WOW its been a while!!!

Well it has been 9 months since my last entry and whoa what a difference.  I am questioning the accuracy of this blog's title now since I am a FULL-FLEDGED PA-S (Physician Assistant-Student) and well into didactics.  

I just finished taking my MSK-Neuro Exam and I am happy to say that I passed (high 80 percentile).  We also took our midterm exam last week and boy was it brutal! I made it in the high 80 percentile also and am now averaging a solid B/B+ avg in the program thus far.  It looks like I am fairing well.  Now, it would be irresponsible of me to not do a quick recap of this year since my last entry so here is the abridged version:

In March I was accepted into one of the oldest PA programs in the country-Our founder was actually one of the ORIGINAL instructors for the Duke PA pilot program in the 60's but I digress.  

Anyway, I attended orientation in June and met my fellow classmates-We all LOVED each other then, today still love each other but not "IN" love with each other.  

In Sept we started the program hitting the ground running with "power lectures" on Immunology and Infectious Disease. We were barraged with lectures and practical skills workshops EVERY day of EVERY week.

We performed "modest" physical exams on each other, showed med students how to draw blood, admin injections etc.

Every week was a new System and with it came an exam based ont he previous week.  Some of my classmates  began exhibiting undesirable traits like "complainitis" which proved to be quite contagious-I even found myself to have a mild case of it.  The tx of choice: Whine-Inhibitors and STHU-Agonists given stat.

This week we were given the opportunity to do Rectal, Breast and Genital exams on LIVE patients!!! What an awesome opp to actually feel the human body and apply what we had learned in class.

Now that I am a week past midterm, I can truly say this has been some adventure so far.  I have 5 more weeks of didactics and then promptly start clinical rotations in Family Practice and Internal Medicine in January.  I am well on my way! Be sure and stay tuned... 

I GOT IN!!!!!!

I GOT IN!!! I found out this afternoon, the student affairs coordinator was trying to call me to let me know and couldn't reach me due to my cell not having signal at work. I finally saw all the missed calls and called him. When he told me "congratulations..." I kept asking "Are you serious?" "You're sure you are not mistaken??" He got a kick out of that one. Anyway, I start in September and orientation is in June. Here goes everything!!!

The fat lady aint sang yet!!!!!

After I received my first rejection letter from one of the schools, I was severely down. It affected my outlook a little. I was thinking that the nails in the coffin were being driven in one at a time. then this afternoon, when I got home, I received the most wonderful letter from my first choice school. I got an interview for the 17th of February!!!! Needless to say I am sitting on cloud nine. I am also VERY nervous and scared and "What Now????" keeps rolling through my mind. Well I am just going to be myself and if they don't accept me on that then I guess i have to lie next time...Sike! Naw, I guess then if I get rejected again then that is the answer I was waiting for and I will be the best RT I can be. Well I'll keep this blog posted with any news!

The Waiting Game and much needed VENTING!!!

Well it has been about three months now since I submitted my applications to the two PA schools. One from what I can gather from a BB I post at, has filled most of their 30 seats. The other school has yet to notify anyone so I am still holding out hope.

However, I am really getting excited about RT school by reading all the blogs here. I am also excited about the prospect of only paying less than a tenth of the tuition of PA school for RT school and the prospect of making decent money while working three 12's.

The work as a PA, though, is definitely more my forte' having been a sick call "doc" in the Navy but right now I think I just need to get out of Medical Assisting. It is DRIVNG ME BANANAS!!! I actually resent being a MA. I must say that it is not so much that MA sucks as a profession, given a good practice, it can actually be quite rewarding. It is just that I never wanted to be a MA, I kind of just had to take a MA job since I cannot do what I did in the Navy out here in the civilian world and since I have been one have been trying to get into PA school. Hopefully it turns around this year. But as I have stated before, RT is also very promising. RT or PA, PA or RT....I guess we'll see son.

It's Looking more Like RT school Here I come!

I applied to RT school last year as a fall back and was wait-listed then accepted for this Fall. I declined because I wanted to see what PA school would say so I chose to defer entry for next fall. I am beginning to warm up to this prospect as I have noticed the number of open positions at my hospital and around the Bay Area.

I also have been reading a bunch of blogs here and I am really quite excited. Perhaps this is the path God has for me. The good thing is I have it secured and waiting in the wings should January and February come and go with no acceptance from PA school. Oh well, at least I can finally use my Welch Allen Harvey Elite again its getting dusty in my dresser drawer. Also, I think RAD/ONC is actually making me dumber medically. I had to look up Keflex's drug class the other day. When I was in the Navy and when I worked in HIV/AIDS, I had the MPR practically memorized. Hmmm maybe its the Gamma rays.

Intro

I am naming this blog "Musings of a PA school Reject" because that is precisely what it is. I wanted a place to vent and will state now that if I offend anyone...tough!!! It has been difficult for me to be rejected so many times for school because to me this is the ultimate occupation.

Having worked very hard in IM/FP, HIV/AIDS in underserved areas, military medicine, surgery, lab Rad/ONC and attend classes at night to finish the prereq's, I feel that I am a perfect fit for the profession as well as the schools' missions-or so I thought. I get pretty upset hearing about students getting in these schools by virtue of their 4.0 gpa with as much, or should I say little, as 150 hours SHADOWING PA's. This may make for a good PA student but I would think, not a good clinician. Oh well, that is what the schools are putting out and it seems that the original intent for the profession being made up of proficient and experienced medical professionals looking to fill the void of the decline of Primary Providers has shifted to a bunch of Premed kids who are not up to going to Med school to practice medicine so they go for what they believe as the next best thing. In the long run, the patient loses out. Call me bitter but that is how I see it.