Good morning, my isolated friends. These are new and interesting territories we are entering. At some point in your life, you learned that your parents, as much as they tried, had no clue what they were doing.
Strangely, no one does. You just don’t normally get to see it as clearly as we are seeing it now. You don’t get to see you parents muddling along with a four-year-old. You don’t get to see a surgeon trying to figure out how to work the self-checkout at the grocery store. Normally you don’t get to see those things, but today, you do.
Everyone wants answers because in our lifetime every answer has been just a google search away. Well, today there are no answers. “When will school open?” “When will I graduate?” “When will we get to play baseball??”
There are no answers, and that alone is something that takes adjusting. When there are no answers, patience is a key. Sometimes you have to just breathe and wait. I know, I know, that’s crazy talk in our instant-answer society, but that’s where we’re at.
In a lot of ways, it’s kind of nice. I’ve played an hour of tennis a day with my family. No one ever uses the court in our neighborhood and my guys are just old enough and athletic enough to make it fun. We play board games every night. There are a lot of positives.
But I also know it’s a struggle. My wife has been thrown into working at home while dealing with two kids vying for her attention. It isn’t easy. You’re learning on your own or on video conference, in a world that’s totally different than the one you were in even two weeks ago.
I get it.
That’s why I’m completely rewriting this month’s issue of Physician Assistant Exam Scholars. Test-taking skills are important, but that can be saved for next month. This month, I wanted to help as much as possible with the current situation that’s affecting so many people. What can we do with where we are and what we don’t have answers for?
I like the to start with the simple stuff. In surgery, if there’s a wall of adhesions or the abdomen is a mess, you start with the anatomy you can identify, you start with the known and then move to the unknown. There are some very simple philosophies and techniques to keep you grounded and moving forward; you can use them now more than ever. Those principles don’t change much just because you’re in isolation.
I’ve been using these philosophies for years while working on PAER from home. The isolation orders make these techniques all the more important. Now that it’s up to you, it’s even more important.
Anyway, I’m putting the finishing touches on the April issue, but I ran into a problem. There’s way too much to fit into one issue. I’m way over my normal length already and I’ve got so much more I’d like to cover. Now normally I’d think that’s great! I’d split it and make next month “part two.” But given the current situation, I don’t want to do that. I want to get it all out to you as quickly as I can, because I know it will help you get through this.
Here’s the solution, I’m going to create a video course out of all of the material I want to get into your hands ,and I want to release it in early April. That way, everyone benefits, and everyone can use it.
Wait, but what about PAES subscribers? Here’s the beauty of it. Physician Assistant Exam Scholars subscribers will receive access to the course when they receive the April issue. They’ll get it included as part of this month. It’s a huge bonus and I’m happy to give it.
Everyone else will have to wait just a bit and although it won’t be crazy expensive, there will be a price tag associated with it.
I know a lot of people are giving things away for free all of a sudden, but in my experience, that has its own issues for the consumer. I’m not a fan of you stacking up materials on your hard drive, never to be seen again.
I’m fan of people going through my material and putting it to good use; a little skin in the game makes a surprising (or not so surprising) difference. Anyway, the simple way to deal with that is to sign up for PAES
It’s up to you.
Physician Assistant Exam Scholar
Brian Wallace
P.S.
I’ll be hosting another Zoom call at 11:00 am on Saturday. I plan on going for about 40 minutes with an update and answering some questions. I’ll get you the info later today.