Fall Semester Week One Review

This week was a very easy week in terms of workload. We mainly had introductory lectures for all the courses, and most days we were out by 3 (we were done by 11:15 today!). We have moved to another building in the classroom that we will be in for the rest of the year, and I've finally figured out where everything is: 2nd floor lab and lounge, 3rd floor classroom, 4th floor computer lab, and 5th floor, standardized patient lab. Here are my thoughts on our classes so far:


History Taking and Physical Exam: 12 credits.
This is the first of the six classes, and it alone is time consuming enough that it qualifies us a full time students! We spent this week learning about how to take and write a comprehensive  history, which means asking about every major pathology of every part of the body. I may be exaggerating a little when I say EVERY, but we have probably 250 conditions to memorize and be able to spout off at the top of our heads to ask our patients about when we take a history (have you ever had problems with dizziness? Vomiting blood? Itchy eyes? etc). They let us use a cheat sheet in the beginning so we practice how to ask to ask the questions, but eventually we have to do everything from memory. The other crazy thing is that we get 50 minutes to do a comprehensive history the first week, then the next week we have 50 mins to do a history and take vitals, then the next week we have 50 minutes to do a history+vitals+skin/head/ears/nose/throat exam, and then it keeps on going until we have 50 minutes to do a comprehensive history AND a full head to toe physical. My first time taking a history it took me almost an hour, so it is crazy to think that I'll be good enough at it to get everything done in under an hour. Thankfully we see a patient each week, so we have lots of practice.

Research Methods: 2 credits
This class teaches us about research (duh). The first couple of sessions are taught by this GREAT professor from a local public health program. He's Indian, and he actually speaks English quite well, but he has just enough of an acccent that you really can't space out in class. Let's be honest, statistics can be dry and painful at times, but he has a way of teaching that is engaging and funny. The class in general likes him a lot, which is good.


Pharmaceutical Concepts: 2 credits
We take this class all year long, but to be honest I'm not quite sure what we're doing this semester. The prof was a nice guy but a little tangential (which he did warn us about).

Health Policy: 3 credits
This class just teaches us about the structure of our health care system and PAs roles in it. This course is fun because our program director is teaching it. He's a great lecturer too. His lectures were filled with media from NPR, 20-20, 60 mins, that sort of thing. And he also plays the Bill Nye the Science guy theme when it's time for us to settle down from a break, haha.


Community Service: 2 credits
This class involves different lecturers coming in once a week and presenting on different population groups in the community that we should know about as health care providers. For example, we have someone presenting on hospice care, eating disorders, child abuse, etc. We have to identify an organization outside of the lecturer's topics to partner with and report on to our classmates. I have an idea in the works, I just have to call them now to set up a time to talk and/or meet (if that is allowed).


Genetics: 1 credit
This class is actually spread out throughout the year, with two faculty lectures but the rest are student presentations Grand Rounds style on the genetic basis for different types of diseases, such as Down's or Tay-Sachs. We had our first lecture yesterday and most of it went over my head. I didn't have a good background in genetics, so I have some reading to do this weekend, to say the least.

I'm going to try to get all my school work done today, and then tomorrow try to find something fun to do in Philly. :)