Second Year Begins

Stormy fall weather is coming to Salem and I love it.

The benefits of living in a town with a Farmers' Market

     In what was a surprise to probably no one, there has been no easing into the second year of the PA program. Exactly two weeks after classes started we already had our first exam in clinical medicine. In those two weeks we'd managed to cover preventive medicine, dermatology, and infectious diseases (a rather broad subject covering everything from HIV to salmonella to candidasis to rabies to botulism to hepatitis C to Lyme disease and so on). We didn't just learn about these conditions though; we also learned how to diagnose and treat them. It was a lot of material in a very short amount of time. We made it though. We learned the material, we took the exam, and we passed. Just one week later we faced our first clinical therapeutics exam. Next Monday we'll have our first history and physical exam, and so it goes. 

I think everyone was felt very official when we
got our medical equipment.

      Second year may have began with a running start, but I don't think anyone in the program is complaining, much. It's nice to be in classes that really feel practical. we're finally learning how to diagnose and treat conditions, rather than simply learning endless lists of drugs or going over how to do research. In our Patient History and Examination lab we've been able to break out our new medical kits and start performing exams on each other. It's been fun, though some exams have certainly been easier to perform than others. Thankfully most of us have friends and roommates willing to be patients for us to practice all sorts of physical examinations (such as blood pressure reading, eye and lung exams, etc.) as we hone our skills. We have to get everything down because starting in January we'll be doing these exams on "model" patients and patients at Boston's Healthcare for the Homeless, and then in May we'll began our clinical clerkships. It's rather exciting. 
     Here's one other tidbit before I call it a post and get back to studying for the H & P exam. One thing we noticed last year is that in PA school (and probably in any sort of health professions training really) you learn to become comfortable with things that often make others squeamish. We've certainly stopped being embarrassed about discussing some typically "sensitive" subjects in public. Fellow riders on the T may not have been expecting three nice-looking girls to discuss STIs so freely, but as we studied for our first two exams, we had no problem discussing HIV, hepatitis C, syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea during our commutes. I will say though that we tried to remain aware of our surroundings and generally focused our discussions on treatments, medications, and dosing for each condition, rather than going in symptoms or details on how each was acquired. We figured that might be a bit too much information for those around us. 

Getting up early for work and school can be a pain, but there are some great perks.