our summer session.

For the 4th of July I decided to go to Va beach to see some amazing people :-)...We went to the beach, grilled out probably every day and I don't think I picked up my notes once except for the long 4 hour drive down and the 4 hour drive back....Luckily there is power in prayer because I prayed for God to give me the strength, focus and endurance to hit the books for the next 3 days before our test that we had upon returning from our short break....It payed off and let me know that sometimes ( only sometimes) its okay for me to just take a break for myself!!!...Don't worry I will be posting more pictures soon as soon as I get them off of my camera sometime this weekend!!....Well today is a day filled with learning about EKGs and more drugs so I better get back to it. Ill be back much sooner than before so until then...TOODLES

In the words of my fellow Blog writer, Just keep swimming..Just keep swimming thats what I keep telling myself :-) So close to the finish line I can almost touch it!!!

Taneisha