BONUS | Surprising Tips for PA School Success: Mental Health, Study Habits, and More

In this bonus episode of the "So You Want to Work in Healthcare" podcast, our host Leigha shares valuable advice gathered from her Instagram followers, specifically tailored for current and prospective Physician Assistant (PA) students and medical students. The responses are surprisingly rich and diverse, offering practical tips that can benefit anyone in PA or med school or those applying to these programs.

Listeners will also get a brief yet informative overview of what a PA (Physician Assistant or Physician Associate) is, their roles in healthcare, and the various capacities in which they work—from primary care to specialized fields like orthopedic surgery. Tune in for a wealth of knowledge and community-sourced wisdom to help you navigate your journey in PA school and beyond!

Are you struggling with burnout, and not sure what to do about it? Get my FREE SABBATICAL STARTER GUIDE here. 

Thank you so much for listening! Let me know what you think and leave a review on whichever listening platform you’re enjoying on. In that review, write your instagram handle so I can shout you out on the next episode. And if you’re interested in being on the podcast, head over to my TikTok or Instagram account @helloimthepa and send me a message! I’m always happy to hear from you. 

This is the So You Want To Work In Healthcare podcast, with new episodes every week. Don’t forget to subscribe to stay up-to-date on the latest releases.

• Website: OffDutyOnPurpose.com 
• Watch full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soyouwanttoworkinhealthcare/featured
• Instagram & TikTok: @soyouwanttoworkinhealthcare
• Leigha’s Socials: @helloimthepa

*Not Medical Advice. Our views do not reflect the views of our employers.*

Transcript

Leigha:
Hi everyone, welcome back to the So You Want to Work in Healthcare podcast. Sorry for the background noise, I'm actually recording this intro at a cafe in Spain because I'm repurposing an old YouTube video for this week's bonus episode. Basically what happened was I polled my Instagram followers and asked them to give me their best advice for getting through PA school. And the results were surprising, but in the best way. So I'm excited to share this one with you. If you're in PA school, applying to PA school, or even in med school for that matter, I think you'll find this one super helpful. And I hope you enjoy. I polled my Instagram followers and I asked them what would be their best piece of advice for current PA students or soon-to-be PA students. The responses I got were so unexpected. I'm actually really, really surprised, but also like pleasantly surprised because these responses are pretty awesome. So if you are a current PA student, soon to be PA student, pre-PA student, even pre-med, you're gonna wanna watch this video because it has a lot of helpful tips from other PAs. First, let's talk about what a PA is. If you don't know, it stands for physician assistant or physician associate, which is the new term for PA. We are medical providers. Most of us have our masters in physician assistant studies, and we work alongside a physician. In some states, PAs can work independently, sort of like nurse practitioners. We do anything from primary care to orthopedic surgery, like me. We see our own patients. We can write our own prescriptions. So now that you know what a PA is, let me give you the coolest advice that I've heard in a long time. I picked out some of my favorite responses from my Instagram poll. Now, I have to say, I thought it was going to be a lot of specific study tips, websites you can use, books you can buy, but honestly, those were only a few of the answers. We're going to start with one of my favorites. You can still have a social life and do well in school. Balance is important in school and in life. I cannot agree with this more. I love this so much because I did well in PA school. I definitely wasn't like top of my class, but I also had a social life and I actually had a job during PA school. It was a fun job and it gave me an actual break from thinking about school and studying. And I think it's really important to take those breaks. Awesome piece of advice. Next same kind of theme here make time for hobbies family and friends Don't spend all your time studying mental health greater than greater than greater than yes mental health is most important and PA school can be so so daunting think of it as like med school squished into two years so Basically, you have an exam every two to three days. So about two to three exams a week. And when I say exams, I mean like large exams, 60 plus question exams. So you're basically always studying for an exam. On top of that, you might have anatomy lab. and any other projects or working on your thesis. But in the end, none of this will matter if your mental health completely falls apart. Next, another one I really love. Not a true study tip, but an amazing tip. Don't compare yourself to others. Everyone's strengths are different. So, so true. In PA school, I sat next to one of my closest friends at the time. This girl did not have to study. She was just one of these brilliant people who could hear it once and just remember it for every test. I cannot compare myself to people like that because I am someone who needs to study. So find your best study tactics, maybe find some study partners who are like you or maybe opposite and they can help you a little bit, but don't compare yourself to others. Totally agree. An actual like study tip, the next person said Hippocrates. I'm really glad this is still around because I was in PA school over 10 years ago and we used Hippocrates. And it was great. So I believe they have an app you can download on your phone. It's wonderful You could just basically type in any like diagnosis or medication and you get all the information you need about it Okay, another one I really like study to learn not cram sleep is important to create long-term memory It's true. You have to sleep so many times. I tried to like stay up late It never worked or I would like wake up very very early and study as long as you're getting at least six hours of sleep and Ideally you want to get seven or eight hours, but that's not really realistic in PA school, unfortunately, but if you can Go for it, get that eight hours because you're gonna do better on the test the next day, you just will. Even if you think you didn't hit all of the information and you didn't go over every single page of that study guide or PowerPoint, you will do better if you have sleep. Okay, another person said, don't compare yourself to other students. And they included the way they study grades and money, so that's interesting. Grades aren't everything, just pass and get through. Yes and no. You want to pass, you want to get through, obviously you have to pass the boards to become a physician assistant. However, I'm not going to say just like do the bare minimum. I don't want you to think that this comment means like do the bare minimum and just get through. It doesn't. I think what they're trying to say here is it's okay if you don't do great on every single test. That doesn't mean You will be a bad provider. Some people are just bad test takers. I'm a horrible test taker another good study tip This person said online med ed and smarty pants Limit your caffeine. I know it's hard. I agree with this because if you're someone who's like really sensitive to caffeine It can really affect your ability to take a test and perform on physical exams as well. Those are important Another great tip is even during your lighter weeks do something each night to keep up with school I do agree with this but when you need a break, you need a break right like so if you Have gone through a whole stressful week of school And you want to take a break that friday night go for it. Take that break. You can study on saturday But most days you want to do something to keep up. All right, another one that I really really love be humble and realize that on rotations You are a guest in someone's home. As somebody who precepts students, this cannot be more true. Most of my students are absolutely amazing, but once in a while you'll get a couple that you know just don't want to be there. Even if you don't want to be there and you, you know, It's just a rotation that you have to do and you absolutely hate it. Be humble, be respectful. You're still lucky to be there. Please don't be on your phone all day. I wouldn't ask to leave early either. Don't worry, your preceptor's not gonna keep you there all night. Okay, maybe some of them would, but just at least act like you wanna be there even if you don't because it's disrespectful to the people who are taking time out of their very busy and often very stressful day to help you as the student. Plus, you never know who knows who, right? You might be on a geriatric rotation, and you know you're never gonna go into that field, and you wanna do orthopedic surgery, and on that rotation, your preceptor happens to be best friends with the orthopedic surgeon. They can maybe get you into a few surgeries, and then guess what? That orthopedic surgeon might be hiring in a couple years, and then they will remember you. You'll have a better chance of getting a job that you really, really want. This is kind of what happened to me, actually. And now I'm gonna give you one of my tips from PA school. I agree with almost all of this, especially the mental health part, right? Like, I am all about taking care of yourself first and foremost. A habit I developed during PA school, which I honestly never thought I'd do, was I woke up super early and went to the gym. This was not easy, but I forced myself to do it because exercise directly increases brain function and mood. At the gym, study. This is what I used to do. So if I had a test that day, or even if I didn't, I would take my notes to the exercise bike or the elliptical or even the treadmill, and I would read through my notes while I was exercising. And not only does this make your cardio go by a lot faster, you tend to retain more information, or at least I retained more information while I was working out, because your endorphins are going, you're feeling good, you're focused. I thought this was a really cool tip. Even if you hate working out, maybe hop on the exercise bike, just do a light workout with your study notes. I think that'll help. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. Thank you to everyone who responded to my Instagram poll. That was absolutely awesome. Thank you for putting mental health first. I love it so much. And I would love for you to keep watching my YouTube videos, so hit that subscribe button below. And if you want, put your tips in the comments of this video. I'm always interested to see and share helpful tips for getting through the very, very stressful PA school. Now go get back to studying. See ya!