Life Of A PA – A Day In The Life Of A Physician Assistant|The Every Day Life Of A Physician Assistant

I am sorry to everyone that has been looking for this site.  I had been sending in new post via my Iphone almost everyday now for a few weeks.  It wasn’t until someone e-mailed me to ask what had happened to the site.  I had no idea that the site was down.

Apparently my host was once again hijacked by a hacker.  Luckily I suffered nothing from this other than a lot of down time of the site.  Well, I also lost all the post that I have been making for the past few week

Everything should back up and running now.

I have also written myself a script so that I will be alerted the moment that the website goes down.  So from now on I will have an idea of what is going on and have it fixed ASAP.

Look for new post tomorrow and the coming days!

So I have had this website going for quite a while now and it has been quite fun.  It started as an adventure that I wanted to happen everyday.  The idea was to post the day to day happenings.  That happened for a while, but then the hustle of PA school set in and I started posting whenever I had the time.

Little did I know that the biggest part of this website would be the e-mails.  People have been using the contact form quite a lot to ask me questions and get advice.  This is not a complaint!  Keep sending in all your questions and comments!

If you have submitted a comment or e-mail via the contact form and have not heard anything back, i’m getting to you

Now to the point of this post…

I was working in the ER on my last rotation, look for another post soon talking about my experiences on my ER rotation, and something odd happened.

I went in to see a patient did a H&P and was fixing to leave to present to the attending when the patient’s husband stopped me.

His exact question was, “Are you the PA student with that blog?”

After being totally caught off guard for a moment I said yes.

He told me that his son was on the waiting list to get into the PA program at MCG and that he had used my site to help with this interview and application process.

He also told me that his son had asked me a question via this blog and that I had typed up a long meaningful response that helped his son out quite a bit.

I think this sums up everything I ever wanted this blog to do.

I have always wanted to get out the word about physician assistants and give everyone that cares a look into the life of a PA student.

So, keep the comments and questions coming and I promise I get to them all in due time.

Now my only question is… how in the world did the father know I was the one with the blog? !  I mean there were 50 MCG PA students?!

I’m looking for a South University PA student.  That would be South University in Savannah, GA.  If you are a student there  currently in clinical rotations or about to be in clinical rotations could you please use the CONTACT US link on the top bar and just send me a comment saying you are a student.  I have a question that only a South Student can answer!

Thanks so much!

I know this is way off topic from normal post, but seeing as I am on Christmas break, I have been playing with tons of new internet stuff.

I recently started using Google Wave and have really enjoyed it!  Its an awesome way to chat and talk with friends.

The only problem is that it is by invitation only at this moment.

And that is where I come in for you guys.

I really don’t have anyone to give my invitations away to, so i’m offering them up to all the visitors to this site.

So leave a comment or use the contact link at the top of the page and request an invitation.

If you don’t know what Google Invitation is check out the video below!

I have had a few fellow classmates and e-mails from visitors asking what programs I recommend for the Iphone or Ipod touch for PAs or medical students.

I think the one program I can say I have used the most is Epocrates.  I have only used the Free version, but it has been great for me.

Being able to pull up drugs quickly and find all the information I need about them is great.  There have even been a time or two when a doctor didn’t know something about a drug so he/she asked me to look it up on my Iphone while we were in the room with a patient.

From what I can tell some doctors are embracing the idea of Iphones and the such and think they are a great addition when treating patients.

Anyway, Epocrates is a must have for all PA and medical students on rotations.

I have not used the paid version such as Epocrates Essentials, but I hear that it is well worth the money.

I have a 50% CODE for Epocrates Essentials that you can find at the end of the post.  As far as I know it still works, if not I can try and get another one for you guys.

Look for more post on programs that I use and find helpful during my rotations!

Epocrates Essentials 50% code: ACEP94404STU

I have been getting quite a few e-mails asking me what books I used during my first year of PA school and what things have been helpful during my rotations.

I thought I would start with something that has helped me greatly during my rotations.  And that would be “Maxwell Quick Medical Reference”

At $7.95 on Amazon its not expensive and it has info that will save you during rotations.  Many times I have quickly flipped to the labs section to get a refresher on the normal lab values right before being pimped on the subject.

The pages are color coded so its easy to find the section you are looking for and the book is tiny.  REALLY tiny.  It will fit in any size pocket and you will actually forget you have it, its so small.

It contains guidelines for writing admission, discharge, and other notes commonly encountered on medicine, surgery, and ob-gyn rotations. It also includes commonly used formulas and cheat sheets for H&Ps and the neuro and the minimental status exam.

And I have to say, mine has been through hell and back and is still holding in strong!

So make sure you grab a copy before you start rotations!

You can buy it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Maxwell-Quick-Medical-Reference-Refe/dp/0964519135

I can’t think I have never blogged about this before, but it is important when thinking about going to PA school or actually starting PA school.

In the old days note taking was done with pencil/pen and paper.

In today’s world its done with a computer. All throughout my first year of PA school I used my laptop more than ever before. Heck, all the lectures were provided to use in either powerpoint form or pdf.

To take notes most people in my class would use OneNote by Microsoft. It basically takes the powerpoint or pdf and puts it into a format that allows for note taking on the slides.

I actually wrote all my notes while in class, while having the lecture up on my computer. I would just note the slide number and then wrote my note.

Heck, even now while on rotations a laptop has come in as a must.

Now I used an old laptop that I had used for quite a while. Other, well most the class, had bought new computers, mostly PCs. There were a few people that had MACs as well.

So I guess you should buy a computer that is going to last for a while. So buy something GOOD.
Make sure to get Microsoft office, but wait on this as in most cases as you can get it cheap through your school.

If you have found other software to be useful while in PA school let us know by commenting!

The guys and gals of the 2010 Emory PA class created this cool spoof video.  A must watch.

I  think it just goes to show that even if we as PA students spend all our time studying we do still have time for fun and a sense of humor.

I was sitting at my OB/GYN rotation thinking today how crappy it is to know that I can’t afford to buy things that I might need or want.  For example, textbooks are just down right expensive and being on rotations means having to pay for gas to drive to the rotation site.

Then the thought came to me….

Why not try and start a HELP the Physician Assistant Student Campaign.

The idea is that the Physician Assistant community and the the general medical community could help selected students by making donations to them.

How much donated is determined by the persons doing the donating.

Maybe even the donation person could buy a few books off of amazon.com that a student needs and have them sent to the student.

What do you guys think?

Sound like something you would help out with?

So this past year has been an adventure with the site.

First the site was hacked several times.

Next the server went haywire as things had been changed and damaged by the hacker.

Then recently, the server went down and seems to have grown a mind of its own.

And so the few updates that I have made to the blog are gone..

but I have moved the site to another server and things should be working like magic now!

So hopefully you are here reading the blog with no trouble and I will try and get a few things posted about how rotations are going!