Brooke is a PA who blogged about her experiences as a student and has launched a new website about the PA profession. Be sure to check out her sites!
1) Why did you choose to be a PA?
1- diversity of positions. you can start your career in surgery and end in endocrinology if you want!
2-less student debt
3-faster track into the work field (no residency, less school)
4-I get to take care of patients and perform surgery
5-patient-first mentality of the profession
2) You've had some interesting experience in health care before you started PA school. What took you from Orthotics and Prosthetics to Public Health to PA?
While in orthotics and prosthetics I had the opportunity to work with lots of great surgeons and decided early in my O&P career that my scope of practice was too small. I wanted to operate and be part of the preplanning for my patients, not just part of the rehab. I then applied to medical school- got in- then decided that becoming a PA was a better fit. I wanted to practice medicine soon, not in 10 years - so I withdrew my med school applications and applied to PA schools. I had a year to kill during the application process and was interested in population health and quality improvement so I got my MPH from Dartmouth in the interim.
3) How many schools did you apply to and interview with? What were the interviews like? How did you choose Northeastern?
I applied to 2 schools. UNE and Northeastern. I had moved all over the place for my previous schooling and had decided that I was going to apply to 2 schools and let the chips fall where they may. I luckily got into both schools on the first try and choose Northeastern for a few reasons: 1) great school, great reputation 2) it is in Boston (the healthcare mecca of the US) 3) less expensive
4) What has surprised you about Northeastern's PA program so far?
I think this applies to all PA schools ---- but IT IS HARD WORK! You will study more and sleep less than you could have imagined. But it is all worth it in the end.
5) Have you found any successful strategies for surviving the didactic portion of your program?
Find 2-3 sources to study from and stick to them... it is easy to get bogged down with too many resources. One of my favorite and most used books was Step Up To Medicine.
6) What's the coolest things you've done so far?
-Sewn a finger back on
-1st assisted on a C1-C3 spinal fusion
7) What got you into blogging? What future intersections of social media and health care do you hope to see?
I started blogging because I was finding and sharing resources with other PA students - and what I found was that it was becoming too time consuming to share information one by one... so I started a blog so that I could just post stuff once and people could visit it when they wanted. It has worked out well so far!
8) Any advice for future applicants other than good grades and shadowing?
1-Get to know healthcare, its delivery system and how it works. As a PA (esp as a PA in the future) it is very important to know they system in which you work... if you don't ... you are a less effective provider.
2-Know the history of the profession
3-Become a member of your state PA chapter or the AAPA to gain professional information about the profession
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