Written by: Regan Wilson and Jordan Carter

Spring Semester

This was our first semester, and where we learned what it meant to be a PA student! We all started getting to know each other and our professors. This is where we learned to read radiographs, how to assess patients in the exam room, and all about the human body. We had class in a cadaver lab two to three times a week and learned that the smell was not something easily washed off. This was also the time that everyone worked tirelessly to memorize the script for a physical exam to prepare for the ultimate test of the semester. Practicing our skills in the lab every week to prepare and speaking the same words from the script every day. Everyone became more nervous the closer we got to the exam, despite all efforts of the faculty in trying to convince us it would be fine. When the day finally came, we learned that it really wasn’t as bad as we believed.

Summer Semester

Summer semester was a blur. The professors told us it was going to be fast, but I do not think any of us were prepared for how fast it actually was. Our class learned A LOT of information in 9 weeks, which was previously taught over the course of 10 weeks. The professors continually told us that we could do anything for 9 weeks. It was a very grueling 9 weeks, and the majority of the class was burnt out by week 7. However, we all managed to push through and finish the semester strong, even with the last week consisting of 6 exams, a paper, and a presentation. Summer semester was the first time we were exposed to clinical medicine, and it was a much different experience than our first semester. Longer days in the classroom, more hours dedicated to preparing for each exam, and more information than we could have possibly imagined. This amount of information really took drinking information from a firehose to a new level. Study habits seemed to change a bit to match the new content we were receiving, and after everyone got into the swing of things it seemed to go much more smoothly. We were finally learning real medicine, and many started to really feel like a PA student. We had a couple weekends this past summer that some of the cohort spent at Table Rock Lake and Smithville Lake.

Fall Semester

Fall semester! Our last semester of didactic year came so quickly! After a busy summer full of fast paced learning, the finish line was in sight. Many of us fought the burnout that was creeping up and put everything we had into finishing the year strong, knowing our White Coat Ceremony was right around the corner.

This semester was packed full of learning. We continued clinical medicine, covering several topics including cardiology, nephrology, surgery, and many more! We learned how to read EKGs, ran our first codes, and got ACLS certified. We continued learning pharmacology with Dr. Bowers and enjoyed every soapbox topic she included. We put our patient encounter skills to the test and had the best opportunity to practice in our behavioral health and pediatric OSCEs! Our class also got to experience a lot of hands-on learning in our procedures course every Friday this semester and had tons of fun and laughs along the way! Everything from IV insertion to intubating to casting was done in this class.

 

The first week of October was PA Week and we celebrated every chance we got! We had a spirit week and held multiple events. The week was kicked off with PAncakes in the PArking Lot which involved cooking pancakes for students and staff on campus and collecting donations for the MSU Care Clinic! Then, we had the Healthcare Symposium where we got to hear from a panel of healthcare professionals in our community about their careers. This week was a big success and we made so many fun memories! We also celebrated Halloween with many fun costumes and had a big Friendsgiving. There was so much to be thankful for this year, with one of the biggest things being an amazing group of classmates!

 

We watched each day as our White Coat countdown on the whiteboard in the classroom went down and on December 10th, it finally hit zero. We emptied our seats, cleaned off our desks, and left our final lecture for the year. Then, our class received our white coats and celebrated the accomplishment with our friends and family. It is the greatest symbol of all our hard work this year and each year before that. The day was full of smiles, tears, and reflection as we looked back at this amazing year. To say this year was extraordinary would be an understatement. It has been full of learning, growth, laughs, and friendship. We are so thankful for the opportunity to be in this program and are so excited for what is next. Clinical Year here we come!!

 

Megan Bekas is just days away from completing her Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies at Missouri State University. As she concludes her very successful two years as a PA-S, we asked her to share her preparation, experience, and advice for future PA students.

Hometown: Ash Grove, MO

Degrees Earned: Missouri State University with a Bachelor of Science in Cell and Molecular Biology and a minor in chemistry.

Previous healthcare experience:

Pharmacy technician for 3 years

Phlebotomist for 1.5 years

ER tech for 2 years

Why did you decide to become a PA?

I have always loved the medical field and when I was growing up my mother, an ICU nurse with 25+ years of experience, would tell me stories of her day and the amazing ways she and her team made a difference in patients’ lives. The PA profession called to me due to the autonomy and teamwork related to it, along with the ability to think critically, problem-solve, and focus on patient care. Plus, I loved the flexibility of this career and the opportunity it gives to have a work-life balance that allows me to achieve my personal life goals.

Describe your experience so far in the program. 

I would describe my experience in PA school as one the most difficult, challenging, fulfilling, and worthwhile adventures of my life. From the amount of information we learned in didactic year to feeling constantly overwhelmed and humbled by everything still left to learn, I have grown both as an individual and as a future clinician and am proud of myself and my classmates of all of our accomplishments thus far.

What do you like most about Missouri State PA program?

I really enjoy the professor to student ratio and how caring the faculty are. The professors have definitely built us up when we felt defeated and like we weren’t good enough and I truly appreciated that. Also, I have some really great classmates and I am very blessed to be learning with them and from them.

Do you have any advice for prospective PA students? Any helpful tips to prepare for PA education?

Absolutely! Here’s my top three tips/reminders:

1. Schedule time to spend with your support system as well as doing an activity or self-care for yourself. Literally plan a few hours into your week for this. Your friends and family love you and care for you and their support is going to help you feel not as isolated and overwhelmed.

2. Don’t be afraid to establish boundaries as needed! For instance, I let my friends and family know that I needed at least one week’s notice for any new or spontaneous plans otherwise I was most likely going to be too busy. And that’s ok!

3. There will eventually come a point in your didactic year where you feel very burned out from all the studying, testing, more studying, and still more testing. When you reach that point, remember that it is not a reflection of you not being a good enough student, not caring enough, or not being smart enough. Remind yourself that you are an amazing person and of how hard you worked to get into PA school. You are good enough, you will pass your tests, and you will be a PA.

Written by Kim Cook, MS, PA-C
Director of Clinical Education

The Program is very pleased to have more than 10 new rural clinical partners in the 4-state area, in the disciplines of Family Medicine/Urgent Care, Women’s Health, and Psychiatry. We are very grateful for our ongoing partnerships with so many clinicians in the area, many of whom take multiple students for rotations year-after-year. Each year we are pleased that more and more of our alumni become active preceptors, and this year is no different.

It’s very exciting for us when our students are precepted by former students. One alumni who became a new preceptor this year was Kelley Menefee, PA-C, ATC. Kelley practices in orthopedic surgery with her collaborative physician, Dr. Dolce, in Ft. Worth, Texas. We were very pleased to have Kelley precept Rachel Peth for her Directed rotation.

We also love it when clinical students drop by to say hi during their clinical year. We miss them!

As has always been done in the past, the faculty continues to review and revise the clinical curriculum and work to enhance assessment processes.   This is done with internal evaluations, as well as alumni feedback.  A couple of changes that have been made this year are: several new presentations have been added to the return-to-campus days at the end of each rotation, and the students now have an OSCE at every EOR call-back experience. Another addition has been student presentations at EOR.

The Program partnered with Mercy again this year for the annual Sports Physicals clinic in Aurora, Missouri. This was a fun, successful event as it has been many years in the past. The students performed over 150 sports physicals for Aurora-area student athletes. Our students really enjoy the interaction with the athletes, and it’s a great opportunity for them to practice establishing rapport with adolescents. Depending on where the students are placed for their Clinical Practicum experience, it is sometimes the main experience our students have with children and adolescent patients. The Mercy clinicians that served as preceptors for this year’s event were all from the Emergency Department at Mercy Hospital in Aurora; they were: Dr. Jeffery Diehl, Dr. Travis Hawks, and Jared Pendergrass, PA-C and MSU alumni.

Clinical Practicum I, which is the 2-week rotation students do at the end of their summer semester, went very well this year. Students were placed with preceptors in various disciplines, primarily in the greater Springfield area. The majority of these preceptors are MSU Physician Assistant alumni. We are very grateful that we have so much support and willingness of our former students to want to help train their future colleagues.

Clinical Rotation #MedLifeMonday Facebook Features:

• Hannah Garrad
• Anna Biernbaum
• Sarah Phillips
• Gerri Idos
• Leah Krafft
• Cassidy McCandless

 

 

 

 

 

Written by Nathan Miracle, MS, PA-C
Director of Didactic Education

The summer semester brought for our students a heavy dose of medicine (no pun intended)! They traversed eight sections of Clinical Medicine in just 9 weeks, where they began to learn the nuts and bolts of medical knowledge and application. Pharmacotherapeutics introduced them to a whole new vocabulary as they learned hundreds of medications and their applications. The student’s physical exam skills were bolstered by learning special examination techniques including male and female GU examination. We are very thankful for our new partnership with the University of Missouri Simulation Center, here in Springfield, which allowed our students the opportunity to practice these examinations on standardized patients without having to leave the area. For our alumni, you can appreciate how beneficial this experience is and to not have to travel four hours away to complete this experience is such a blessing! While the summer semester went by in a flash our students still found opportunity to get together in the great outdoors and expend some pent up energy, either on the sand volleyball courts or around a spikeball net. As they move into their final semester of didactic education, our students will be provided with more opportunities to further their medical knowledge, learn clinical procedure techniques, and further their knowledge of pharmacology as they prepare for their next phase of education. This portion of their education will culminate in a White Coat Ceremony on December 10^th where our students, with friends and family in attendance, will recite the Physician Assistant Oath and be given their white laboratory coats symbolizing their transition into their clinical phase of education. The faculty and staff of the MSU PA department look forward, with great anticipation, to helping this cohort complete their didactic phase of PA education this fall semester!

Class of 2023 links:

• Clinical Medicine I with dermatology inspired cookie art (post found within facebook page)
• Licensing Presentations
• First OR Procedures Lab
• Didactic Student Scoop Kaci Hultz
• Didactic Student Scoop Sadie Turner
• Didactic Student Scoop Gabriela Sappington
• Didactic Student Scoop Ashleigh Sharkey
• Didactic Student Scoop Samuel Wilson
• Didactic Student Scoop Courtney Weatherford
• Didactic Student Scoop Ryan Liddell
• Didactic Student Scoop Olivia Eikel

The 2022-2023 application cycle officially closed on July 15, 2022, resulting in a very competitive, high-quality applicant pool with more than 720 prospective applicants including 326 verified applications. After thorough review by the Admissions Committee, sixty-four candidates received interview invitations. Throughout the month of September interview candidates will be invited to campus for Pre-Interview Orientations held each Thursday followed by individual interviews with Admission Committee members on Friday.

A note of thanks to the many volunteers from both the didactic and clinical cohorts who will facilitate pre-interview orientation student Q&A panels and facility tours.

Thanks to the MSU Advisory Board members who assist with interviewing hopeful candidates. Your dedication to the excellence of MSU PA program and the quality of the PA profession is appreciated.