Frequently Asked Questions
1) Where did Inside PA Training Come From?
It all started in the summer of 2010 when Paul (a former family therapist) and Gabe (an US Air Force medic and sports medicine guru) met at the start of their PA program at UC Davis School of Medicine. We got along well and felt like we had things we wanted to share. Since both of us were thinking about starting our own blog, we decided to team up, and the rest is — well — yet to be determined! It has been a fun way to 1) keep our family and friends in touch with our schooling, 2) preserve the amazing moments that seem to happen every day in our program, and 2) provide useful information about the fun and rigors of physician assistant school to those who are interested in what it’s like.
2) What, how, and when do you post?
We generally post 3 times per week, but it depends somewhat on our school and exam schedule. We try to include a smattering of everything: photos and videos from class, stories about our experiences, instructive pieces on what to expect from PA school, video interviews of students, information on how to get in, and other stuff we think is interesting/useful related to health care, medicine, and the related sciences.
3) What is the UC Davis Program like?
In a word, it’s awesome. We love the program, and are very glad to be a part of it. But it’s hard. It’s a ton of work and time — much like medical school for MDs, but shorter, and probably more practical (not that what MD students learn is useless. Far from it. But what we learn is immediately applicable to seeing patients, which any medical student will tell you is something they don’t always get. It’s a competitive program, so we count ourselves very lucky to be a part of it. The last time we asked, we were told that our class had over 1200 applications, from which 57 were accepted. We don’t mean to ring our bell too loudly, but we are proud. We understand that the next year’s class (that will start in the summer of 2011) will only have 25 or so in it, and this is because the program is doing a lot of work to morph itself from a certificate only program into a Master’s program in physician assistant sciences.
4) Where do you find your content, your material?
Just about anywhere, as long as it’s reputable. Some from our textbooks, some from our lectures, and of course our personal experiences. As medical students, we are often overwhelmed with study materials and great ideas for posts. If you have a suggestion of something you’d like us to post on, let ‘er rip — we’d love to hear about it. In the future, we hope to offer video interviews with our classmates, and resources like mnemonics we like to use to remember important concepts. Time, however, is the limiting factor. Being a PA student is not for those who like their free time (yes, we should be studying right now).
