Crossing the Half-Way Mark

I’m glad to say that finals are now officially over with. The brains of my classmates and I have been filled to their limits and now it feels as if all that we had crammed for is slowly leaking out from our ears. At least, that’s how my head feels. It’s good to have survived our first year of pathologists’ assistant school.

I always try to prepare as much as possible for anything that I can foresee. Studying for finals started well before the last week of school for me. To my surprise, I found that I had done much better on these last finals than I had expected. It could have been that our professors felt pity for us and decided to decrease the difficulty of the questions that they asked. Or, perhaps we students hunkered down into our study-mode shells and toughed it out like the battled hardened veterans of academia that we have become.

So, upon reflection of this year, the big question becomes, which were the hardest and easiest semesters? I’ve talked with my classmates about this, but my own personal experiences deviate from the opinions of my classmates.

As for the majority of my classmates, they felt that the semester that they most struggled with was this fall semester. This fall, we certainly had a lot of extra reports and papers to write than the spring semester. Microbiology and physiology were also big classes for us, but microanatomy and clinical pathology were not classes to be ignored. I think that my classmates were feeling run down by the end of the year and wanted to move onto clinical rotations so that made having to slog through the fall semester difficult for them.

As for myself, I thought that my most difficult time was the summer pathology course, while the easiest (I shouldn’t say ‘easiest’ because really, there’s nothing easy about this program) semester for me was this fall semester. The summer pathology course was a barrage of information in such a short period of time that it was difficult for me to grasp at so many different pieces of information all at once. I mean, what person can go through 4-5 chapters of Robins every week for 7 weeks and still emerge sane? That period of a month and a half was the most challenging and difficult period of my academic life, but at least I’m still alive.

The reason that I thought that this fall semester was the easiest for me may have been due to having emerged from the summer course and comparing everything to that. In addition, I had studied microbiology extensively during my time in undergraduate school so that course wasn’t as difficult for me as for many of my classmates. I didn’t mind having to write the many reports because once I’ve formulated my thoughts I can write at a good pace. On top of all that, since I had moved out of my old bed bug infested apartment from the spring semester, it left me more time to concentrate on school and studying. What a nightmare that was during the spring semester.

For the newly matriculated students into WVU’s PA Program, I’ll say that you shouldn’t underestimate the spring semester. You’re going to feel overwhelmed at first, but if you study consistently every day and don’t give up, you’ll become accustomed (dare I say, inured) to the lifestyle. Unlike what many of you may have learned during your time in undergraduate school, the things that you’ll learn here are the things that are relevant to what you’ll be doing for the rest of your life. If it doesn’t stick at first, give it some time. Find a strategy that works for you. During the spring semester, my strategy was to make lots of flash cards and it worked for me. During the fall semester, I stopped making flash cards and focused on printing out the powerpoint lectures. Writing my notes on the paper copies of the power point lectures worked for me. So, as you can see, my studying strategy changed as the year progressed. The majority of my classmates wrote their notes either on the laptops directly using the pen/stylus, or they bought lined notebooks and filled it with their handwritten notes. The important thing is to find what works for you and adapt when necessary.

Now, all that’s left to do is to get a little bit of paper work filled out for both school and my new apartment in Pittsburgh. It feels nice to not have any immediate obligations, so I had better enjoy this moment while it lasts. I expect that next year will be busy with clinical rotations but despite not having any breaks I imagine that the time will fly by quickly.

Have a nice time everyone.

Speed of Light

Things this week have been going by so fast I'm surprised that I've even found the time to write an entry. I've studied all the material that my brain will hold for today, so I need to get away from the lecture notes. After a while, no matter how hard you concentrate, there comes a point when you turn the page and have forgotten what you just read on the previous five pages. That's one of the reasons why it's better to study everyday rather than trying to cram it all in in just one day.

On Tuesday we had our clinical pathology final in the morning and then we had our frozen section practical and gross dictation practical in the evening. The art of taking a frozen section is really tough to master! Before Tuesday I was in the gross laboratory at night for a couple of days and there were multiple times where as I was cranking the wheel the blade cracked the specimen right in half! It's game over if that happens in a real situation. I couldn't for the life of me understand why it was happening. After I searched some on the internet, the freezing gel, "Optimal Cooling Temperature", needs to solidify just right to ensure smooth cutting. I was cooling the block too much and it was shattering the whole specimen when I cut into it. It's a good thing that I learned that through experience rather than have that happen to me on my rotations next year. I'd rather make all of my mistakes now.

Yesterday was also a big event for us. We finally received our laboratory coats at our white coat ceremony. Although finals are still ahead of us in two days, it's too late for any of us to fail now. It was a really nice ceremony and I had the chance to see the family members of many of my classmates. Of course, West Virginia was too far away for my family in California to attend, but I still felt as if I was surrounded by family. I'm sure that they are happy to see my progress through the program.

The lab coat seems to be both a blessing and a curse to me.
It's nice to see my progress physically manifest as a lab coat. I won't lie in that the lab coat is a kind of status symbol. But, what weighs on my shoulders more is the amount of responsibility that wearing the lab coat entails. When putting on the lab coat it felt as if now I had entered into a new world of responsibilities and mistakes would have much higher and real costs than before. My biggest fear right now is making a mistake that will impact someone's life negatively in a huge way. (Something I did or didn't do to cause the pathologist to misdiagnose our patient.) The most that we can do is to do our best, but there may come a time where my best is not enough to avoid making a mistake. In a just world, our mistakes would only negatively impact ourselves, but there are situations in which our mistakes negatively affect others. I'm certain that the lab coat will serve as a 'Sword of Damocles' that will remind me be to be ever vigilant. But, in a sense, the lab coat is more ominous than the 'Sword of Damocles'. Our mistake causes the sword to fall not on our own heads, but on the heads of our patients.

Another full day of studying awaits my classmates and I tomorrow. Just a few more days and we'll be finished with the semester. I'm looking forward to it!

Back From Break and Just a Few Big Things Left To Do

It's already been one week since we've been back in classes and things are moving very quickly. Even our Thanksgiving Break moved quickly! It was a well needed time to just relax before the last dash to the finish line. I’m disappointed I didn’t get as much done as I thought that I would. I had hoped I would study the lecture material in preparation for finals but the only thing that I got done was a microbiology report.

Our extra credit microbiology report was open-ended so I found it to be quite interesting.  We just had to write a report on how the field of microbiology affects the field of pathology. The most obvious choice would be to write a report on all of the different microorganisms that cause disease in humans, but I like killing things much better, so I wrote about all the different ways to kill bacteria in the surgical pathology laboratory. Basically I covered antiseptics, disinfectants and sterilants. I went in to the pathology laboratory at Ruby Hospital and looked at all of the chemicals they use in the laboratory to clean and to protect us from catching the bugs that our patients have. It turns out the active ingredient in the majority of disinfectants used there is n-alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride. It sounds dangerous, but it’s only dangerous for the bugs. I can only imagine what it’s like to be a happy bacteria hanging out on a contaminated bench and then to see a flood of toxic liquid coming at you like a tsunami. The molecules insert into the bacterial membrane and disrupt it, so it’s equivalent to being… liquefied. Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark style.

In other big news this week, we’ve finally found out our rotation schedule for next year! My classmates and I have been waiting for this moment because the hardest thing to do has been finding a good place to live. Our housing in Charleston, West Virginia is provided for by the kind pathologists who work there, but that still left the monster of Pittsburgh to deal with. Here’s what my schedule is for next year.

1/3 - 1/27 University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences Tissue Bank (Shadyside Hospital), Pittsburgh, PA

1/30 - 2/17 UPMC Magee-Womens’ Hospital Surgical Pathology, Pittsburgh, PA

2/20 - 4/6 West Virginia Deputy Chief Medical Examiner’s Office, Morgantown, WV

4/9 - 5/4 Allegheny General Hospital Surgical Pathology, Pittsburgh, PA

5/7 - 5/25 Ruby Memorial / West Virginia University Healthcare Surgical Pathology, Morgantown, WV

5/28 - 6/15 UPMC Presbyterian Autopsy Pathology, Pittsburgh, PA

6/18 - 7/13 UPMC Childrens’ Hospital Surgical Pathology, Pittsburgh, PA

7/16 - 8/31 Thomas Memorial Hospital, South Charleston, WV

9/3 - 10/19 UPMC Presbyterian Hospital Surgical Pathology, Pittsburgh, PA

10/22 - 12/14 UPMC Shadyside Hospital Surgical Pathology, Pittsburgh, PA

You may have noticed something from the schedule above. There are no more breaks! We’re going to be kept as busy as bees, but it’s a good thing because this is the actual hands on experience that we need to be prepared for the working world. I’m very excited to be starting rotations and can’t wait.

Before that though we’ve got to survive finals. Next week we have one final and a practical, then the next week after that we have three more finals. It’s going to be a lot of cramming, but all I can think about is not having to take another traditional lecture course for the rest of my life. Hopefully. That reminds me, I need to stock up on some caffeinated green tea for these next two weeks.

Green tea is my anti-drug.

Today’s going to be a busy day as well. After all of our efforts, my classmate Prashant and I have decided on an apartment in Pittsburgh, so we’re heading there today to hand in our paperwork. All should go smoothly. The new place we’ll be at is located outside of downtown Pittsburgh, which will make the commute a drag, but the price was reasonable. The costs should come out to be $695 for a one bedroom apartment, with everything except for electricity, internet and TV included. There’s a bus stop right outside the apartment area that goes to Pittsburgh, but I’ll be carpooling with Prashant as much as possible. My challenge is to prove that going through the WVU PA Program without a car is possible. Of course, I'll be paying gas money. So far so good.