Day in the Life
Physician Assistant
Hi! My name is Abby Bezar, and I am a first-year Physician Assistant Studies (PA) student at Salus University.
Today my day started when I woke up and got ready for my day around 6:45 a.m. Today is a Wednesday, and starting the second semester of the didactic year, we have pre-clinical experiences every Wednesday morning.
This Wednesday, I am headed to Jean’s Hospital Radiology Department. During these pre-clinical experiences, we are able to shadow doctors, PAs, or techs that specialize in all different fields. I arrived at Jeans Hospital at 8 a.m. and reported to the radiology department. I was taken to a CAT scan and was able to see both a lumbar spine and abdominal CT scan. From CT, I was taken to MRI and saw a brain MRI. Then they took me to Ultrasound and then to X-Ray and then to nuclear medicine. It was a great experience to see every different modality and have each of the techs explain the process of the imaging, the anatomy, and what specific anatomic landmarks they look for when making a diagnosis. I departed from Jeans Hospital around 11 a.m.
I headed to Chick-fil-A for lunch before class at 1:30 p.m.
At 1:30 p.m., class started back at Salus. Today we had Clinical Medicine. We are in our first pediatrics module. Today's topic was Pediatric Cardiology. We learned about congenital cardiac murmurs, other congenital cardiac diseases, and acquired pediatric diseases. This class ended at 3 p.m.
Immediately after the clinical medicine class, we went to Advanced Clinical Skills (ACS). In ACS, we separate into small groups with one faculty facilitator and are presented with a case study. We work through the case together to determine pertinent areas of the chief complaint and history of the patient. We then create a list of differential diagnoses and begin to order lab studies and diagnostics. We have to justify the reasoning behind ordering each study to rule out our differentials and find a final diagnosis. After the diagnosis is made, we create an assessment and plan for patient education and treatment. At the very end, we present our cases to the class and practice patient education with each other. This class ended at 5:30 p.m.
After class ended, I went back to my apartment, made some dinner, and began studying for peds clin med from 7 to 10 p.m. I study best in my own apartment, but everyone has to figure out what’s best for them!
I got into bed around 10:30 p.m. and treated myself to some Netflix until about 11 p.m. Ready to wake up the next day and do it all over again!
Learn More About the Salus Physician Assistant Studies Program
