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

Summer Time!

Well… the class of 2010 is half way through the clinical year, and I think things are starting to get even more exciting. It seems like not too long ago we were just getting over the anxiety of meeting our first preceptor, but here we are at the beginning of the summer and four rotations down. Our class has had rotations in VA, MD, WV, NC, TN, MI, OH, and DC and possibly others that I don’t know about, so we are out practicing our PA skills and learning as much as we can before we take our boards and become certified PAs in less than 7 months! Kind of crazy. In OB/GYN, some of us have delivered babies and first assisted in C-sections. In addition, several of my classmates have first assisted in orthopedic surgical cases as well as other surgical cases. In my Neurology elective, I got to do EMG studies, nerve conduction studies, CT angiograms, and a spinal tap. Some students are already filling our resumes, getting job offers and planning for their first job as a PA. Luckily, the job market for us still has a very positive outlook and our median income is on the rise despite the economy and changes in healthcare reform, so now is still a very good time to inquire about a career as a physician assistant. As I probably mentioned before, Shenandoah’s Physician Assistant Studies program has ARC-PA accreditation for 7 more years, so E-mail the admissions program and get some info!

In a more recreational light…

Summer # 2 as a second year on clinical rotations is slightly more laid back than being a first year student. Yes, we are still working on our scholarly projects and studying for end-of-rotation exams, and of course, we are still on clinical rotations, but most of us have schedules that allow us to have some time outdoors. And, just after our third rotation, we got a one-week vacation, which some people used to go on vacation, others to get married, and some of our classmates went on the annual medical mission trip to Nicaragua. (Check out some of the pictures!)

2nd years @ lighthouse in OBX, North Carolina

The ladies getting ready for a night out in Winchester!

First and Second year PA students on the Nicaragua Medical Mission Trip

Our classmate Nicole on her wedding day

Some of my best friends and the beach house we got during our break.

That’s all folks!

ITS HERE...BREAK TIME IS HERE

Relay for life with Christina (T) Apple Blossom Festival...THE fried Oreos :-) (B)

Hello readers,

I know I have let you all down for quite some time with not writing on a regular basis, but at one point in time, this semester was definitely taking a toll on me. It always seems to get really hard in the middle when family issues, friends issue and just a large course load take over your sanity....Luckily with the help of God I FINALLY can say I AM FINISHED WITH SPRING SEMESTER....Oh man you have no idea how good it feels to be one step closer to my dream. In 6 months....3 Osces, 1 packrat and millions of test, I will finally get to place my hand on a real patient and ask, " So what brings you in today" ( my open-ended question :-) ). This semester man is one of those things that will make you or break you if you do not have faith, family and a strong support system. All I can say is THANK YOU JESUS for all of the people I have supporting me through my doubts, my discouragements, my downs and when I just didn't feel like doing it anymore..PERIOD

For finals, Shenandoah's faculty and staff switched it up a little bit this year. Usually they get together and make us a huge pancake ( blue berry, banana, chocolate chip, & regular) and sausage breakfast before finals to get us all energized to take the tests. However, our director (also a chef, a photographer and everything else you can imagine :-) ) thought it would be a cool idea for the faculty and staff to have a chili cook-off for our finals feast. Each one of them made their very own chili and at the end of it all the class voted on the "best chili" winner and named the winner, a woman in this case, The Queen of the spoon. The winner was one of our professors Anne Schempp with my favorite chili "Old fashion sweet chili" made by Cathy Carr in close 2nd.. It was exciting....Oh don't worry you will see pictures very soon posted on here. It was something fun to do before we all tackled our last final THE NEURO FINAL...well before they tackled it that is :-)

Tomorrow, Thursday May 6, 2010 will mark our last day of our semester. As part of our anatomy class we have to take the last day of our semester and go through all the bodies to dispose of them, clean out the tanks and just tidy up the lab so it will be ready for the next round of bodies for next years class to enjoy. You have NO IDEA (yet) how good its going to feel to NEVER ( God willing) smell the awful smell of formaldehyde and occasion mold here and there. Our class is already planning to have a nice little party and relaxation get together before we all go to our respective homes to rejuvenate and get ready for the fastest semester of them all SUMMER SEMESTER!!!....It's a good thing we get this break because we all miss our families. Stress has made us get irritated with each other, the teachers, faculty, our loved ones, our pets, the laundry, our dishes, anything.....ESPECIALLY during finals week.

For a break right before finals, a few new classmates, some old classmates, and of course myself went out and enjoyed winchester, Va's biggest event of the year called Apple Blossom. When I say biggest event of the year I mean, Winchester shuts down the city and we all have no school just to celebrate this festival. This was the first time I actually participated in the activities and I must say I was very impressed. The vendors had such wonderful foods and I am so happy I didn't let listen to my mind and decided to be spontaneous enough to try the infamous FRIED OREOS...What a pleasant surprise of goodness..It was like melted chocolate with a creamy center of heaven..mmmm mmm good....Luckily I have a gym that I was able to go to and run on the treadmill for 3 hours the next day. But really who am I kidding, because in all actuality it would probably take me 5 days to run off all the goodies I indulged in that day :-)..Anyways after the longest parade of my entire life was over, and we all said our good byes, I was forced to go back home and prepare for my anatomy final..... Now I am so thankful I have finished all of my finals and I have done really well on all of them thus far :-)...God is good I tell ya!

So I am happy to say to all of you who read my blogs that I am officially finished with the spring semester of PA school AGAIN....Lord I know you have your vision for me, but please never make me go through this again lol.... I do believe that I came back to meet the people that I have met in this program. It feels like some of them I have known all my life and I love them dearly!!!.... They will be friends for life I can already tell!!!

Thanks for reading,

So close to my dream and it feels so good :-)

Taneisha

Clinical Year and Travel

Cacapon State Park Berkeley Springs, WV (35mins from SU)

National Mall: WWII Memorial Washington, DC (1hr 20mins from SU)

National Mall: Washington Memorial, Washington DC (1hr 20mins from SU)

Zoooo! Knoxville, TN (5+ hrs from SU)

@ a Restaurant on the river in Knoxville, TN

As the end of the spring semester ends for the 1st year students and the end of rotation 3 for us second year students draws very close, the weather is warming up and we are finally getting out of the house and exploring the area. I have mentioned before that Winchester is not a big city, but there are lots of things to do around the area including state parks, historical sites, and of course, Washington DC. In addition, during the clinical year, you will probably travel away from SU to partake in at least one of your rotations. I think I may have mentioned in the past the one of my classmates was on her ER rotation in Tennessee, so we decided to visit her and during that time we visited the Knoxville Zoo (which you can see a picture of the Emu above). Just today, since the weather was warm, we decided to venture into the capital city and visit the National Aquarium and all of the classic monuments. Hopefully this gives you a better idea of the things you can experience while attending the SUPA program. The faculty has told me that the class of 2012 has been selected, so congratulations to those of you who were selected!!

Right now, I am on my pediatrics rotation in WV, about 30 mins from SU, and I am having a great time. I round on hospital patients before my preceptor, and I am even going to do a circumcision procedure with no help (sounds kind of scary and/or gross, but it is a procedure nonetheless!) Next up is my elective rotation in Neurology, which I am very excited to start.

In other news, the PA program recently participated in a health fair with Valley Health Systems to teach and encourage high school students to engage in all fields of medicine. Our program set up a suturing table where we taught high school students how to do simple interrupted sutures, and explained the role of a physician assistant and how to go about becoming one. One of the pharmacy students said to my roommate, "hey, you made our table look bad..." Let's be honest, the physician assistant students and faculty were probably the coolest people at the event. :-)

I was even interviewed on a local news station about the PA field and what it is like to be a PA student. I had my 20 seconds of Winchester fame. It was a good time, and it was a great way to help get the word out about what a physician assistant is.

Well, I have rounds in the AM, and I need sleep. Hopefully the pics are helpful!

HHHMMM....Im too young to be THIS stressed!!!!

Hello my fellow readers,

Its been a little while since I've written to you all and let me tell you life has been STRESSFUL. I have been going through a lot for the last couple of weeks that unfortunately took me away from keeping you all updating on my life. Sorry guys.... The lastest of my news, and the message I will drill to anyone who will listen, is to BUY A CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTOR...IT SAVES LIVES..well at least it saved mine :-)....Yes I had high levels of carbon monoxide in my house that were detected by my CO monitor and it all happened at 12-1:00 am Sunday which was the morning before my Anatomy test. Firefighters throughout my house for 5.5 hours and 20 minutes of sleep resulted in a bad test score :-( A smart person would have requested to take it at a later date ( SU is really good about that if you have a valid reason), however, I hate being the person to be made accommodations for so I took it and hhhmmm BAD NEWS BEARS :-(...Anyway it just made me want to do so much better on the next one so its actually accelerated my studying more than it upset me as much as it could have :-) Hooray for me finally learning how to turn negatives into positives...My mama always told me an optimistic person can always find the good in everything....Seriously Mom everyone can't be as wonderful as you unfortunately!

So back to school, this semester started out pretty nice and steadily with all the snow days, delays, spring break and our Spring Gala extravaganza that we are preparing for this weekend, it QUICKLY got out of hand. A lot of people are stressing out like times 100 and Im trying to keep up the morale with laughters, post prayers and just let everyone know that things will be okay and we will all get through this.....I know its so much easier to be in my position only for the simple fact that I kind of prepared myself mentally for the stresses of both Spring and Summer semesters. That doesn't mean that I will get like straight A's on everything on anything like that, but I am more relaxed than my peers. It's funny because I remember when I was at the other end of that stress coupled with family stuff going on and now I'm so blessed to have a different perspective on things :-)......Now that does not mean for a second that I'm not stressed out because believe me when I tell you Im def stressed; it just means that I am able to see the light at the end of the tunnel and I know that its all temporary :-)...Refreshing feeling!!!

Anyway, Our class is so excited about our Spring Gala this year. We are already having such an awesome response. We starting out thinking how are we going to sell tickets and now our problem is are we going to sell too many tickets?? The other is definitely the better problem to have :-)...Our theme is Starry Night and we have so many cool things to auction off and raffle off this year. It ranges from time shares in Antigua and pearl necklaces to Themed things like Louisiana Bayou Basket that contains Louisiana Beer, Gumbo, and Jambalya mixes. It should be an awesome time and I hope we raise a lot of money for Evan's Children Home, Laurel's Center for Abused Woman, our annual trip to Nicaragua, and of course our Graduation :-)

So as much as I wish I had ample time to share all the good and bad things happening right now, I must get back to the 5 exams I must study for over the next 3 weeks...UGH...Seriously when is this semester going to be over???....

Side Note: At least Spring break was great in Myrtle beach with some of my classmates and some of my bestfriends from undergrad. Maybe it was too wonderful cause every since I've come back I have been performing poorly on everything thus far lol...the lesson here is that when PA school says break, that means rest for one day and study for the other days for sure :-) :-)...Okay readers I must get back to work...nice talking to you...Check out Josh's latest blog the mood is a little lighter than mine :-)

Until next time,

The little PA student who could :-)

Taneisha

Tune in next time!

Blizzard 2010 and Clinical Rotations

Caption: Me and my puppy in the Blizzard of 2010 (I got a few days off of rotations because of bad weather, so we played in the snow)

Myself and a few good looking girls from my class and my dog again.

Caption: Me, Jen and Dan in NYC just after finishing the didactic year!

The last time I wrote in my blog was right at the end of the didactic year. This is my catch up! I have just been too busy. Just ask Tony (our Director) he has been yelling at me for weeks.

Well, Christmas vacation has come and gone and so has my first (almost my second) clinical rotation. Let me say that if you are thinking about applying to physician assistant school (especially here at Shenandoah University) - do not second guess yourself! The hours of studying and course work become totally validated when you get on to clinical rotations. While we have all had our ups and downs, the SUPA program does one thing very well – it prepares you for the world of clinical rotations. On my first rotation in the emergency department, I got to see everything from babies with sniffles and RSV to patients with congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction, stroke, respiratory failure among other things. I took part in running codes, gave CPR, injections, sutured, put on splints, interpreted EKGs and X-rays, assisted with lumbar punctures, inserting central lines and much much more. I have found that most of the doctors who I have had the opportunity to work with were glad to have the help of a PA student, and all of the nurses and staff were happy to show me the way around a very busy ED. The ED was a very enriching and humbling experience to say the least. After sitting in the classroom for 16 months learning about things like administering t-PA in an acute ischemic stroke, I was very happy to actually watch the process of evaluating a patient for its use and watching their diminishing vision and motor function return to practically normal.

Throughout my second rotation in internal medicine, I have gotten to work with patients who have more chronic conditions. Lots of diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia, but mixed in there I have seen dementia, gout, cellulitis, multiple sclerosis, depression, COPD, and lots of other disease states. My preceptor does a lot of her own dermatology work instead of referring out, so I have gotten to do more suturing and superficial skin biopsies than I expected to on this rotation. During the third week, she and I were about to remove a skin lesion for biopsy and after we had numbed the patient and set up our sterile field, she says, “okay, grab the scalpel and remove the lesion.” It is very exciting. However, the best part of every rotation is when the patients ask if they can see you next time instead of the doctor or the person that they currently see, or they tell you how nice you were to them. All the book work pays off and it all leads back to working with and helping people, which is what we all wanted to do in the first place.

Lastly, lest we forget, the clinical year is just as much for learning as the didactic year, but it is such a different style. You get to hear what your classmates and colleagues have seen and you share what you’ve seen and your knowledge base becomes just that, a base. You are more than prepared by the SUPA program by the time you start working with professionals on rotations, so fear-not. We have all enjoyed clinical rotations so far, and I cannot wait to be out there in the work force!

As soon as I find my camera cord there will be pictures from my most recent trip to visit a classmate in Tennessee while she was on rotation there in emergency medicine.

I challenge you to a BAKE OFF.....

Hello readers,

How have you all been? Well me I've been studying lots and lots and enjoying life in between :-)....To relieve some of my stress I decided I needed to bake something yummy :-) ...so yesterday I challenged my good ole lad Sheida ( my classmate) to a bake off just to make it a little more interesting....The categories were taste and creativity.....

Well I started out with such ambition and even brought some nice strawberries to place on top of this perfectly layered chocolate cake that I planned to create...WRONG...in the middle of baking this cake, I realized I didn't have enough icing for this 2 layer masterpiece ( this was at about 12 midnight)....So instead of going out to buy more, I simply scraped icing from the top and wrapped it around the edges on the cake...I really did try my best to save this former beauty lol ha.....Needless to say, my cake was a catastrophe.. I didn't even waste my strawberries on this thing lol

What was even worse than that was Mrs. Sheidi comes in with this perfectly icing cake with beautiful decorations all over it ( it was a drawing of a stetoscope with SUPA written on it...darn overachiever lol ha)...It was very beautiful...SO after everyone laughed at my mess of a cake, we decided to force the rest of the class to vote on who's tasted the best.... Apparently in order to not hurt Sheida's little heart they called it a tie..** Note to the reader: Bring your ear closer...a little closer...I want to tell you a secret...Don't tell her, but mine was simply better PERIOD lol ha.....Okay okay Im just kidding.... hers tasted just as good as it looked which meant...Yup...I lost :-( ha-ha...It was fun though and the cakes were for February birthdays so everyone enjoyed both desserts because lets be honest they both were quite delicious :-)

Anyway thats all I have for right now.... there's my little blip for the day...No its not entirely PA school related in terms of studying and all that good stuff, but hey it does show that when stress is high we (us Shenandoah PA students) make some great, fun-filled bets against each other lol hahahaha....Seriously I love this class!!

Tune in again :-)....Toodles!!

Sincerely,

The PA student turned baker...Oh yeah Emeril, Martha Stewart and Paula Deene WATCH OUT...Here I come!! lol

DELAYS...The story of my life

Pictures :(T ) Jess and the Snowman :- )

(T) Sheida studying anatomy after power outage from blizzard

(B) Margarita/Taco Night with the PA family :-)

Hello my fellow readers,

It has been awhile since I wrote a blog, and this is mainly do to being EXTREMELY BUSY. I had forgotten just what spring semester was like until I was thrown back into it and TADA its certainly a whirlwind that many term as "organized chaos". The most challenging thing about this semester is trying to manage your time. The spring semester is filled with 4 VERY IMPORTANT classes in which all the information from each is necessary for you to know like the back of your hand. Its not like in 1st semester where you may be thinking when will I use statistics in life? or Do I really have to know this much about ERISA in PA and healthcare? Now you are faced with the classes that contain the meat of your career. These classes teach you how to be a Physician Assistant.

You have Clinical medicine I in which you are learning different diseases & the etiologies, epidemiology, clinical presentations, complications, labs, & differential diagnoses that go with them. Luckily they have changed some really good things about this program, because they are finally introducing pharmacology early on instead of throwing it all at you in the summertime. Nice to know they really do listen to the students and change things accordingly :-) :-)

You also have Physical exam and history taking which shows you how to perform a physical exam based on the diseases that you learn about in Clinical medicine. Finally you have both anatomy 2 and neuroanatomy which shows you how to identify certain things in the body. It also shows you how to recognize if a person is suffering from a brain tumor, & where the tumor is most likely located based on presentation, along with other neurological diseases that range from Multiple Sclerosis to Broca's Aphasia.

You are probably reading this all and becoming overwhelmed with the descriptions alone, well try being thrown into this chaoticness ( I bet thats not even a word ha :-) ). Nevertheless, having my wonderful classmates makes this time go by so much faster and makes each day much more enjoyable than you would think it could ever be. You have to realize that every PA program has the duty to teach you BOOK knowledge in 15-17 months that medical students get in 4 years. Then you have another 12-15 months turning your book knowledge into actual clinical practice. No matter where you go, its always going to be hard and time consuming. It's really about how you make the best of it. Those Sushi nights, Martini nights, jewelry parties, those nights baking brownies or birthday cakes for different people in our class somehow brings a soothing feeling to this "organized chaos". It makes it a little more calm knowing that we are going to get through this semester together. The best part about the Spring and the summer is that everything goes so quickly that by the time you can really complain about it, its over and you're on your way to becoming a 2nd year :-)....A lot of "real" 1st years ask me if this is possible, can this be done? I usually reply with "If I passed with all the stuff that was going on in my life the first time I was enrolled at SU, then you brilliant minds can pass with flying colors." And they have been doing more than just passing. My new class is quite amazing & extremely intelligent to say the least.

In our prayer group we talked about how faith, dedication, priorities and recognizing that everything in life is a season will get you through anything. The sooner we recognize that, the more we will allow ourselves to take the wonderful moments away from the seasons in your life. Afterall the seasons of life, just like spring or summer , to shall pass & if you don't learn to appreciate many things about the current season that you are in, you will find yourself missing out on some really amazing things that it may have to offer you!...Right now I'm in the season called PA school. Stressful, but worth every minute if it means in the end I will be able to distribute healthcare to the people who need it the most. And let's be honest making $80,000-$100,000 a year isn't exactly a bad starting salary either :-)

So how am I even able to write to you all when I just stated 2-4 paragraphs ago, that I have a lot of work I need to be doing..HHMM well maybe because school is cancelled today due to this massive snow storm that we are supposed to be getting. I love these storms as it gives you a moment to catch up on life period. Not just studying and school life, but family and friends as well. Anytime you can get an unexpected "day to yourself" in PA school it's always a blessing.

So I titled this post Delays the story of my life because I used to think delays meant postponing what you have planned and making it harder to get back on track. Honestly though how can anything be planned when the only person who has control over your life is God. I realize delays like graduation from PA school, or missing a class that you really needed to go to, or not being able to be married just yet, or starting a family, or having fun with friends are actually not all bad. Delays just allow you to take a second and really appreciate everything you have in life....I think most delays ( including snow delays :-) ) are a blessing in disguise....

So here are my random thoughts of the day. I hope you enjoyed this one :-) I promise one of these days I'm going to figure out how to post pictures to this blog...All this excitement that I talk about would be better understood through pictures. Afterall they say pictures say 1000 words and Im sure I only typed 999 ha..ha :-)....Toodles guys & gals!

Time flies when you're having fun,

Taneisha

P.S. I have talked to just about everyone in the class of 2009 and they are ALL currently PA-C...Shenandoah definitely prepares you to pass the PANCE exam & to become a fabulous Physician Assistant....WOOHOO :-)

Hey, when's my time off in PA school??

Hello Everyone,

The last few weeks have been crazy for me even though we have been on break. I am working on some financial things, and I’ve been getting ready for clinic. In my last post, I said that I would talk about the “breaks” that you get in PA school, which I see that Taneisha has described a little for you, but I will elaborate.

When you start the program in the fall, the first break that you get to look forward to is “fall break,” which was a new concept to me when I came to Shenandoah University. What they’ve decided to do to give students more of a mid-term break from classes is to split the traditional week off that some universities allow for Thanksgiving break. Instead of that full week, SU closes the university for two days in October and then three days around Thanksgiving. At first, I thought to myself “what?! I want my full week!!” but then, as school started to get hectic, it was very nice to have those two days at the beginning of October to catch up right after or just before big midterm exams. I guess I left out that Labor Day Monday comes before fall break and Thanksgiving break, but everyone knows about that one. After Thanksgiving break, during your didactic year, you get the typical winter/Christmas break that goes from the end of the semester to the beginning of the spring which is typically 3-4 weeks depending on how the university has scheduled the semesters. After the spring semester, you get three weeks before the start of you summer classes. However, if you choose to go on the Nicaragua medical mission trip, one of your weeks will be spent in Nicaragua, which is what I did. After the fast paced, ten week, summer semester, you get two weeks before the start of your final didactic semester. Once you finish your last semester in the didactic year, you get approximately 3 weeks of winter break before you begin clinical rotations. This confuses some people because you start clinical rotations before the university starts their semester officially. For instance, this year the university opens again on January 11^th, but we started clinic this week on the 4^th. It is arranged this way so that you can have full 6 week rotations. Once you start the clinical year, the university schedule becomes somewhat irrelevant to you as a PA student – no more snow days, no more holidays officially (if your doc works, then you work) etc. During the clinical year, you get a week around May to relax after your third rotation. Then you get another break in September after your 6^th rotation. After your 6^th rotation, you take the final OSCE for the program, hopefully finish your scholarly project, and then go on your final 10 week community preceptorship, which is designed to place you in an underserved area in a family medicine/primary care location so that you have more experience with long-term patient care such as follow up and disease monitoring. Once that is finished and you pass your second PACKRAT exam, and you present your scholarly project, then you are well on your way to graduating with a Masters in Physician Assistant studies. It’s up to you after that to go take the PANCE and get certified J

I also said in my last post that I would talk about success in the didactic year since I seem to have made it through (alive and well I might add).

The first thing that you can really do is to understand that studying in PA school and studying in undergrad or even some other graduate level programs are very different. Some people may keep a few old study habits such as: studying with music, always studying at the library, studying alone or in groups, reading the book or highlighting everything in the notes with 20 different highlighters. Those habits might actually carry over from undergrad, but they will all be tweaked of course. The thing that’s different about PA school is the amount of material that you have to get through. It is my thought that anyone who gets into the PA program could definitely handle the difficulty of the material handed to them; however, it is the amount of material that people cannot handle. For instance, anatomy isn’t necessarily a difficult subject. The human body hasn’t changed much and the field of anatomy stays fairly consistent, and anyone could learn and understand the muscles in the forearm if they were given ample time to study it and memorize it for hours. In PA school, you have to learn the forearm muscles along with the shoulder and the hand as well as all of the nerves, actions, blood supply etc. Our anatomy instructor describes it as trying to take a drink from a fire hydrant. It’s just a lot of information at once, not necessarily difficult information. My point with all of this is that studying becomes your new job, and you have to find a consistent and effective way to do it. My study habits changed for every semester and it made me crazy. I would say by summer and the final fall semester was when I finally started to get it together, which is why I struggled a little in the spring semester. The most important thing I can tell anyone is to find an organized way to put your notes and your classes together and decide what works for you. If having everything in a folder on your laptop and only studying from your laptop works for you then good, if you need all the notes in a binder and you have to highlight everything 300 times (like me) then do that. If you need to quiz one another in a group setting (which I would only recommend after ample studying) then do that. Hint: getting in a group to study and talk things over only works if you have done some studying yourself. You cannot walk into a group study session and expect to pick up enough information by listening or quizzing that will get you a passing grade on an exam – trust me!

My routine by the end of the didactic year was to get the syllabi for each course and go buy a 3-ring binder for each course. After that, I would take the course schedule for each course and put all of the due dates and projects on a calendar that I could see on my way out the door each day (my classmates used Microsoft Outlook calendar – but I tend to ignore my computer and it takes too long to set up for me). I also added to that calendar any commitments that I had whether they related to the program or personal commitments. Seeing when your exams are and when papers are due etc. really helps you plan your studying, and of course, you don’t want to miss something. It also saves you from being the kid in the class who is always asking “What is that? When is that due? When are we doing that?” During class, you are typically presented with PowerPoint presentations, which work well for lecture, but I cannot study from them to save my life. Luckily, we had a girl in our class who changed all of the PowerPoint presentations into word documents. I would print them, three-hole punch them, and put them in the appropriate binder in the order that we were lectured on them. If someone in the class read a chapter from the book and typed notes and sent it out, I would add that to my binder as well in the appropriate related area. Then, when I read a section from the book I would hand write extra notes to whatever notes I had printed. Taking notes on the computer from the reading did nothing for me because I would just be transcribing, so I needed to write those notes. If you are a regimented person, you will get through the assigned reading and the lecture notes before every exam. If you are like me, you will read the lecture notes, read any notes sent out by a classmates, and go through the reading and pick out things that you were confused about or facts that jump out at you. If you are an even better student, you will read the assigned reading before class just like they’ve been telling you to do since high school… if you can, do that. Having a framework to “hang” the information a lecturer gives you is truly the best way to retain information, but sometimes you just don’t get to it J Also, if you are accepted into the program, you will be part of a class as a cohort, which I’ve described before. It is crucial to your classes success that you be there for one another, don’t get too cliquey, and help one another with the material. Divide and Conquer! It’s not cheating to share notes, and there is no valedictorian. The goal is to graduate.

Well enough for now…I am off to Typhon (which is a new verb that I have learned in 2010). Typhon is our patient tracking software where we keep track of all of the patients that we see during the clinical year.

Good luck in your interviews and applications this spring if you’re reading this!

Happy New Year!

Josh