Interview with Hardin Simmons Student and PAEA Fellow

Here's an interview with a PA student who is also a PAEA Education Fellow.

1) What made you decide to be a PA? 

I had always wanted to be in medicine.  I went to Texas Tech University HSC in Lubbock and got my undergraduate in Clinical laboratory science in 1994.  I thought that being a Medical Technologist would be a useful skill if I was able to go to medical school.  At this time I had not considered becoming a PA because, well, there were no PAs in Texas.  Dwight Deter would be issued license PA00001 in August of that year.  Shortly after graduation I met my future wife and moved to Virginia.  We would move back to Texas in 2001 but as they say "life happened".  Children and mortgages became the focus of my efforts.  During that time I spent a year as a stay at home dad and completed a Master of Education from Tech.  Twenty four years after graduation I was investigating and advanced degree in medical technology when I saw that Hardin-Simmons was beginning a PA program in Abilene.  My family and I live about an hour east of Abilene and my kids were in high school.  I didn't want to uproot them to pursue my dream but with the HSU program essentially in my back yard I knew that we could make it work.  Of course, by then, I had had a long history of working with PAs in clinical settings and was aware of their skill, training, and the excellent care that they provide.  

2)  How did you choose Hardin Simmons? What was interviewing like?

The decision to go to Hardin-Simmons was easy.  I had gone to Hardin-Simmons my first year out of high school and loved the quality if the school and the Christian focus involved around academics.  I was actually on the first football team when it returned to campus. I had left HSU because of family financial concerns.  I regretted not being able to finish my undergraduate there and being able to take a full advantage of all the University had to offer.  When I heard that the PA program was starting the choice was clear.  Returning would let me pursue a dream in medicine that I thought had long since passed me by.  It was a homecoming, of sorts, and I would not need to uproot my kids from where they had been going to school since kindergarten. 
The interview process was a journey.  I discovered the program in June I believe--a few months after CASPA had opened.  I put the application together, contacted my references, scheduled a retake of the GRE (it had been more than 15 years since I had taken it before) and sent everything in.   The program was great at staying in contact--something that we might take for granted in a newly started program who was working on admissions and getting the nuts and bolts of the program assembled.  When everything was completed I was offered an interview in January of the matriculation year.  It was VERY cold that day and the after-interview tour of the campus was cancelled.  I felt good about the interview but was incredibly nervous.  I interviewed with two faculty members in 1:1 format and a group interview with a PA from the community and a staff member.   I am actually finishing an ER clinical with the PA from the community right now, so it has come back full circle.  The interviews were relaxed and you could get a sense that this program was something special.

In didactic year it was simply the sheer volume of material to learn.  The "fire-hose" analogy undersells this if anything.  It is also more emotionally draining that I would have anticipated.  Most of the people in my class could easily be my children, but they are some of the best friends I have ever had.  Its not really about the differences between students, it is the common experience that binds us to one another and to other PAs who have had a similar experience.   In clinicals, it is the confirmation that we have the coolest job known to man and that all of didactic was worth it to get to this point.  I sometimes wish I had done this a long time ago, but my past experiences have made me who I am and the provider I hope to be.

3)  What study strategies worked? Did that change on rotations?

I had always had what I called a "photo-erratic" memory.  I could read chapter and see it in my mind, turning the pages and reading it again.  That was good for a good part of didactic but you will always need to adjust.  Pharm was a huge hurdle for me.  I had to change completely what I was doing, taking the PowerPoint presentations and creating question banks from them and drilling endlessly on the material.  I would say that what everyone should know about PA school is that you have to be adaptable.  If you are a loner, you may need to have study groups.  You may need to try a variety of methods and then pick the resources that are adaptable to that strategy.  Early on the problem was that there were TOO MANY resources and I could never get through them.

4) Tell me about your involvement and experience with TAPA.

I was elected as my class TAPA rep in the fall of 2017.  I was the first rep from HSU (there is a junior rep in didactic year and a senior rep in clinical year) so I needed to wear both hats to some degree.  TAPA is such a welcoming organization.  They listen to student input and we actually have a voice in its operation.  The conferences were fun.  It was a good experience to meet reps and students from other programs who had different experiences.  In the summer of 2018 I became the official Senior Rep.  I was also selected to be on the Legislative Affairs Committee (LAC) for the next year.  That was important to me because it was a legislative year in our biennial process here in Texas.  Medical Technologist are not typically involved in lobbying and career advocacy and that had been a area of concern for me.  What TAPA does for its members goes beyond advocacy.  It involves professional development, meeting colleagues and friends, and advancing our profession in ways that touches all of us in medicine--a field that is constantly changing.   In June of this year I was elected by my peers from the other programs as the Student Director for the 2019-2020 year.  I will be working with the SAC chair Kaylin Sallee as well as the reps from all of the programs to advocate for the PA students in Texas and to be their voice on the board.

5) Any plans for after graduation?

Absolutely!   Work and pay student loans!   

Seriously, I would like to one day become faculty at a PA program.  My prior degree in Education inspired me to become a PAEA Future Education Fellow.  I am doing this to see how the education principles I learned are applicable in a specific training environment like PA school.  I also no that before I am ready to do that on a serious basis that I need to be in practice and learn how to be a PA.  What I see ahead isn't the ending, it is a new beginning with new opportunities and challenges.  

6) What advice would you give an aspiring PA?

Know who you are and what you hope to get out of being a PA.  If it is money or lifestyle, you won't be happy.  Those are great benefits to becoming a PA but in and of themselves they are not enough.  You have to know who you are before you can become the provider you want to be.   PA school takes that core of who you are and refines it.  It makes it focused for service to our patients and for a lifetime of learning, sacrifice and struggles of one sort or another.  That said, I have loved every minute of it and can not imagine doing anything else.  The struggle is worth it.