My journey with ADVANCE began July 7th 2008 as I wrote about my days leading up to physician assistant school. I was excited, yet nervous, about what I was getting myself into. There were PAs in my life that encouraged me with words of hope and peace. They said the road would be hard, but each day would make me stronger. I remember feeling ...

If you have applied for any job, they always ask for your résumé. Prior to PA school, it may have been a straightforward task to create your file packed with every possible job and accolade to impress. You may have not been in a field where it mattered what was on your résumé, as long as there was something. Now we are in the medical field ...

Unless you were blessed with rich parents or had a stellar job before life as a PA, the cost of your education likely still looms over your head. Debts range from $40,000 to $100,000 for new PAs just out of school. Thankfully, there are options for repayment. A few of my classmates struck a deal with the government to work in underserved areas ...

The patient and I are walking out of the exam room, and he says, “Oh, it’s so nice that the doctor is training you. So, when are you going to get your MD?” I politely respond, “This is it. I’m a physician assistant. There is nothing else.” Inwardly, my blood boils, because that was the third or fourth patient this week with a comment like ...

Do you remember the time when you were applying to PA school? What was the one thing you really wanted to do but found it more difficult than expected? You looked for PAs to spend the day with so you could better understand what the life of a PA was really like. You would have been happy with just about any setting, whether clinic, hospital or OR. ...

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 ...

Do you remember the first year of PA school? You might have been the student who only wanted to focus on the books, and every other commitment would take a backseat. You felt like the best thing was to kiss your world goodbye and be a single-track-minded individual. Or you might have been the kind of student who came in wanting to have a balanced ...

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 ...