Starting Out

What it Means to be a Physician Assistant: My Journey to PA-C

by Stephen · 0 comments

Post image for What it Means to be a Physician Assistant: My Journey to PA-C

When I was in college all I could think about was providing healthcare to those in need.

I am not sure where this came from, but it was something inside of me since I was quite young.

I remember the excitement I would have when I had the chance to go to my pediatricians office for a physical or to have my ears checked.

He had these anatomy books in the waiting room that I just loved to read.

Even at the age of five years old the body inspired me, mesmerized me!

I wanted to practice medicine so bad that from that young age I made a commitment to do whatever it would take to get to that point. I also made a commitment to do right by my patients. Not just do it because it was a job but do it because I could make the world a better place.

The Journey – Your Burning Desire

It really began in high school. Like everyone I love to goof off.  When I see and treat teenagers today and they tell me “I am just so bored” I try to empathize, but boredom in my opinion is just a lack of imagination, and a lack of belief in yourself… That you have the chops to do what truly excites you.

I understand where they are coming from. Many kids don’t have the emotional and family support that I had growing up. My parents instilled a belief in me that I could do whatever it was that was in my heart. This is the main reason I made it to where I am today.

Many kids will never get this, it is our job to help those kids, help them to attain their true potential.

But I digress…

For me the sciences were inspirational, they were my passion. Math was a hurdle I had to overcome and it was the one thing I wished I could just side-step, but you can’t.  And this is life you have to do things you don’t like to do to make it to where you want to be. So I pushed hard, worked hard, and yes I played hard. But in the end I had a burning desire. Something inside of me that was established at a very young age.

Not Listening to What People Tell You

I tell my kids everyday that they need to be better listeners. Especially to their mom and dad.

But when I made it from high school to college I met a guidance counselor who told me that I would never have what it takes to establish a career in medicine.

How she accumulated this “data” and came to this conclusion is beyond me. But it was demoralizing for me. Came sometime around my sophomore year. I remember it like it was yesterday.

It was as if somebody snuffed  my burning desire. Crushed my dreams and in a way a part of who I was. It would take a spark to start it again.

Igniting Your Passion

I was working as a student in “Hall Health” at the time as a phelobotomist. Demoralized by what the guidance counselor told me, convinced that I was on a nowhere path, I somehow found it into the office of an Orthopedic Physician Assistant.

It was at this moment, talking with this man learning about the Physician Assistant profession that the spark was re-ignited. And from that moment onward I knew what I wanted to become.

Redirecting your Passion

I was pre-med. I spoke to a different guidance counselor who steered me into Zoology…. Yes Zoology. It was not a major as many people belive focused around “animals” or working in a zoo but it is a major focussed around nature, life,  physiology and the essence of all the sciences. For me the spark turned into a fire. I found a love again in what I was doing.

Upon graduation I was now on the deans list, I had made connections in the campus clinic that led to a job as a mobile phlebotomist for Seattle’s Blood Center. From here I established grounding in my work, moved up the ranks to a mobile supervisor, made more connections, took night classes to get my EMS certification and began applying for PA School.

Reaching your Goals:

From acceptance to practice was a long road. Heck from high school to practice is a long road. You will reach many obstacles along the way. If you didn’t you would never learn to be grateful for what you have, these struggles make you appreciate what you have, to value it and later to do good with it.

Every day that I get to wake up and help a patient reach their health potential is a day I am thankful for.

Every day that I get to throw on my stethoscope and do what I dreamed of as a child is a reminder that in life anything is possible.

But you must work hard, never give up (you know all the normal platitudes) but most of all start believing in yourself… Enough to do what you know you NEED to do to reach your goals. Otherwise you will quit when the going gets tough and make the mistake of settling for less.

My first Day as a Physician Assistant: Faking it 101 (Part One)

by Stephen · 0 comments

Post image for My first Day as a Physician Assistant: Faking it 101 (Part One)

I remember my first day on the job like it was yesterday.

I was petrified. When I ask other PA’s about their first day they often proclaim having had a certain sense of calm. For me, it was pure fear.

Possibly it was due to my situation at the time. I was working pretty much solo, in a walk in clinic, in the middle of a rural community with patients who spoke mostly Spanish. I spoke little to none.

The fear had compounded in my my mind based on a variety of predicted scenarios. These of course were bad scenarios that often ended in my patient either dying or coming close to it. I had conceived of millions of different scenarios in my head mostly based on my college obsession with the TV show ER.

I didn’t have enough pediatric experience, my orthopedic skills were shoddy, I had never actually written my own prescription. For the first time in my life I was going to have to stand by my own diagnostic skills.

Doctors don’t have to overcome this fear in the same way PA’s do. They have a residency to ease into it. As PA’s it is just one day you are a student then the next day you’re a prescribing midlevel practitioner.

Honestly, as I write this looking back at 7 years of experience no wonder I was scared senseless.

There is an understandable and probably protective fear that every medical provider should have. That is the fear of doing harm to someone. But there is another fear and that is less protective, it is the fear of looking like a beginner, having to ask for help, letting your patients down.

For me this was difficult. I like feeling in control. I hate doubt. I pride myself on my expertise. But there I stood, vulnerable and scared down to my bones.

I arrived at the clinic early this day of course, which only added fuel to my anxiety. I cleaned my workspace (which of course already was clean because I didn’t have any patients or charting yet) and I sat there in my chair. Living my dream that I had prepared for for so many years. Why did I want to run out of there home to my mom?

I cleaned my stethoscope, made small talk with my medical assistant, I re-cleaned my stethoscope and sat nervously awaiting the clinic doors to open.

And as the front doors of the clinic did finally open there I stood, exposed, nervous for my patients mostly.

In fear that people would discover that I really had no clue what I was doing.