Organic chemistry was the big bear of undergraduate studies. I remember everyone freaking out before the class even started. People had heard from upperclassmen how tough O-Chem was and that many had failed it. I was at a critical point in my education where I could not let the opinions of others dictate my outlook. I had a strategy while enduring ...

The operating room is becoming more of a familiar place. I am much more comfortable with the preparation (positioning, shaving and draping the patient), intraoperative assisting (retracting, drilling and hammering) and wrapping up the case (suturing, bandaging and bracing). Looking back over the past month, I have logged over 40 cases with the ...

Our country is blessed to have medical regulatory boards that serve to protect patients and their providers. Some other parts of the world do not require a license or special privileges. Those countries just want help from anyone willing, and it does not always end well. So, the United States has a blessing and a curse. Since ...

This week I've been scheduled on nights, and it's been a completely different ER experience. While many of the chief complaints are the same as what I've seen during the day in the ER, the pace has been different. There is no doubt that things can get just as hectic at night as they do during the day, but for the most part, things usually tend to ...

Physician assistants are increasingly more likely to head into specialties such as surgery and emergency medicine rather than primary care, according to the News & Observer. Researchers at the Duke University PA program studied the job choices of PAs from 1997 to 2006 and found that the number of PAs going into primary care declined to 41% ...

In response to a severe shortage of physicians in Tennessee, executive director of the Tennessee Academy of Physician Assistants Katherine Pesut Moffat published an article in the Tennessean explaining that the increased use of PAs is one solution to the problem. In detail, Moffat describes the PA education, the full scope of PA practice, the ...

ADVANCE for Physician Assistants has arrived at the 2010 AFPPA Spring CME Conference in Walt Disney World. Earlier this evening, I stepped off the Magical Express and into the Coronado Springs Resort, where the palm trees are lush and the water is close and calm. For those family practice PAs who can't make it to this year's conference or who are ...

One of my readers had some good questions that I would like to address. Being that I am a student, my answers may need some help from practicing PAs. Here we go: ''I want to be in surgery, but I'm afraid that being a PA won't allow me to be as involved and hands-on as I want to be. What do you think of this?'' Surgery PAs are very involved and ...

The UNTHSC PA class of 2011 is counting down the days until we head out the door for rotations. On March 29th, we will go our separate ways for 3 ½ weeks at a time and come together every 4 weeks for testing, presentations and re-connecting with each other.  Each student has 12 rotations ranging from 1-2 months each. Our core rotations ...

Once again, physician assistant has been named one of the best careers, this time in a U.S. News & World Report article called ''America's Best Careers: 2010.'' Back in November, CNNMoney.com ranked physician assistant #2 in the 50 best jobs in America. Unfortunately, the U.S. News article makes a few mistakes (what is a ''physical ...