Life In the Fast Lane

I can’t believe how fast time has gone by – can you believe that Monday will mark four weeks since classes have started?! Let me recap you on what’s been going on since.

Here are the classes that I have this quarter:

“Gross room slots” vary for each student every week. So every week, Cherie (our wonderful mama bear program director) schedules a different set students on for different rotations. These rotations consist of histology, surgical pathology and autopsy. My fellow classmate Frank and I rotated at the histology lab at the FMO (Family Medical Offices). Our rotations were for three days and if I already didn’t appreciate sleep, I sure do now. These 4:00 AM shifts are no joke! My younger sister is a histo technician (miss you sis!) and never again will I keep her up late! Haha! After getting settled with the safety guidelines and going over grossing, embedding, microtome and staining procedures, Frank and I spent time observing the work flow. I really enjoyed this rotation and it was very informative to see what happens on the other side of the process (ha no pun intended) after we gross specimens.

This quarter, we have Embryology, taught by Dr. Oberg, a pediatric pathologist. Wonderful speaker. A lot of cell biology and genetics from my undergrad clicked for this.  We also have Biomedical Communications/Integrity, this is a pooled class with other graduate students where we will be more aware of proper ethical studies and improve our communication skills. In Ethics, we go over basic ethical studies and integrate our own questions with medical ethics, over the quarter, we will be presenting studies covering other ethical studies. Anatomy and Pathology I is taught by our awesome clinical coordinator and also fellow PA, Mike. If you don’t know him, you probably should. Outstanding gentleman. There’s a lecture portion and there’s a lab portion. We got assigned into groups of four each each cadaver we’re doing to dissect. FOUR. Can you believe that?! And I thought I was already fortunate, to be able to have a cadaver during my undergrad, which was shared among 32 students. Anatomical Techniques is taught by Cheri and it definitely is an interesting and incredibly innovative class. I personally think this class is great because I feel it’s really important to not just get the didactic classes in during our first year, but to get as much hands on experience that we can possibly get before rotations start (again, so crazy to think how fast time passes by – this time next year we will already be on rotations!) We also have lab time for this class. This lab is accessible six days out of the week for us first years to practice our frozen techniques.

You'll see that we have two different cryostats and two stain lines to practice with!

This week, a few of my classmates and I took on a really fun and wonderful volunteer opportunity with Mike at a local high school. We spread the word on the profession of a Pathologists’ Assistant presented to the high school students some anatomy models on something they might observe if they ever (and hopefully) decide to pursue this career! It was a super cool experience and again, really reiterated why I want to become a PA.

I got my first taste of grad school this week after surviving two exams, one in Anatomical Techniques and one in Anatomy & Pathology. My parents are visiting this weekend and they couldn’t have come at a better time! I’m still adjusting and transitioning from a full-time worker to a full-time student and up until now, the farthest that I had ever been away from my parents was an hour and a half. My sister was my last roommate :-P Which reminds me! I hadn’t gotten a chance to talk about my class!

My class consists of 16 students, everyone with very different backgrounds and personalities. Some are local and some are out of state, like me. Some classmates have experience on the research side, working in a clinical lab, or even grossing. One of my classmates was a gross technician at a vet clinic! I think my classmates will make a very interesting dynamic. Everyone has been wonderful so far and I'm very excited to see how each of us grow throughout this program.

Introducing the Pathologists' Assistant class of 2018!