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Shadow Me Next!
Shadow Me Next! is a podcast where we take you behind the scenes of the medical world. I'm Ashley Love, a Physician Assistant, and I will be sharing my journey in medicine and exploring the lives of various healthcare professionals. Each episode, I'll interview doctors, NPs, PAs, nurses, and allied health workers, uncovering their unique stories, the joys and challenges they face, and what drives them in their careers. Whether you're a pre-med student or simply curious about the healthcare field, we invite you to join us as we take a conversational and personal look into the lives and minds of leaders in Medicine. Access you want, stories you need. You're always invited to Shadow Me Next!
Shadow Me Next!
3 - Lessons in Resilience and Growth in Medicine from an Orthopedic Trauma Physician Assistant | Bailey Hart, PA-C
Unlock the secrets to a fulfilling medical career with orthopedic trauma physician assistant Bailey Hart. Join us on Shadow Me Next as Bailey opens up about her unexpected journey from aspiring physician to passionate PA, spurred by her desire for a balanced lifestyle and a quicker entry into the healthcare field. It's a story of adaptability and determination, with hands-on experiences like working in a cadaver lab shaping her path toward a surgical specialty. Get ready to learn from Bailey as she navigates the challenges of PA school, where intense periods, affectionately termed "Sucktober," tested her resilience and underscored the importance of a strong support system.
As Bailey transitions from academia to the demanding world of hospital work, she candidly shares the trials and triumphs of her career as an orthopedic trauma PA. Discover what it's like to step into the hospital hierarchy and how support from colleagues and mentors paves the way for professional growth. Bailey offers an insider's look into her diverse roles, from the operating room to clinic responsibilities, and the deeply human aspects of patient care, recounting stories that highlight the emotional and professional rewards of helping patients recover from severe trauma.
Reflect on Bailey's insights into finding career satisfaction in medicine, where the collaborative culture allows for shared decision-making and supportive teamwork. Learn how PAs serve as vital links between patients and their healthcare plans, enjoying both autonomy and collaboration with physicians. Bailey shares valuable advice for aspiring medical professionals, emphasizing the importance of perseverance and lifelong learning. If you're captivated by the dynamic world of healthcare and inspired by stories of resilience and growth, Bailey's journey is an essential listen.
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Hello and welcome to Shadow Me Next. This is a podcast where I take you into and behind the scenes of the medical world to provide you with a deeper understanding of the human side of medicine. I'm Ashley, a physician assistant and the creator of Shadow Me Next. It's my goal to introduce you to the incredible members of the healthcare field and to uncover their unique stories, the joys and challenges they face and what drives them in their careers. It's access you want and stories you need, whether you're a pre-med student or simply curious about the healthcare field. I invite you to join me as we take a conversational and personal look into the lives and minds of leaders in medicine.
Speaker 1:Welcome to episode three of Shadow Me Next, where we shadow an orthopedic trauma PA who has some amazing insights and incredible stories. Bailey Hart graduated from the University of Florida PA School and has been working as a PA for nearly five years. In 2020, bailey received the UF Stephen M and Randy E Kraft Award of Excellence for Physician Assistant Studies, which acknowledged her outstanding academic performance and clinical skills, and in April of 2022, bailey was honored with the Customer Service Key Award from UF Health for her exceptional patient care, teamwork and professionalism. As an orthotrauma PA Bailey specializes in managing musculoskeletal injuries, things like fractures and dislocations, often caused by accidents or trauma. She assists in surgeries, performs procedures like casting and suturing, manages pre and post-operative care and collaborates with surgeons and other healthcare professionals to ensure complete patient recovery.
Speaker 1:I don't want you to miss a single one of these conversations, so make sure that you subscribe to this podcast, which will automatically notify you when new episodes are dropped, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Shadow Me Next, which is where I'll highlight some of the best moments of this interview and I'll give you sneak previews of our upcoming guests.
Speaker 2:Hi Bailey, thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Shadow Me. Next, how are you? I?
Speaker 1:am great. Thank you so much for having me, ashley. Yeah, absolutely so. I am so excited to hear about your journey to becoming a PA. You are a PA in orthopedic trauma surgery and that sounds like it's so much fun, but also so high stress, and I'm really interested to hear about first about your journey just to becoming a PA, and then your life as a PA generally speaking and your role as a PA in trauma surgery, and then maybe we can dive a little bit into an actual day in the life of you working in orthopedic trauma.
Speaker 2:Sounds great.
Speaker 1:Super Okay, so what?
Speaker 2:first sparked your interest in becoming a PA Bailey Okay so what first sparked your interest in becoming a PA, bailey?
Speaker 2:I would say I think I've always been interested in the field of medicine.
Speaker 2:When I started out in undergrad I wanted to go the MD route, the go-through medical school residency. I shadowed a few physicians and really enjoyed that physicians and really enjoyed that. But just kind of thinking about lifestyle balance, the amount of schooling and debt that I would have to go through to get to be a physician, I kind of just started looking at some other options. Turns out one of my neighbors was a PA and just kind of had the opportunity to pick their brain a little bit about the profession and just learning a little bit about it sounded like the perfect mix of being able to make independent decisions and still get to care for people without all of the schooling and training that goes into being a physician. So I kind of started looking into that, realized during my freshman year of college that that was the route I wanted to pursue and change some of my classes a little bit but still took prereqs for both pre-med and pre-PA, which you know I think was just helpful and kind of better rounding out my application for PA school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. You know, I think that so often a reason that we choose to become PAs is because we can really jump into our career rather quickly and that's how we're trained. You know, we're trained under this generalist model to be able to start seeing patients and serving our communities immediately. Do you feel like you were able to do that? Was it a pretty quick process from the end of your collegiate career until you became a medical provider?
Speaker 2:until you became a medical provider? Absolutely, yeah, I did take a gap year in between undergrad and PA school. I hadn't had the opportunity to accumulate the number of patient contact hours that I needed for my application and truly I loved my gap year. I loved being able to take a break from studying and live life a little bit. Experience the medical field. I worked as a medical assistant at a dermatology practice and got some really good hands on experience. And then I was blessed to be able to be accepted during my first application cycle for PA school. Blessed to be able to be accepted during my first application cycle for PA school. And my program was two years, so you know, really about three years from the date that I graduated from undergrad. I was graduating from PA school and a short few months after that I was a medical provider.
Speaker 1:That's incredible. I love that and I'm so glad that you mentioned that's incredible. I love that and I'm so glad that you mentioned your gap year and the fact that you really enjoyed it. You know, I think that I think gap years are so important, primarily to to get those patient contact hours, like you said. You know, working in their dermatology practice you were able to to observe other PAs, I would imagine, and other physicians doing what they do best and and starting to understand patients a little bit more and how patient care should flow. Gap years, I think, are so important for that and, like you said, just to kind of have a year to relax and learn more about yourself and maybe develop some hobbies too. Pa school. So I'm so excited to hear about your PA school experience. I'm sure it was more challenging than your undergraduate experience, but what were some of the most memorable moments of PA school for you?
Speaker 2:I was able to go to University of Florida PA school. Something really special about that program that has kind of stuck with me throughout my training was the ability to do a cadaver lab in our first semester Truly really just kind of threw us right in. You know we had a great facility, a great professor that you know really just took time allowing us to go through cadaver dissections and truly learning kind of the building blocks of anatomy. You know wonderful things to look back on. Or you know your white coat ceremony when you transition into a clinical year and how special that is and really being able to apply all the knowledge that you've learned the year before in the real world. And UF was just a wonderful program. We had great resources, we had a lot of preceptor options as far as rotations go and just a wonderful experience to look back on. It was very hard, very challenging. Like you said, it took a lot of work. You learn a lot about your study habits.
Speaker 1:But it's like everybody says, it's the best two years you'd never want to repeat to really employ and use in your training. Do you think that cadaver lab was what drove you to want to work in a surgical specialty, or did you stay pretty open-minded throughout your entire PA schooling experience?
Speaker 2:I think from the beginning I knew I wanted to do something procedural. I liked what I saw in dermatology being able to kind of break up the day a little bit. From, you know, if you think, more like a primary care setting, it's mostly just talking with patients one-on-one, and while I do love to talk, I do enjoy kind of breaking things up with procedures. You know, being able to work with my hands. My dad is very handy, he's always worked with his hands, so that was something that I, you know, kind of grew up with, and so being able to use that in my career is wonderful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, absolutely Absolutely, and I think it's always fun when we can use our you know, ourgiven talents and the things that we are just innately, naturally gifted in our career. I also enjoy working with my hands, and the procedural side of being a PA is one of the biggest draws for me. I really loved that you can be a clinical PA and a procedural PA at the same exact office, which is fantastic. When you were in school and this will be the last school question and maybe we'll we'll graduate from school and we'll talk about being a PA but when you were in school, was there ever a time when you felt overwhelmed or just burned out? And if there was, what?
Speaker 2:what was your crutch? What did you rely on to kind of push you through? Oh yes, absolutely. I remember the fall semester we had October. We called it Sucktober. We literally had like two or three exams every single week and it was just an absolute marathon.
Speaker 2:You know, I think when, in any situation PA school specifically but when you're back against the wall and you're doing everything that you know that you can do for school, you kind of just get into this like survival mode and you start leaning on the things that are familiar to you. And you start leaning on the things that are familiar to you. So, you know, for me, I had one of one of my best friends was in PA school with me, so we were very lucky to be able to lean on each other through hard study sessions and test after test after test. You know, family was a big thing for me. My husband, my parents, they were always very supportive.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, my mom was the mom who would show up with dinner cooked and drop off at my apartment. Uh, which was wonderful. Um, and then certainly, just, you know, faith in Jesus, faith in the Lord, um can, can really get you through anything, and so so pushing through that month was was truly, um, you know it's my own strength and when you get through it and you look back, you know a test of my own strength and when you get through it and you look back and you're so proud of yourself for how well you've done it kind of then pushes you into the next challenge and you can always look back and say, well, if I made it through this, I know I can make it through that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. I love that so much and and I think that's also where we're having that gap year in between undergraduate studies and, you know, in PA school or medical school or in P school I think having that gap is where you can really solidify those those things that you lean on hard in PA school. So I'm so glad, I'm so glad that you had your family and your best friend to support you. That's awesome. Okay, so let's talk about general PA questions. So you've graduated, you have secured your first job. What surprised you most when you first started working in medicine?
Speaker 2:yes, um, I think I was surprised by how much I learned and then forgot before my first day. Um, you know, pa school is oftentimes, um, compared to drinking out of a fire hose. Right, you learn all of this information and I would hear something and I would go. I know I learned that, but I can't for the life of me remember what it is. And so, you know it really just taking taking the time to continue to learn and to and to continue to look things up. You know they talk about PAs being lifelong learners.
Speaker 1:And so it really.
Speaker 2:It was something that I kind of was like yeah, yeah in school, but truly it's real. You know, you learn so much in PA school there's no way that you can possibly remember it all. But being able to have good resources to go look things up, relying on your peers, you know, especially going into a subspecialty, right, Orthopedic trauma is a specialty. It's not like primary care, where there are certainly things that I didn't necessarily need as much as others, but we still had patients on our service and I still had to know how to, you know, give the correct hypertension medication or titrate somebody's insulin, and that's not something that is super inherent to an orthopedic service, and so that was surprising to me. I you know you think you're prepared when you come out of school, but you, you quickly learn that so much of your training is going to be on the job, training over the next few years, even after you've done your initial onboarding period.
Speaker 1:Exactly. You know, I think I think you feel very prepared and very confident coming out of PA school and then you start your first job and, you know, it took me about three months to realize I, I am doing this, I can do this, but, wow, I have so much more to learn about this specialty that I have just dove into. Did you find that you had support, Bailey? Did the people that were working around you? Did they offer pretty good support to you as a brand new student coming off of your last day of PA school?
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:That was one of the really wonderful things about starting at a teaching hospital is the entire culture at the program is teaching and it's starting from residents who don't know a whole lot either and you know, and going all the way up the ladder into an attending or a division head.
Speaker 2:And I was so lucky I had such a wonderful group of coworkers other PAs that I worked with, who took me right under their wing and just kind of helped train me up. And you know we laugh about some of the things that I used to ask and do when I first started, because now I look at it and go, oh, my goodness, what was I thinking? But you know, I was so, so lucky to have those people and the attendings that I worked with were very open and willing to teach. And I really think that that is one of the make or break things about a first job as a PA that you really it's hard to know that in an interview and you know being able to ask maybe for a shadowing interview or, you know, a couple of days on the job to really kind of get a feel for the team that you're going to be working with is really really important.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, Bailey. Please tell me that when you got to the hospital and you saw like the hierarchy of medical personnel from nurses to PAs, to MDs, to all the different types of doctors and techs and please tell me that it was overwhelming to you initially and you didn't know where to start or which way was up. I mean, that's something that either they teach you or that you figure out right. It's not something we're supposed to know on day one.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You think that you've learned about some of the other specialties in PA school and then you show up and there's people you've never heard of before and physicians you've never heard of before. You know what the heck does a case manager do and then you realize that they're actually your best friend and that you need them every single day. Even just getting to the OR, you know, in a hospital setting, you really have no idea where you're going. You have no idea what the employee's interest is versus the patient interest, and I'm grateful that there were a lot of people who took pity on me and gave me a little bit of extra grace on my first couple of days.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I know that so often as PAs we talk about the collaborative teamwork environment that we all hope to work in one day and I think gosh, I think when you first start it's just so overwhelming. And then, once you're really in it, you realize that that collaborative teamwork environment is what is absolutely keeping you afloat and, like you said, the case manager you end up relying on them and your coworkers and your colleagues. You suddenly realize that we are better as medical providers when we're all working together. And when you have that experience not, you know, you've been wishing for it for so long, but then when you actually feel it and you understand it and you see how it impacts your patients positively, I think that is one of the most special moments in medicine.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. You really really see it. In a hospital setting like that, where there are so many teams coming together and you know really every everybody has to be on their game. You know, if one person makes a mistake, it can truly affect everyone, and so getting those good relationships in learning what these people do, learning their names, you know, learning a little bit about them, being able to say hi in passing in the hallway, is really, really important. You know there's a lot of interpersonal skills that are related in medicine, and that is one of the huge ones is getting to know your team and being willing to work hard for them because you know that they're working hard for you.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's so great. So we've talked a lot about the hospital and I'm just so excited to hear about what you do in the hospital as an ortho trauma PA. So you know, we can break this down a million different ways and whenever somebody asks me, ashley, tell me about what you do on a day-to-day basis. It's, it's almost an overwhelming amount of information, right? Just because we do so much during the day. So so let's break it down. And are you in the hospital all the time or are you in clinic all the time? What do those two roles? How do they differ? What do they look like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I have kind of like three days of my week. So I have one day where I'm in the OR and I get to assist directly with procedures, you know, standing with the surgeon and the residents and scrub techs and assisting with the surgeries and closing patients and suturing and all the fun stuff when you think about surgery. And then with that comes taking patients, you know, to and from pre-op, getting them set up to go either outpatient or home, which was not overly common for the orthopedic trauma service. But also, you know, doing a handoff to the ICU, taking a patient back to the ICU and telling the ICU team you know what we did, what to expect from the orthopedic side of the patient. And then I also had one day a week in clinic. So you know they're very traditional. Patients come into the exam rooms, they get their x-rays, we talk about their post-op care, we plan for their next surgery If it's a staged procedure, we're seeing new patients, you know we're evaluating preoperative patients.
Speaker 2:And then the other three days of the week I was working on the floor of the hospital. So we had an inpatient orthopedic service, which means that the orthopedic doctors are responsible, or orthopedic service really is responsible for the day-to-day care of these patients. So they we're the ones who make sure all their medications are correct. We round on them, we do discharge planning, we do their surgery and they're our patients to be responsible for. But we also have patients that are on other services that we are, you know, only responsible for a portion of their care. So, for example, a patient in the ICU is on the actual trauma service but we are going to operate on their leg. So we are also part of that team.
Speaker 2:And so my my day on the floor kind of consisted mostly of discharge planning for our patients. I was not responsible for rounding on the patients. Our resident service did that for us, which was wonderful. But the day to day, you know, following up on labs and imaging and splint changes, cast changes, wound vac drain, pulls, like I said, discharge planning. Where's the patient going to go? Are they going home? Are they going to a rehab facility? Are they, you know, going to an inpatient rehab facility or a skilled nursing facility? And what kind of equipment do they need when they leave? Do they need a walker, do they need a wheelchair? When are they coming to see us in clinic? And so really those are kind of my breakdown. I would do three days of four. Right, I'm doing three days of four, one day of surgery and one day of clinic one day of surgery and one day of clinic.
Speaker 1:My next question is what's the most difficult part of being a trauma PA? And, honestly, just listening to you describe your regular daily life of being a ortho trauma PA, I feel like that question answers itself. But, holy moly, very, that's a lot and and that's a lot of hats, and I think it's so neat that you get to kind of see the whole picture right. It's not just that you're passing a patient off, um, and saying goodbye, see you later, you know, see you next time. You, you are like intimately involved in their care, from the time they enter until the time they leave. And I think we're we're being um so hopeful by saying when they leave with a walker, or, uh, you know, when we discharge them home, but did you, did you have hard days? Did you have hard days where perhaps your patients, you know, didn't leave with a walker or, unfortunately, were not discharged?
Speaker 2:Yes, um, certainly when you are dealing with a trauma service. Uh, there's some really bad things that happen to people. Um, really bad car accidents. People are touch and go for a while. Um, primarily the patients are in the ICU and we are a part of their team. Um, but those are patients that we still see.
Speaker 2:You know, I I'm still in doing dressing changes, I'm still in the OR with that patient and there are some things that happen that are really sad Some unforeseen outcomes of surgery, unforeseen outcomes of the trauma that that patient went through. And you know there's a lot of things that are out of our control. Certainly, you know, death is one of the hardest things to deal with in the hospital. It's certainly something very real, it does happen. But then there are minor things that are more minor things that happen too. You know, there's the open traumatic ankle fracture that you undo your splint in the OR and it turns out that there's a raging infection and that patient ends up not having the lower half of their leg when they leave the OR.
Speaker 2:And those are some really challenging conversations to have with families. I remember I had a I have a couple of years ago, a specific patient who had she was hit by a semi-truck. As a pedestrian on the interstate she was out trying to give aid to somebody who had been in the car accident and she she was a nurse. She got hit by a semi-truck. She was in the hospital for about four months, I believe. Um and her and I got close and we talked about our kids and family and we pushed through all of her surgeries and, um, she ended, uh, ended up leaving with two of her four limbs.
Speaker 2:That she, you know, started with. That she, you know, started with and um, but you know, being able to help her through that and see her progress, um, see her come into clinic a few months after that, uh, functioning, um, she's actually a lactation specialist now. So she's uh, she's doing well but um, you know, those are the hard patients that you see there. There's a lot of straightforward cases but there's a lot of difficult things to deal with and, um, it's very fulfilling. Sometimes it can be very draining, um, I think the orthopedic trauma service has developed a dark sense of humor to deal with these things, um, but you, you do have to find an outlet and that's, you know, some of those hobbies outside of work. Your support system is very important in times like that.
Speaker 1:That's so true. You mentioned. You mentioned the fact that you knew that she was a lactation consultant now, and I think that's great, because, as you were talking about work as an orthopedic trauma PA, I was thinking, well, surely you don't have that continuity of care and that's a fancy word that I think we use in medicine which basically means you stick with your patients and they stick with you right, not just mentally, but you get to see them consistently. I work in a clinic and I see the same patients month after month, year after year, and I was imagining that in ortho trauma you don't get that. Is that true? Is that something that you do see? And if it's not true, is that a benefit to you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's one of the things that I really really like about my job. Is that continuity of care. Now, it's different from what it looks like for you, right? I don't get to see patients, hopefully, year after year.
Speaker 2:That means that they continue to have more problems that need to be fixed. But over a six to 12-month period. I'm seeing these patients pretty frequently, especially in the beginning month period. I'm seeing these patients pretty frequently, especially in the beginning. You know, two weeks after the hospital they're coming in for suture removal, first, post-op x-rays. A couple weeks after that they're coming back in. They're getting their weight-bearing status released. We're seeing them again. How are they doing in PT? You know, okay, you're three months out, great, absolutely no restrictions. Come back in three months let's see how everything's healing.
Speaker 2:You know you can start seeing bone healing as soon as a few weeks after surgery, but you know you really don't see that final, you know healed fracture for many months after that, and so that was one of the things I really enjoyed about the surgeon that I work with.
Speaker 2:He wanted to see these long-term outcomes of these patients and you know, a lot of times in a traumatic injury, you know patients are just so overwhelmed and so they're really happy to be able to come in and see us and build those relationships and you know we get to talk about, you know, their families and things like that and what they're excited for and getting them back to work, and so it looks different than the continuity of care in a clinic role, but it's still really wonderful. And you know, I mean I could potentially be in an O-Water with a patient on their first day in the hospital, see them multiple days during their hospital visit, get them discharged and then see them in clinic two weeks later and then each visit after that. So that's one of the things I love.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's very cool. I think that is one of it's not spoken about very often and it's something that I like to talk to the students that shadow me about so much, because I think continuity of care is one of the reasons why I chose medicine. However, I know some of my colleagues who work in the ER, for example or the ICU is a really good example and they hopefully, like you said, don't see these people over and over and over again, and they appreciate that. I think for them, it's a way for them to separate, you know, the the care that they're providing from these deep, deep emotional connections that they can make with some of these patients. So it's really it's really good to hear, bailey, what's the most crucial trait that an ortho trauma PA needs to possess in order to be successful needs to possess in order to be successful.
Speaker 2:I think organization, detail-oriented, you know we kind of talked about especially on the floor of the hospital. You know there's so many little details for every single patient and you know our list of patients. We work off this list every day. Everybody gets a list. Our list of patients. We work off this list every day, everybody gets a list. These are all the patients that we are looking at, following responsible for, and that list can be five pages on a good week or it can be 12 pages, and us, as our team, is responsible for every single one of those details, and some more than others if they're on our service or if it's somebody that we're just kind of keeping an eye on. But you know, dvt, prophylaxis and what kind of splints are they in, what's their weight bearing status, what kind of equipment do they need, all of those things, and even as much as has somebody had a bowel movement so they can go to rehab.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's truly just really, really imperative to stay organized and that is where the PAs on our service and MPs come into a huge role. You know we have a great resident team but they are very, very busy and they are primarily focused on their surgical skill development, which is what they're there for, you know, and we have attendings who are very, very busy and primarily focused on the OR, but the PAs and NPs on our team kind of get to be the glue that holds everything together, and we're the ones who, you know, bring up hey, did somebody see that this person's hemoglobin is dropping? They might need some blood. Or you know, actually, guys, this person's home life is really bad and we're not going to be able to discharge them home, we're going to have to discharge them somewhere else, and so keeping all of that organized is pretty much imperative to the job.
Speaker 1:Absolutely I love that. I love organization. Move to the job. Absolutely I love that. I love organization because we can say I'm an organized person. But then you have to go on the floor and prove it. You have to prove that you can manage and handle all of this massive amount of information. And it's important because it affects this person's health and their wellbeing and whether or not they're going home that day. So I think that's incredible. Now I have a couple of more in-depth personal questions to ask you, but before we do that, there is a segment in the middle of every episode that I have thrown in that I just love, and it is called quality questions. And this is when I ask you to share either your favorite interview question that someone has ever asked you or an interview question that just sticks out in your brain, something to give the person listening to this, something to chew on for them. Do you have one of these questions that you could share with us?
Speaker 2:I definitely feel like I got the variation of you know, tell me about a time when things didn't really go well. Um, and talking about when you made a mistake is really, really hard in front of a group of people or a single person that you've never met before, that you really really just want to impress. Um, I think that having the answer to, or a couple of scenarios for, a variation of that question, um, kind of prepared ahead of time is the best thing that you can do, because when you're in an interview, you don't want to sit there and point out all of your flaws, right, you want to try and take every negative and turn it into a positive or something that you've learned through that situation. And so you know, taking maybe a situation with a patient at work, that during those patient contact hours, you know that were what didn't go exactly how you wanted it to go, or maybe was a situation that you witnessed more than you were exactly involved in. You know, and you can kind of speak to how that could have been avoided and things that you do now to make it better.
Speaker 2:Or you know, even if you don't have a specific patient situation you can always talk about. You know interpersonal skills with your coworkers and things like that, and that was always one of the questions that I really disliked being asked. But putting in the time, ahead of time, to think about some scenarios, write them down and have them fresh in your mind before you go into that interview, Kind of helped me to push through the uncomfortableness and not look like a deer in the headlights and, you know, I think it also tells the interviewers that you've thought about this, you've prepared for this and this is, you know, a situation that you've really spent some time thinking about.
Speaker 1:That is such an awesome interview question and one that does, I think, highlight preparation for the student or the person interviewing and maturity to a degree. I think that us reflecting on our mistakes and our spots in our lives where we didn't perform how we wanted to perform, that takes it a pretty high level of maturity, so I think that's a really great one. Yeah, I'm glad I'm not asking you that and I'm glad you're not asking me that question. To check out previous quality questions and to get more interview prep, such as mock interviews and personal statement review, head on over to our website, shadowmenextcom, where you will find amazing resources, including free documentation, to help you on your application journey. Just a few personal questions while we wrap things up here. Generally speaking, you've been a PA for a while now, and what is? Is there something that has surprised you that you've learned about yourself since becoming a PA?
Speaker 2:Yes, I think it's funny. Growing up, I was always kind of like, you know, my brother would always say I'm being bossy, and so I liked to be in charge right, who doesn't? But I quickly found out when somebody else's life is in my hands, I am perfectly happy not being in charge, I am perfectly happy with not being the one who has to make the absolute final decision. Really, really have enjoyed getting to lean on my coworkers, lean on my supervising physician, lean on my attendings for those really hard decisions, um, you know, and not just pass the ball into their court, right, like I'm still. I'm still thinking about it, I'm still coming up with a plan and I'm presenting that plan to someone else and asking for their thoughts, um, but that definitely surprised me. I have always been very, you know, I'm very driven. I feel like I am definitely a decision maker. But in regards to medicine, those really serious decisions, it's really wonderful to have a team to bounce some of those things off of.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I think that is actually a great question for people to ask themselves, or rather, I guess a way to role play and put themselves in that position and try to figure out where do I feel like I belong in that scenario when there is a patient who's in dire straits? Obviously, hopefully, you're going to be surrounded by a team of fantastic professionals, but where do you want to be and what shots do you want to be calling? I think that's really wonderful, Bailey. I love that. If you could go back in time, do you think you'd choose to be a PA again? If you could go back in time, do you?
Speaker 2:think you'd choose to be a PA again. Absolutely no hesitation. I love that job, um, I love the independence that I do get right Like. I am still that person who likes to make decisions, and so, um, there's a lot of things that I do still get to make decisions about and I don't feel like I just have to follow an order that's written somewhere for me, even if I don't feel like I just have to follow an order that's written somewhere for me, even if I don't agree with it.
Speaker 2:Um, but I love how involved we can be um in patient care. You know, like I said earlier, I feel like the PAs on our service are kind of the glue um that brings those little intimate details about a patient's life into their care, and having the time to be able to spend a few minutes extra minutes in a room talking to somebody to really kind of get an understanding of what it is that they need, is really important to me. I feel like, you know, especially for the physicians in our healthcare system, they are just so pressed for time and I'm sure they would love to sit down and chat with these patients too, but they're just pulled in so many directions. I think that's something that PAs and nurse clinicians really have an opportunity to do, and I love getting to be that person for someone.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad Career satisfaction is the whole point of this podcast, right? I am so happy to speak with so many medical professionals and really highlight the fact that there will be challenges in this job. There will be bad days, there will be times when your patient doesn't get discharged home with a walker, or when your patient leaves the hospital with half the number of limbs that they had when they arrived. But with that, you know, there are hopeful stories too, and and I think that plays into our, our career, our career satisfaction and and just how happy we are, you know, with where, with where we're at as we finish if you could share one piece of wisdom with aspiring students who want to go into medicine, so any pre-health student.
Speaker 1:what would you tell them?
Speaker 2:What would you tell them? Don't get discouraged when your future is going to look like what your, what school you're going to go to, what career you're going to pick, um, what job you're going to have when you graduate. You know, I'm very a type I had a lot of things planned out about what I thought my life would look like and I was going to check this box and do this and do that. And that's just not life and um, you know, when you don't get in that first cycle or when you, you know, are at the school, that your dream school puts you on the wait list and you get accepted somewhere else instead. Um, that doesn't mean that you're not going to be a phenomenal PA or NP or doctor, whatever you're choosing to do. That doesn't mean that you won't get there eventually.
Speaker 2:You know, I've had the opportunity to work with a lot of medical assistants going through this process, and it's so heartbreaking to see the ones that you see on a daily basis that are really busting their butts at work and really truly wonderful people who maybe their GRE score isn't quite as good, or maybe they had one class in college and they didn't get an A in and they've got a lower GPA when they don't get you know, exactly what they'd hoped for. It's really heartbreaking to see. But you know, know that there's always something to learn from every situation, every person. You work, with every experience that you have. And you know, keep working hard because you never know when you're going to encounter somebody who might have a connection somewhere for you or might, you know, change your entire outlook on your career in the first place. To just continue to work hard and don't get discouraged over those things.
Speaker 1:I think that's so great. Bailey, Thank you so much for that and thank you so much for joining us on the shadow me next podcast. I I've really enjoyed talking to you and learning more about what you do. I think it's incredible.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:It's been a pleasure. Thank you so very much for listening to this episode of Shadow Me Next. If you liked this episode or if you think it could be useful for a friend, please subscribe and invite them to join us next Monday, as always. If you have any questions, let me know on Facebook or Instagram Access. You want stories you need. You're always invited to shadow me next.
