When you’re deep in the thick of it, it’s exhilarating. Everything’s new and fresh. You don’t even know what specialties are out there. Then you start your rotations, and you begin to learn a little about the different specialties.
Yes, of course, there’s cardio and surgery and medicine, but those are such broad ideas. You don’t even know what that means. Working with a sports medicine doc is a lot different than working in trauma or vascular surgery.
There’s a nuance to all of it. Unfortunately, you have to learn it. You can’t know it before you do. I loved cardiology and was considering going down that road until I was on my cardio rotation.Bleh. It sucked. Now It may have just been that practice. Other offices may have had more exciting jobs.
That’s another caveat they don’t tell you. Each doc, each office, each hospital has its idea (or not) of what a PA is and what they should do. It’s hard to feel this out ahead of time, but you do need to know that orthopedic surgery with one doc isn’t the same with another doc. Cardiology isn’t the same with one practice as it is if a hospital employs you.
I can’t say which is better. You have to figure out the right questions to ASK to find that out.Make sure the interview is a two-way conversation. You need to know just as much about them as they need to know about you. If it isn’t a good fit, it isn’t good for both parties.
To completely change the subject I just had this exchange with Brandon on Linkedin
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(Brandon)Thank you so much for your podcasts and resources. Definitely helped me make a big difference in my score.
(Me) how’d you do?
(Brandon) Increased my score by around 60 points
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Just a reminder that it works. The system I’ve been working on for ten years and the ideas on how to do your best along with the content knowledge and BOOM! 50 points!
Amazing.
I’m pretty sure I can add at least that with just this months edition of Physician Assistant Exam Scholars. In the February issue, I tell you all about my day at Pearson Vue and the PANRE I just took in December. With all my experience I still got a lot of things wrong (not content, of course, I got content wrong. I’m talking about my approach) And I learned a bunch of specific things you can do to beat my score. That’s what this months issue is all about.
What’re fifty points worth to you? Get it here.
Physician Assistant Exam Scholars
The second I got home from my PANRE I recorded a video about the whole experience and what I thought mattered the most in getting my score. February subscribers get access to that raw video on top of all the things I share in the newsletter.