Last Day of Rotation and Specimen Log for 2012

One could say that today, Friday, December 14th, 2012 is the day on which the Pathologists’ Assistant Program for 2012 has officially completed. My classmate and I said our farewells to the hardworking and instructive PAs and staff at UPMC Shadyside Hospital and we headed to our home for perhaps the last time. Eight weeks ago I had very little experience with prostates, bladders, knees and hips, but now I feel much more comfortable handling those specimens.

From here on out, it will be packing and organizing my luggage before my flight on Tuesday. We have already discontinued our internet service, so I will need to walk to the local library to connect to the internet. Replying to any comments may be a little slow for a short while until I arrive back in California.

Of note for your viewing pleasure is a log of all of the specimens that I have done during this year. You could say that it is one years’ worth of grossing for this PA student. Any future students can look at this and get a general feel for what they can expect to gross during their own rotations. You will notice that I unfortunately did not get the chance to perform a whipple or a laryngectomy. During my rotation at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, on the second to last week there were plenty that were coming in nearly every day. I watched other PAs gross these specimens in preparation for performing those ones the following week. Then, as luck would have it, hardly a trickle came in. Take it as a warning to be very proactive in obtaining certain specimens because the blowing of the wind can change direction at a moment’s notice. I am still confident that I can perform these two specimen types with the help of my future colleagues and my previous knowledge of the specimens from both observation and having studied the texts.

Overall, I am very pleased with both the range and volume of specimens that I was able to work with. The true range of specimens that I was able to gross is actually broader, but adding too many categories would make it difficult to fit it all onto just one page. Therefore, I combined all of the odd-one-outs into the “soft tissue, nos” category.

In addition to packing I will be studying hard for the last and final test. Time to put on the study cap.