After successfully conquering their first year in the Missouri State University Physician Assistant program, the Class of 2022 reflected on the experiences in their didactic phase of education.
Spring Semester-written by Sarah Dobard
I vividly remember January 8th, 2021: the orientation day for MSU-PAS Class of 2022. I sat in the back of the classroom and looked around, almost in disbelief that I had made it to PA school. Acceptance to PA school has been many years in the making for every single one of us. The first few weeks of classes, I struggled to learn my classmates’ names. Since then, we’ve mastered first and last names, hometowns, likes and dislikes. Together, we’ve celebrated birthdays and achievements, cried over disappointments, laughed over Trevor’s troche, and examined each other. We learned how to properly hold an otoscope without causing a TM rupture, use ultrasound for diagnosis, and how to read an x-ray.
We adapted our study habits in order to absorb large volumes of information. I loved sharing my study guides, even if I got so caught up in the formatting and alignment that I distracted myself from actually studying. I made so many flash card decks in Quizlet that I became a “Pro” Member.
Our anatomy lecture and lab was the largest time commitment, and I’m thankful for classmates and instructors who stayed late into the evening to review cadaveric dissection. Dr. Brooks, Ben, and Nicole held extra lab meetings to solidify the information. The knowledge we gained helped even with our final, fifty-ninth exam of didactic year (middle meningeal artery and epidural hematoma, anyone?). The smell of formaldehyde lingers in my scrubs, but so do priceless memories. Physiology was a challenging course, but we passed it, by the power of Zoom. We learned that funny sodium channels are not at all comical.
By far the most daunting assignment of our first semester was memorizing a forty-five-minute monologue. No, we were not auditioning for the lead role in the school play. Rather, we were acting out a thorough physical exam script for our Clinical Assessment course. I gave up my beloved podcasts and listened to my own voice-recording of the script, mentally examining my imaginary patient for “masses and lesions” every time I got behind the wheel. I’m grateful to our PA instructors — Professors Miracle, Applegate, Maben, Hauschildt and Cook, and Dr. Canales — for putting up with our questions, frustrations, and Type-A ways (before you say you’re not Type-A, remember that you got into PA school). They tirelessly repeated the word “pathognomonic” until we could pronounce it correctly.
Towards the end of our first semester, we were fitted for our white coats. The White Coat Ceremony seemed so far away, and at times unattainable. It’s funny to look back on that now that the ceremony has come and gone. It was a joyful celebration but also the bittersweet beginning of a new chapter of our PA education: clinical year. Going forward, I’ll remember my friend’s advice: take criticism as an honor, rather than an offense. It means someone sees your potential.
Summer Semester-written by Gerri Idos
When reflecting on the summer semester of didactic year of school, several words come to mind: exhausting, daunting, endless, growth, and humbling. Prior to the start of what I consider one of the most challenging twelve weeks of my life, we were warned the level of difficulty that came with clinical medicine and that it would be the “meat and potatoes” of what we learned during our tenure of the program. Man did the class live up to its hype. For nine hours a day, the 28 of us students would do our best to absorb as much as we could from the abundance of physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners that taught us different topics in their respective specialties. With this semester being much shorter than the others, we had to cram not only the 8 different blocks of clinical medicine exams in, but we also had to fit in exams from pharmacology, clinical assessment 2, professional issues, and clinical practicum. Needless to say, a 3-exam week was nothing out of the ordinary. Every week was finals week to us. Although things got overwhelming at times, nothing compares to the feeling of triumph of being able to overcome the obstacle that was the summer semester course load and realizing just how much you can actually learn in such a short amount of time if you are actually enjoying what you are learning.
Even though many hours were spent in the classroom, during the summer we got the opportunity to transfer our knowledge to a more clinical based setting. For the first time ever, we got to practice our history taking, physical exam, assessment, and planning skills on a real human being (as opposed to a mannequin) that was not a classmate. Despite the fact that everyone was throwing PVCs and probably all needed propranolol to calm the nerves, we got to experience setting foot in a standardized patient’s room and got a taste of what our future treating patients would look like. To add on to the more real-life settings, our cohort was also invited to perform sports physicals to kids ranging from 5 years old to 18 years old at Aurora. I will never forget the feeling of a real-life patient looking at me and telling me “thank you” for making them feel comfortable because they were dreading coming to get a physical. Lastly, for the final two weeks of the semester, each student was assigned a mini clinical rotation where we got a snapshot of what clinical year would be like. For my two weeks, I got to spend time at the Central Care Cancer Center in Bolivar, MO and I am so grateful for my experience and the preceptors and patients that taught invaluable information. The experience only solidified that I truly was going into the right field of medicine.
Summer semester pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me realize that I couldn’t get through school without our wonderful professors, faculty, and my classmates. As a cohort, we spent so much time together that we started to feel like family. When we weren’t in class or studying, you could find people playing cards during lunch, going on much needed walks, hiking, attending events and baseball games, or having meals together. You would think we would get tired of one another, but we truly did not. Regardless of the all-nighters pulled, tears shed, excessive caffeine drank, and times we all were just feeling delirious or burnt out, nothing can replace the memories that took place during the semester, and I will forever be grateful for those twelve weeks.
Fall Semester-written by Sarah Phillips
Fall semester… We heard that if we made it, we were over the hump of summer and we had made it through the hardest part. A few weeks into fall semester, many of us hit a brick wall that felt impossible to get over. We were fatigued and drained, but we knew the clock was ticking until our White Coat Ceremony!
Despite the fatigue that hit us all, fall was probably the semester we got to do the most as a class and laugh a lot along the way! We really enjoyed Fridays in procedure lab where we learned how to suture, cast, place chest tubes, and central lines. We are eager to put our intubation skills to work come January and cannot wait to throw our first sutures. We continued working hard in Clinical Medicine II, learning nephrology, pediatrics, cardiology, emergency medicine, and much more! Cardiology week was a tough one, but we persevered! We continued practicing with patient encounters with several OSCEs this fall; two pediatric cases, and two psychiatric cases. We are beyond thankful for the exposure we have gotten with patient encounters before we step into clinic next month. We also became ACLS certified and ran our first codes ever!
There seemed to be a lot to celebrate during the fall semester… Our class celebrated our first PA week and hosted a university wide Healthcare Symposium to promote different healthcare professions to undergraduate students. We also held a supply drive for MSU Care Clinic and raised money at our first ever ‘PAncakes in the Parking Lot’ event. Professor Miracle flipped pancakes for a great cause while we got to let loose and enjoy a morning without lectures! Our class went all out for Halloween with costumes, and we went even bigger for Thanksgiving… We enjoyed a class potluck to celebrate the family we have become this year. There truly was so much to be thankful for this year.
Outside of class we tested our athleticism on the sand courts and the ‘Beta Blockers’ enjoyed nights off studying to play intramural volleyball! Many of us travelled to fun places over fall break; Dallas, Chicago, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Louisiana, and California… The short break revived us all and we were eager to get back to each other and finish the year strong!
We watched our White Coat Ceremony count down on our white board trickle down day by day, much faster than we anticipated. On December 11th, we received our white coats and were able to celebrate with our friends and family. The day was filled with laughs reflecting on what an incredible year it has been, and a few tears as we closed an amazing chapter of our lives as didactic students. We left our lecture seats for the last time to take off for Christmas break and enjoy some time with our family and friends before returning to campus on January 5th to dive into clinical year! What a year it has been… We are all so thankful that we get to call Missouri State home and cannot wait for what is next!
