Fall Semester in Review

I first started this blog both to have a record of my time in PA school and, just maybe, to share this experience with someone else who's thinking about or going through PA school and wanted to see someone else's experience.

Coming from 12 years working in a bakery, I decided that each week I'd post a baking project along with my updates. I did OK over the summer - 6 posts and 3 baking projects... then fall came.  With it began the clinically oriented phase of our academic year and with it ended any hope I had of keeping up regular blogging.  I knew this before going into it, but, PA school is hard!

This semester we started up the three classes we will have for the remainder of our academic year: Clinical Medicine (learning about medical conditions), Pharmacotherapy (learning pharmacological treatments), and History and Physical Exam Skills (learning about patient interaction and how to do things like patient exams and education).

Since it's been so long since I've posted anything, here's a review of what we've been up to for the past 4 months:

SEPTEMBER

September brought about a big change: our PA program moved to space on a new campus in the Como neighborhood of St. Paul. This means a slightly shorter commute for me, easier parking, new lecture classrooms, and a lovely new exam classroom.  The campus is pretty small and there are lots of good places to study.

Our first unit was dermatology.  We saw a lot of nasty skin conditions and learned a lot about acne treatment.  We also had a suture lab.

No human arms were harmed during our learning.

After dermatology we started our cardiology unit, which was a BEAST.  And Johnny will not leave my stethoscope alone.

Just look at that technique.  He's a natural.

OCTOBER

We thought we were having a little too much free time on our hands, so in October we welcomed a big change into our lives - our baby girl!  I haven't been able to get quite as much studying done since her arrival but we like her anyway.

And he's barely put her down since.

I survived cardiology and we moved into the pulmonary system, which in pharmacotherapy meant learning the antibiotics.  Maybe you've heard of penicillin and vancomycin.  What about imapanem? Cephazolin? Moxifloxacin?  Turns out there are quite a few, each with their own uses, side effects, drug interactions, and contraindications.  Since antibiotics are such an important tool that we have as health care providers, it was really cool to get to learn about them.

My faithful study buddy.

We also had our first simulated-patient day in October, where actors come in and we hold a mock clinic to practice our interviewing, diagnostic, and treatment skills.  It was a great learning experience but was also exhausting.  It was made very clear to me just how far I have to go before I will have the knowledge and endurance to be a competent clinician.

I did get to look super legit though.

The guy playing "PA" will see you now.

NOVEMBER

We finished the pulmonary unit and moved into GI - hepatitis, ulcers, and colorectal cancer, etc. - then started ENT.  Part of the ENT unit involved a field trip to the clinic of a prominent ENT in the Twin Cities where we saw a demonstration of nasal endoscopy.  I volunteered since this is supposed to be a kind of uncomfortable procedure and I figured I'd like to know what I might be ordering for future patients.  It was kind of pinchy and made my eyes water quite a bit, but wasn't all that bad.

In November I got to do quite a bit of baking.

For Thanksgiving I made Butter Flake Rolls (L, from Dessert Now, Dinner Later) and a Sweet Potato Pecan Pie (R, from AllRecipes), and for our last week of class I made Apple Cider Donuts (Bites, since I'm lazy - C, from Smitten Kitchen).

DECEMBER

Representing on Team Tuberculosis!

In December we finished up our ENT section and had a Challenge bowl on teams with third years.  Seeing the third years was inspiring both for how much they've learned and also how close they are to graduating and being out in practice.  The last week was reserved for our first round of cumulative finals.

After our last final we were released to a 3.5 week break, which was amazing.  After this semester it was almost hard to remember what it was like not being in school, but we didn't waste any time.  The fact that the holidays are such a busy time made sure I had plenty non-schoolwork to attend to.

So here I am, the night before we jump into spring semester.  It's easy to feel sad that this break has flown by, but instead I'm going to be happy for being blessed by so many good times with family and friends, and excited to be be one semester closer to graduation and clinical practice.  Since there's a very good chance that spring semester will quickly get as crazy as the fall, it may well be another 5 months before I get back here again. For now I'll sign off, saying Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year from the Baking PA.