The PAEA Future Educator Fellowship

The PAEA Future Educator Fellowship

The Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) inaugurated its first class of PA students to the PAEA Education Forum in Washington, D.C. in November of this year (2015). This session included, for the first time ever, a group of PA students enrolled (didactic or clinical) in a PAEA member program to apply for the Future Educator Fellowship. Application requirements included a short personal statement, a program director certification form, CV/resume, and answers to 2 questions regarding interest in PA education. The main points of contact for this fellowship were Danielle DiSilvestro (Director of Application & Student Services, PAEA guru), Sheryl Vermont (Director), and Renee Despot (Coordinator).

Fifth Semester at UT Southwestern

Fifth Semester at UTSW

Below is a schedule taken from our program website detailing the clinical rotation schedule. Each student’s rotations are already set up for them (a huge plus), as I learned at the PAEA conference this year that not all PA programs do this. Some programs require that you setup your own rotations. Additionally, I appreciated an increased level of security that our rotations were quality - something not all programs ensure. Our rotations have been vetted before, dropping sites and preceptors who do not meet a high enough standard for our students. Our clinical coordinators have also done a great job of ensuring preceptors provide feedback to our students and that we get the most experience on each rotation, never being left in the shadows.

The PA School Interview Guide

The PA School Interview Guide

Updated: 10/27/2015

Knowing how to prepare for a PA school interview is as easy as...oh, wait. It’s not at all easy. In fact, easy is probably the last word that comes to mind when you think about your upcoming interview at any PA program. Considering how competitive PA school is and how increasingly competitive acceptance is becoming, you’ll want to read this article to ensure you are fully equipped with the right information before walking through the door.

Numerous PA hopefuls comment on my blog daily, including students who have been offered interviews and are curious about how to prepare; others who have been through interviews and are simply looking for ways to improve. You’ll find the majority of PA school Interview Questions, Essays, and Scenarios on this blog post. The following is an updated guide for the types of questions programs are asking now, topics you’ll need to know, and questions you should be asking.

5 STEPS FOR PA INTERVIEW PREP

1. The first step to be successful in the PA school interview is to CHECK OUT THE PA SCHOOL INTERVIEW GUIDE - this guide will give you the “in’s and out’s” of each program with information about the interview you will not always find on the program’s sites.
   

EENT List of Most Commons for Physician Assistant Students

Most Commons in HEENT for Physician Assistants

HEENT (EENT) makes up 9% of the PANCE and is one of the most common “bread and butter” medicine topics you’ll come across. Below is a combination of “most commons”, “buzzwords”, and other clinical pearls I have come across since completing my didactic year. I compiled this in order to help myself prepare for the PANCE and for rotations. I hope it helps you in your studies as well.

1. Head
1. Bell’s Palsy - most common acute disease involving a single nerve and most common cause of acute facial nerve paralysis

Fourth Semester at UT Southwestern

Fourth Semester at UT Southwestern

Updated: 08/03/2015

Finishing didactic is probably one of the most bittersweet and alleviating feelings you have ever felt in your life; there really isn’t another comparison, unless passing the PANCE feels the same way or better. Although this semester may have had a less demanding class-schedule and less courses than previous semesters, there was definitely enough work to be done. Between SOAP write-ups, seeing patients in the hospital or in a controlled (OSCE) setting, or preparing for exams, there was never a dull moment. This semester felt like one of the most rewarding because we finished our didactic education - now it is time to review everything, hammering the material in, and ensuring we are competent providers when we graduate.

Pediatrics List of Most Commons for Physician Assistant Students

Most Commons in Pediatrics

• Most Common Congenital Heart Lesions
• Left-to-Right Shunts (Breathless)
• VSD (Ventricular septal defect) - 30%
• Right-to-Left Shunt (Blue)
• Tetralogy of Fallot - 5%
• Most common cyanotic heart anomaly with R-L shunt
• Common Mixing (Breathless and blue)
• Atrioventricular septal defect (complete) - 2%
• Coarctation of the Aorta - most common site is ligamentum arteriosum
• More common in males than females (3:1)
• Pathognomonic signs: rib notching on CXR, “three sign” on CTA

The 80-Hour Resident Work Rule

The 80-Hour Resident Work Rule

In the past, there was conflict with the number of hours medical residents were allowed to work in one week. If you have ever heard of Libby Zion, then you know exactly why that is. She was a patient who died at the age of 18 of serotonin syndrome under the care of what her father considered ‘overworked residents’ and ‘intern physicians’. Because of this, ACGME (the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) adopted a regulation similar to the Libby Zion Law, also known as the NY State Department of Health Code, Section 405. The regulation put a clinical-hour (‘duty’) maximum on all ‘residents’ of accredited medical training institutions. These ‘duty hours’ are limited to 80 hours per week, averaged over a four-week period, inclusive of all in-house call activities and all moonlighting’ as stated in the ACGME Common Duty Hour Requirements document. The document also states that PGY-1 (postgraduate year-1) residents are currently limited to duty periods of 16-hours duration, while PGY-2 residents are limited to a maximum of 24 hours of continuous duty in the hospital.

20 Phone Apps for Physician Assistants

20 Phone Apps for Physician Assistants
With the immersion and implementation of EMR,  medical phone applications has drastically changed - for the better. As a physician assistant or PA student, you will tasked with “keeping up with the Jones’” in order to monitor the progress of your patients and keep patients interested enough to want to monitor themselves. Products like the Apple Watch and the FitBit have already proven that patients want to monitor their vitals, we just needed a better, easier, and more efficient way for them to do it. I have found the following applications interesting enough to implement into my own practice, but I have not listed any applications for studying here. Instead, these apps offer a variety of services and resources available to you for your patient interaction and monitoring. Take a look at some of them and let me know what you think. If you have found an app that you think is better than some of these listed, let me know in the comments section and I’ll definitely check them out. Thanks for reading!

Practicing EKGs for Physician Assistants

Practicing EKGs for Physician Assistants

I get a lot of requests about EKG/ECG courses in preparation for PA school or the PANCE and numerous people searching for EKG courses are re-routed to my blog, so I put a list of them together for your convenience. I hope that pre-PA students, PA-S, and PA-C are all able to utilize these resources and find one convenient, affordable, and suitable to their situation. I’ve tried to list costs and details about some of them, but they’re all very different and some of them are so new they don’t have reviews yet. They range from basic to intermediate and advanced ECG interpretation. Later, I talk about in-person courses and even free resources. There are also books that you can purchase to help you study, which is how I studied EKGs and I found it most helpful to practice strips - lots and lots of them. If you’re feeling ambitious or you work in cardiology, you might consider becoming certified in EKGs, and I provide information about that below as well. Good luck in your studies to becoming a better PA and understanding these rhythms!

Online Physician Assistant Programs

First Online PA Program

By now you’ve surely heard of the first Physician Assistant, excuse me, Physician Associate program wanting to go “live”. What I mean by this is a fully incorporated didactic online program in medicine resulting in the completion of a master's degree without any prior PA training (no certificate, associate’s or bachelor’s degree in PA studies). Yale first announced this news on March 10th, 2015 and while it has had mixed feelings from across the PA and physician community, technology is changing, education is changing, and the realm of the physician assistant must change too. In this article I will brief you on the background of the program and hopefully provide an unbiased approach to online physician assistant programs.

The introduction of Yale School of Medicine's online Physician Associate program has definitely stirred about much debate. Schools like Yale have an outstanding reputation of graduating highly skilled and well-trained physician associates/assistants, but in April of 2015 ARC-PA did approve their initial proposal, as an increase in class size was necessary.

Third Semester at UT Southwestern

Third Semester at UT Southwestern

They say that the further you move along in PA school, the tougher it gets, and “they” are right. In light of the fact that it is only our third semester, this has been the busiest one, for sure. It feels like we had just started the GI block, but before long we had completed neurology, orthopaedics, endocrine, and nephrology/urology. Alas, we received information about our clinical rotations beginning in the fall about 2-3 weeks ago and I am ecstatic. Not only that, but I now have my very own little. If you were unaware, our program has the big/little system. I am able to pass down helpful information and books to my little to help her navigate through PA school.

Orthopaedics List of Most Commons for Physician Assistant Students

Most Commons in Orthopaedics

• Compartment Syndrome
• Most commonly occurs in lower leg following tibia fractures or crash injuries
• Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Injury - most commonly injured knee ligament
• Osgood Schlatter’s Syndrome - most common in adolescents that are overactive (too many sports)
• Patellofemoral Pain: most commonly caused by anterior knee pain syndrome, chondromalacia patella, patellofemoral osteoarthritis
• Fibromyalgia - most common cause of chronic, widespread pain in the US

Why I Chose UT Southwestern's Physician Assistant (PA) Program

Why Did You Choose UT Southwestern’s PA Program?

This is a commonly asked question. I get this question about once a week from my blog or in-person when I give campus tours. It is a very difficult question to answer. Mainly because it's difficult to answer without making one PA program shine and all of the others look inferior. There are plenty of wonderful PA programs available, so I won’t spend any time criticizing them. Instead, I will say a few things about the program I did choose. These are in no particular order.

1. Excellent rotation sites: When I was looking into UTSW, they were building 2 new major hospitals within walking distance of the university (William P. Clements and Parkland Memorial Hospital). Those hospitals are now complete and are some of the largest in the southwest region, they offer state of the art facilities, and will include many new rotation sites for our program allowing it to grow in size. In addition, our program phases out bad rotations if they find any not up to high standards (which does occasionally happen) and they find new rotations for students if that does happen.

Neurology List of Most Commons for Physician Assistant Students

Most Commons in Neurology

• Tension Headache - most common type of headache
• Episodic Tension-Type Headache - most common headache subtype (<15 days monthly)
• Migraine - most common recurrent headache disorder
• Medication Overuse Headache (Analgesic Rebound) - most common cause of migraine-like and “mixed” headaches that occur > 15 days per month
• Epilepsy - most common in childhood due to perinatal injury, infection and genetic factors and old age due to stroke, tumors, or dementia
• Seizures
• Most common toxic causes of seizures: drugs, alcohol, and medications
• Most common metabolic causes of seizures: hypocalcemia, hypoglycemia, hyponatremia, hypoxia

From International Student to Physician Assistant

From International Student to Physician Assistant

Updated: 07/08/2016

You may be an international medical graduate (IMG), a caribbean medical student, or a student from a foreign country (outside the United States) wanting to attend physician assistant (PA) school. While it may seem daunting at first, do not be frightened by the lengthy application process or by the worrisome anecdotal stories you may read about online.

You will need to prepare your materials before throwing an application together. Many international students and international medical graduates see medical school residency matching as a barrier to becoming a licensed provider in the United States, which is why they choose to become physician assistants.

2015 PANCE Updates

2015 PANCE Updates

Because of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) publication, NCCPA will adapt its content blueprints, disease and disorder lists, and psychiatry-related terminology within test questions to conform to DSM-5 classifications and diagnostic criteria for all of our examinations beginning in 2015, according to the following timeline:

PANCE and PANRE administered in 2015:

In these examinations, psychiatry-related terminology within test questions will include the DSM-5 terminology followed by the DSM-IV-TR terminology in parentheses. Example: illness anxiety disorder (hypochondriasis)

PANCE and PANRE administered in 2016 and beyond:

In these examinations, only the DSM-5 terminology will be provided when appropriate. Example: illness anxiety disorder

Please also review the 2015 Content Blueprint Organ Areas and make sure you are studying with emphasis on those areas with most content. Remember, psychiatry is 6% of the PANCE!

Gastroenterology List of Most Commons for Physician Assistant Students

Esophageal adenocarcinoma is the fastest growing cancer in the United States. In total, it affects about 1.5 million people per year worldwide and 38,000 in the US alone. There has been a 6-fold increase in the last 3 decades, accounting for 60% of esophageal cancers. This is one puppy you don’t want to mess with; don’t even get me started on colorectal cancer!

Gastroenterology accounts for 10% of the PANCE, so make sure you pay attention during this part of your didactic phase! Knowing that, you had better take a step into gastroenterology with your thinking cap on ready to learn about new disease and therapy that can affect the way you provide care everyday.

Most Commons in Gastroenterology

• Heartburn (pyrosis) - most common symptom of esophageal disease
• GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease) - most common disorder of the esophagus
• Ulcerative Colitis - most commonly affects young adults in 2nd and 3rd decade of life, but 2nd peak in 7th decade
• Most common in N. America, England, N. Europe, and Australia
• More common in industrialized countries
• More common in higher socioeconomic status
• Important: Ulcerative colitis increases the risk of colorectal cancer
• Crohn’s Disease - most common between 15-30 years of age, though can present at any age
• More common in industrialized countries
• More common in higher economic status
• Most common in N. America, England, N. Europe, and Australia
• Skip areas common: The most common distribution pattern of Crohn’s disease is ileocecal, which involves the distal portion of the small intestine (terminal ileum) and the proximal large bowel (40% of patients)
• Most common skin lesions in IBD: pyoderma gangrenosum and erythema nodosum

Pi Alpha Honor Society

Pi Alpha Honor Society

“Scholarship, Service, Leadership”

Pi Alpha [PAEA, 2015]. 

A membership motion at the October 2003 PAEA (formerly APAP) Education Forum in Phoenix, Arizona is what began the first national honor society for physician assistants. Now known as Pi Alpha, the Society was originally created to recognize PAs and promote “significant academic achievement, leadership, research, and community/professional service; and the encouragement of a high standard of character and conduct among both physician assistant students and graduates.” In only it’s second year in existence, Pi Alpha had 50 chapters established and nearly 300 students, faculty, alumni, and honorary members inducted. Today, there are 87 chapters registered across 33 states, including the District of Columbia. You can click the link to find out if your PA program has an active chapter.

“We established a Pi Alpha chapter because it is not strictly based on academic performance like Alpha Eta or Who’s Who. It recognizes the well rounded student who is committed to serving the community and the program.”

— Patrick Auth, PhD, PA-C

Director, Drexel University Hahnemann PA Program

Requirements for Chapter Membership:

Where to Buy Your New Scrubs

If you were planning on purchasing a new pair of scrubs soon and you can't decide if the Grey's Anatomy brand made your butt look too big or you just didn't want to spend all the money buying new ones period, look no further.

FIGS (Fashion-Inspired-Global-Sophistication) offers scrubs for men and women and will donate a set of scrubs to a healthcare provider in need for every set of scrubs sold. How cool is that?

Clean scrubs reduce the hospital-acquired infection rate by 66%, something we can all take a lesson from, regardless of the country you live in. The medical uniform provides any healthcare member a sense of professional identity and belonging, fostering more caring and committed individuals that take pride in what they do. Any physician assistant knows the value in being part of the team, and what better way to give the opportunity to so many across the world, than by purchasing your scrubs through the Threads for Threads program? Okay, so I got completely sucked in when I saw the video. You should watch it if you haven't.

Seriously, though, buy them for work. Buy them for clinical rotations. Buy them for anatomy.

Tops: $25-30
Bottoms: $30-35

The 8 Best Physician Assistant Social Media Sites You Should Be Following

The 8 Best Physician Assistant Social Media Sites You Should Be Following

If you thought Facebook was cool, wait until you see what these sites have to offer. No seriously, they give you so much more than what your sister’s boyfriend’s cousin’s brother ate for dinner last Tuesday. Instead of checking Instagram every 5 seconds, why not check Twitter and scroll through these accounts to see if there are any new updates in our profession or any scholarship deadlines coming up? Educate yourself, stay informed, and improve your life one step at a time, starting with your mobile device.

1. PAEA Networker. A personal favorite of mine. This is by far one of the best sites available. Whoever updates this site is a PA guru. Throughout the year I get lots of the content for my blog including scholarships, fellowships, residencies, new programs, new PA advancements, PA legislation, CASPA news, end of rotation, PACKRAT, and PANCE news, new PA opportunities in education, and much more. The list is really endless on this site. It has really become a Facebook for me. I check it pretty regularly for updates. Sad part is they don’t update it as fast as the pug vines are popping up on my Timeline.

JNC 8: Key Features of the New Hypertension Guidelines for Physician Assistants

JNC 8: Key Features of the New Hypertension Guidelines for Physician Assistants

About 31% of american adults have hypertension (65 million). In the US, only 50% of patients with hypertension are being treated to target BP levels. If you look at patients with uncontrolled hypertension, 90% have a usual source of healthcare and have health insurance. This means that the shortfall is action by the clinician! Yes, you, the physician assistant!

If you are completely new to medicine, JNC stands for the Joint National Committee and typically releases guidelines on hypertension management. From the table below, we know that the this is the first release in 11 years. Let’s first begin by talking about a few obvious changes for JNC 8 from previous years.

1. While the Joint National Committee is typically commissioned by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), JNC 8 was actually tasked by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) in June of 2013.
2. You’ll notice a title change in JNC 8 from previous years - this was no mistake. ACC and AHA decided that since they had recently released guidelines on assessing and managing cardiovascular risk, treating cholesterol and managing obesity, a name change was necessary. This was not the first time the title has changed in the past - see highlights in red.