Physician assistant (PA) Career

Preparing for PA School

Getting Clinical Hours

• Medical Scribe - in my opinion, one of the best ways to get exposure and see real medicine and learn how to document
• EMT - direct patient care and great exposure
• Nursing assistant - direct patient care, although not necessarily the most pleasant tasks
• Shadowing - easiest to obtain, but many places don't consider this as "direct" patient care

Optimizing Your Skillset

• Learn another language - this is particularly valuable if you plan to work in an area with a lot of non-English speaking patients, and even more so if you have some time to kill before starting PA school. I wish I had solidified my Spanish before starting school and becoming a parent.
• Start familiarizing yourself with medical terminology and anatomy. Get an app, Quizlet, a book, whatever, and start skimming whenever you have a chance. I doubt you'll retain much but any exposure is helpful.

Preparing for PA Certification/Recertification

Books

• Comprehensive Review for the Certification and Recertification of Physician Assistants by Claire Babcock - written by a former professor of mine, and like any review books, it has its +/- but overall, a decent book with some quiz questions to test your knowledge
• PANCE and PANRE Question Book by Dwayne Williams - SO. MANY. QUESTIONS. Great resource.
• PANCE Prep Pearls by Dwayne Williams - as someone who loves lists, I LOVE this book. Awesomely concise and well organized resource.
• Physician Assistant Board Review by James Van Rhee

Question Banks

• HIPPO
• Smarty Pance (also has podcast)
• Rosh Review
• PANCE Master

Practice Exams

• NCCPA Practice Exams

Review Courses

• CME Resources
• CME 4 Life
• Certified Medical Educators
• AAPA CME Calendar - combines many of the above courses into one calendar, which is great
  • I personally recommend Rutger's PANCE/PANRE Review Course, which also has an online alternative (I've done live and online versions, which are great, and I'm not just saying that because that's where I went to PA school)

Types of Recertification

• Traditional - sit down computerized exam, closed book and timed
• Pilot - two-year test that consists of 25 questions per quarter, open book but timed - I HIGHLY RECOMMEND! Questions are stressful but you can use whatever resources are available to you, and each set of questions only takes me 2-3 hours to finish

Clinical Resources

The are the best resources I've found in my experience in trauma, general surgery, and orthopedic surgery

Phone Apps

• UpToDate - great for quick and detailed reference as well as getting CME for it( see "CME Resources" above); also has a desktop site
• Epocrates - great for quick reference, no CME last time I checked

Textbooks

• General Surgery:
  • Surgical Recall by Blackbourne - great reference for surgical rotations or PAs new to surgery
  • Netter's Surgical Anatomy Review PRN by Trelease - great for surgical conditions and some surgical approaches
  • Netter's Surgical Anatomy and Approaches by Delaney - great for surgical approaches
  • Dr. Pestana's Surgical Notes by Dr. Carlos Pestana
• Trauma Surgery:
  • Netter's Surgical Anatomy Review PRN by Trelease
  • The Trauma Manual - "just detailed enough" for a new trauma PA
  • Atlas of Surgical Techniques in Trauma by Demetriades, Inaba, Velmahos
• Orthopedic Surgery:
  • Netter's Concise Orthopedic Anatomy by Thompson - great for students or quick reference for clinicians
  • Operative Techniques in Orthopaedic Surgery by Dr. Sam Weisel - in-depth surgical techniques
  • Review of Hand Surgery by Pedro Beredjiklian - great for anyone in hand surgery
• Medical Texts:
  • Marino's Little ICU Book - great introduction to critical care medicine for those of us who round on patients that happen to be in the ICU
  • Maxwell Quick Medical Reference - a must-have for any student or new practioner that deals with lab values, learning how to document, and neurosurgical exams
• Medical Spanish:
  • Complete Medical Spanish by Rios, Torres, Rios
  • Spanish for Health Care Professionals by Harvey William
  • Spanish for Medical Professionals by My Daily Spanish

Continuing Medical Education (CME)

Professional Organization Memberships

• State Society of Physician Assistants (New York, for example)
• Specialty-specific - they often have CME resources within that field, as well
  • Orthopedics: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
  • General Surgery: American College of Surgeons
  • Trauma: Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma

Digital Resources

• UpToDate - all you need, in my opinion. Use it as your daily go-to for questions you have about your practice, and you'll probably have all the credits you need by the time you need them. Find out if your organization gives it for free! (many do)
• Audio Digest - expensive, but if you have CME funds to burn, this is the way to go. You can also get a hefty gift card out of the deal!
• AAPA CME On Demand - all of their in-person conferences in digitized form; I've done this several times and loved it

Trips

• PANCE/PANRE Review Courses (see "Preparing for PA Certification/Recertification: Review Courses" above)
• Generalized PA Conferences (AAPA, etc)
  • AAPA Conferences
    • AAPA Musculoskeletal Galaxy - was great for me as an Ortho PA, would also be good for trauma and ED PAs
    • AAPA Adult Hospital Medicine Boot Camp - looks awesome
  • CME Procedures Live Conferences
  • Specialty Courses - e.g. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons for orthopedics, etc
• CME Cruises - I haven't done this yet, but can't wait to!
  • Continuing Education
  • CME Away
  • University At Sea
  • CME @ Sea
• Wilderness Medicine Courses - get your dose of outdoor activities mixed in with learning some cool medicine
  • Wilderness Medicine
  • Wilderness Medical Society
  • Advanced Wilderness Life Support - has a dedicated PA course!
• CME "Vacations" - turn any trip into a "CME trip"; may need to get approval from your employer on this one
  • Escape CME Seminars
  • CME Procedures

Certifications

• American Heart Association (AHA)
  • Basic Life Support (BLS)
  • Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS)
  • Pedatric Advanced Life Support (PALS)
• American College of Surgeon's Advanced Trauma Life Support
• NCCPA Certification of Added Qualification (CAQ) - a great opportunity for specialized PAs to add to their resume. I did the orthopedic CAQ and learned so much while studying for it. Currently available for:
  • Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery
  • Emergency Medicine
  • Hospital Medicine
  • Nephrology
  • Orthopedic Surgery
  • Pediatrics
  • Psychiatry
• Medical Spanish
  • Canopy Medical Spanish - a course with certification at the end; kind of tedious, time-consuming course for learning medical spanish but you get CME out of it as well as a certification at the end, and it is helpful
  • Certified Medical Interpreters
  • Common Ground International

Equipment

For those of you who need to burn CME funds and don't need anymore actual CME credits. Not all employers will cover equipment, though, so be sure to check first.

• Work shoes - if I'm in scrubs, I'm in crocs! By far the most comfortable shoe for lots of standing/walking. I've used Danskos and get foot and back pain after a while.
  • Crocs Women's Neria Pro II - adds a little height
  • Crocs On The Clock Work Shoe - slip resistant
  • Crocs Specialist II
• Scrubs
  • Scrubzone Unisex Top and Pants are my personal favorites. Not fitted, but durable with great pockets
  • Figs - the most highly recommended brand amongst peers. A little pricey but apparently worth it. Planning on trying them myself if my Scrubzone scrubs ever need replacing.
• Lab coat
  • Medelita - sells more than just lab coats, but these definitely seem to be their forte. I did try their scrub jacket and found them to be too long for me (I'm rather short).
• Lead apron, glasses - I liked ZZMedical
• Technology - iPad, Surface with or without Surface Pen, etc