Wednesday Musings of the Ortho PA

Welcome back to Joint Effort PAs, where this week we ask the important question

Is the grass actually greener somewhere else... or are we just looking at it from a distance and ignoring the weeds?

In this episode, we're serving up some unfiltered Wednesday musings after one of those weeks.

We talk about the "grass is greener" phenomenon. From clinic frustrations and workflow headaches to the mental gymnastics of comparing your reality to everyone else's highlight reel, we're diving into the thoughts many of us have but don't always say out loud.

As always, there are plenty of tangents, questionable life advice, and reminders that sometimes the grass isn't greener—it's just been fertilized with something different.

So grab your iced coffee, finish your charting, and join us for a little therapy session disguised as a podcast episode.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Joint Effort PAs, where two orthopedic surgery PAs get real about life in medicine. From tips and tricks to professional growth, work-life balance, and everything in between. We're here to share what we've learned and what we're still figuring out. Let's get into it. Our energy in a good place?

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Yeah, no, energy in a good place. I feel like we should.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

I feel like sometimes I'm too negative.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

I don't think it's harder. Oh my god. I don't think that's it. I think we all ride the emotional roller coaster of everything. And again, we talked about it. Dude, I'm still on it. I know you move it hard. Yeah, these holiday weeks though, like they're teed up to be, oh my god, it's a short week. And it's always terrible. It's just everything shoved into one. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Just is.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

I just you just had too many things happen to you over the weekend. It was so many things, but I mean, what can you say from it for the people?

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Um tomorrow's another day. Tomorrow's another day. Yes. I think if nothing else, our life events just make us better sounding boards for anyone else who has any questions. Like if you asked me right now the most off-the-wall thing, I'd be like, Yeah, I've been through that.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Yeah, like that has happened to me before. So and that it brings me comfort. Like last week when I don't even know how I guess it wasn't even that long ago. Whenever I told you, like, hey, I don't have auth on my first patient for Tuesday after a holiday weekend. So I'm gonna have to individually call every patient and try to reorder them for Tuesday. Beth was like, Oh, I've done that. Yeah, I've done that. Okay, yeah, no, you do it better. You move it to the last. Did you get off for it? So funny story. Well, it's not funny. It doesn't feel funny. No. Yeah. Yeah, tomorrow might. Maybe tomorrow. But I came here, I started reordering them. You know, of course, people weren't answering phone calls, whatever. I found I was like, I'm gonna make the person who's not authorized last so that we don't have a fucking two and a half hour hour gap. We're not doing anything.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Um, if it potentially can't go. So I found two patients that were willing to come in early that came in at like six and six forty-five arrivals, whatever. So I'm like, oh, perfect. We have the morning set up. And that was Monday, Memorial Day at like 11 a.m. Yeah. Started working things out, called the patient who wasn't authorized, let them know fine with that cool 445. Somebody from the office logs on 445 p.m. Monday and was like, it's authorized. Oh, P.S. It was authorized Friday. Yeah, I know. I was like, that would have been the icing on the cake. Yeah. And I'm like, oh my God. Oh my God. So, you know, after you know that the hours of that, um, my doc was like, so what's the plan for tomorrow? And I was like, Well, we're starting with these two little ones. You know, the other one is not authorized because I've already told these people now that they're not. I will not call them back. I will not call them back. The hospital was like, Did you contact all the reps? Yes, done. Like, talk to all of them, told them to change times. Show up. My first rep isn't there. They overslept or something. You're listening to this right now. I know. I still am mad at you. Yeah. Um, no, it ended up being fine. That case went a lot longer than we wanted to. But um, on a positive note, it was a good day. We did a total for a proximal humorous fracture, didn't have to plate the elbow. She also had a distal humerus fracture, so that would have been like the whole conundrum if we had to take everything down and then like re-prep and drape and do the elbow. But um, yeah, we did another bio pro little thumb. Yeah, little cutie. Little thumb cutie. It was good, went well. So that was good. Um, and then yeah, today was just yet another cluster of uh overbooking oneself.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Did you did you successfully navigate your day of overbookings? I don't think so. Oh no look, hold on, I'm gonna look right now and see what you guys did. The answer is no. Oh my god, so many cases. You had so many cases today. The kids like I know that, right? Like I already know the conversation. It was bad at some point is gonna be like, don't know if it will happen again. No, like why do you guys why do you guys book your cases for an hour when it takes two? And the answer is to fit on one, two, three, four, five, to fit on seven.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Like to fit on seven in an afternoon.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Um, yeah. That's why we do that. Like it was it was a flip day. So arguably, when I look at these times for things, if something takes 45 minutes, you normally have to add at least 15 foreclosure turnover, probably 20 foreclosure and turnover. Um, but I don't add in that time and account for it when we flip because it doesn't exist.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

But do you flip with the same staff, different room? Therefore, no. Okay. No, it's a true floor. Because that's a different flip, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Not a flop.

unknown 4:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

That is a flop, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Um, which flops are good.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Flops are better than non-flips or flops. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Um, but you know, the issue the issue was that we had clinic until a certain time. Things maybe should have it could have been done a little bit differently. Could have been done differently. Yeah. I would have, I would have done at least four things differently today if I could go backwards in time. But I can't. And so I will reflect on that for another moment in life.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

I um I I again um low clinic volume week because we lost Monday. However, I was overbooked today, I'm overbooked tomorrow. I'm overbooked for a clinic I don't even have on Friday.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Yeah, you have your 40 tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Uh yeah, it's 42 now, of course, because it always is, right? Um, but yeah, overbooked. But today I fin today, like the smoothest part of the week was what I dreaded the most, which was clinic day. It's great. Finished, had time to had a meeting during lunch. Like all my notes are closed. What?

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Yeah, close. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, my notes are well, okay. Oh fuck. We were closed the same way. But then I forgot I had a whole clinic today. And I know there's 19 open that are staring at me. I'm like, yeah, yeah. Yep, yep, yep. So I'll do that tonight. I'm gonna have a glass of prosecco when I go home. Yes, you are.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

Yep, that's right. So, um, again, question for this week, for last week, for all the weeks to come. Why is the grass always greener? Like, why is it when we're in our roles, why is it circumstantially or when you talk to other people? Like, do you why do I have these like feelings of longing for something else? Do you know like it's circumstantially when someone tells me, listen, hold on. Oh my god. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is no, no, no, no. No, to be clear, disclaimer, love what I do. But when I hear about people going on to do other things, for a second, I do the whole like, I can do that. Yeah, like like we have a we had a PA, we had nurse practitioner who worked in our urgent care. It was not a good fit, knew right off the bat personality of the nurse practitioner, and then one of the surgeons here was too too aggressive. They didn't want to work in this in a scenario where uh feelings get heated. Okay, some people call it yelling, some people call it passion. I don't know. Anyway, she left and does Botox. And like when she said that, yeah, I like like I pause and for like a second, I'm like, I can do that. Like, I can do that. I was looking, I don't know, I was looking at something and it's on my algorithm for whatever reason on Instagram. It's this former PA that got burnt out working in ER and whatever, and now burnout in quotes, like it's just like a sitting in clinic. It's like yeah, it's things that shouldn't exist, but she got burnt out, which again, everybody has their different limits, so she didn't look like she'd been long enough in the field to be burnt out. But again, she'd been working for a week. That's me, right? And now she is a fitness coach, works from home, has time to like wake up and work out whenever she wants. Her workout clothes match.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Like I was like, oh, that's like again, I was like, oh like good for you, but I don't know, part of what I think brings us enjoyment is like I don't know, the drive to just like do more.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

Yeah, but for instance, like um medical sales reps. That's a great job. I know, but that's what I'm saying. Like, why do I look at them sometimes, not all the time? Our um, one of our reps that we work with that we see, she's working for a new company, it's a new implant. I feel like she's doing all these like creative PowerPoint presentations, and she meets with us to give us our like quarterly stuff. She's got like a great sales personality. Um and again, I've thought like, how did she probably she travels all over the place? And then I saw her yesterday when we had our our um procedure and I gave her some news that wasn't great, and she looked defeated. And then I was kind of like, Oh, all right, well, that would kind of suck too. But I sat there thinking her versus what you had to do. Okay, well, that's not that's not the topic of the conversation, but no, but again, I whimsically think of this and I'm like, I could do that. Like I could do that. Like when people leave the hour and like my kids are sick, and I'm like, wait, what, you have coverage? Like, what's happening? Yeah Nurse anesthetist, another example.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

I feel like I could do that. I couldn't because there's saliva that comes out of people's mouths and tubes, and I personally can't deal with that. But I guess that's an issue for that.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

I guess do we do I think about wanting to do that because I actually want to do that or because I need to conquer that to know that I made the right decision?

SPEAKER_00 9:23

I think you just know in your mind you're like, I could conquer like I you know, it's it is something that I have the potential for. I guess. But like I don't know, yeah. But I like somebody has to fill your role. Yeah, you're the only one that can fill your role, so somebody has to do it.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

Yeah, but even like when I have providers that you know move on to the next thing and they tell me what the next thing is, I'm like I could do that. Like I just like my initial response is always like I would crush that. Like I just I superimpose myself and then I think of how I would do in that situation. Yeah, and then things like this, like you'll tell me how your week went. By the way, it's been a two-day week so far. Yeah, and it's and I'll say to myself, Oh, I say to myself, like, oh my god, hand, I did uh hand and wrist in my old practice like a day a week, and I'm like, I could do that, and then you'll tell me about today, and I'm like, I'm good.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

I'm right. I don't want to do what you did on Tuesday.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

No, I know.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

But anyway, I the whole like have we both done those things before?

unknown 10:20

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

But I think like um part of what makes us feel normal, at least on joint effort PAs, is where when we talk about like our weeks that go like completely awry. And I think it I think you long for like what you consider to be easier or you consider to be more predictable. And then I think that's where that stems from.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Yeah, I don't know that I like every so often I think of that. Would that be healthier to have more predictions? Oh, I didn't say healthier. I just am like I don't want healthier though. Yeah. That's how I reflect on it. I don't know that I want that. Okay. Well, anyway, it's unhealthy, but it's just different preferences. Different preferences, different preferences.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

Okay, follow-up question to why is a grass always greener? Um, will you ever be satisfied with the challenges that you have, or do you always want more?

SPEAKER_00 11:09

I always want more. I don't think I will ever be satisfied. I don't think I I I think about this often, and I don't think anything will satisfy me in every area of my life.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

Okay, so no, but why, but what I guess what I'm what I'm asking is why is part of me like always thinking about like I could do that. And then part of me is always like kick it up a notch. Yeah, notch. Like, do you feel like those are very opposite feelings and I feel satisfied today? Um in 50% of what I did.

unknown 11:38

There's another 50%.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

There's another 50%. Like I've got a I've got yeah, I've got a patient at the hospital and I didn't discharge. I got another patient that I didn't, you know, I'm waiting for follow-up on. Clinic I killed. Clinic I killed. But 90% of my emotional energy went into clinic today and I finished it and I'm not satisfied.

unknown 11:55

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

But so like I feel satisfied in my job in the sense that like I love what I do and I don't want to do anything different. And the idea of doing something different isn't appealing to me at all. Yeah. Like zero. Um, but do I want to do more or do I think of like what else can I add on to that? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Often, frequently.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

It's like the same, it's the same theory as like when when I when we moved like 10, 11 years ago, I continued to look on real order.com for houses. It's the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Yeah, I mean, it's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

Yeah. I don't like look for other jobs, but I feel no house. I think I think what it is, and again, maybe I'm saying it wrong, but I don't know if it's why is the grass always greener, but I need to place myself in other people's shoes to solidify my decision that what I'm doing is the right thing for me. Yeah. Like the houses. Like I I I literally go through virtual tours of the house, and I'm like, that's nice, but I'm good.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Location isn't great. Location isn't great. It's not as good as what I have now. Or like, hmm, but my house has this.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

But these are all like fantasy things. These are another another never anything that I would pull the trigger on, but but I just feel like it's a necessary part of my process.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

As is always feeling like there needs to be more.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

There does need to be more. There always can be more. Yeah. I think too, like looking through those things, and that helps you know what you appreciate about what you do. Like for me, I look at other, you know, people's roles or jobs or whatever. And in like, yeah, there's some PAs who do like locums positions.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Travel in four months at a time and take over somebody's maternity leave and work in joints, and then maybe they do an ortho like spine position for a couple months. And yeah, same thought processing. Like, yeah, I could do that. Like that would be cool, right? Yeah. Travel all over and you know, that be able to like make your schedule and not be fully committed to anything. But I'm like, but I don't want to not be fully committed. I want something that I'm fully committed, and like I want it to be mine. And I also really value like the teamwork aspect of things too.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

And you don't yes, you do.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Yeah, because I am the goal retriever. And that's that's the most important to me. And so I yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's like you're saying, you look at these things and you're like, huh. Yeah, but I'm good.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Yeah, I couldn't, but I'm good. That's all.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

But um I'm glad you feel that way. Yeah, no, this is somebody doesn't listen to this and oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

No, it will, it will turn into a spiral situation. No, but you didn't stop me. I was like, oh my god. You didn't stop me. No, these are just ramblings. I mean, this has been already, it's a two-day week thus far. And this week has been pedal to the metal man. It has been all go.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

We just need a glass of wine or something.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

Yeah, no, these are just musings. I mean, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Um, also related to the fact that, you know, we have colleagues who have listened and brought forth um questions or opinions on how to deal with maybe, you know, not loving their current positions and just wondering how to to either embrace what they have or when do you switch it up? Do you switch it up?

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Yeah, but that's the thing. I think what what we know we like to hit on, what we like to talk about is like I could very easily, you know, take a take a question from a PA. Like even the students that we've had that when they're like, how do you know? And like, how do you how do you know what job to pick? And how do you know when you're in it if it's good enough or it's not good enough? Like, I feel like I would have a very robust answer. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? And I don't even think you can make that decision. Like, I think you need to be in it for a while.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Yeah, you can't. I think you do have to give whatever you have chosen. Like clearly, you committed to whatever job you pick for a reason. Yeah. In the moment at the time, there was something about it appealing to you. And maybe it develops into something that you're like, this isn't quite what I thought it would be. Yeah. Um, but I think you do have to give everything like a good fair effort and chance because there's always something to learn from it.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

But don't you think though, that like in whatever job that you're in, you can put your stamp on something. Like if someone else filled your role or someone did when you're on vacation, which they won't, because one, you never take vacation and two, you would never let anybody fill your role. But let's say they did, they're not gonna do it the way you would do it. They're just not gonna do it. So minimally, I think like any new provider in a role, put your stamp on it, personalize it, yeah, make it better, make it better.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Be the person who, like the best one who has ever done that thing. And somebody will hopefully notice by that.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

And I think you very much learn, you know, learn from the things that you don't like, right? Like, oh, I took this job and you know, it was super high volume and they told me it was this, but I ended up doing, you know, all this stuff. Well, I mean, if you're someone who doesn't like the extras, that's going to chip away at you year after year after year. And if you're someone that took the job because everything was good, but the surgeon, guess what? That's not gonna change. And then, you know, eventually that unfortunately is kind of a deal breaker.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

But um not liking who you work with, well, that is a huge problem. That's a huge problem. Um, not liking what you do, that can be changed, I think, to a degree, because you know, there's PAs out there who maybe prefer a more low clinical role and non-surgical things. Yeah. Apparently those jobs exist by finding out about this for the first time. So mostly because I never have entertained the idea of anything like that.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

But to take it one step further though, let's say you're a PA. And I think this is the nature of we had um one of our listeners write in and ask some advice. Like, say you're a PA and you're in a role and it doesn't seem optimal, it's kind of suboptimal, and you yearn to make it better, and you're looking how to do that. Like, what if what you're giving in the role is not enough to make that role satisfactory for you? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

So, I mean, we have again a similar, I don't remember word for word what it was, but a similar situation where, like, hey, what what are the strategies I take? Because I'm committed enough to want to make this work, like how far do I go?

SPEAKER_00 17:49

Yeah. Right. I think like, and I look at it from my perspective with the urgent care stuff too. Like, was I fully committed to being an urgent care forever? No. But was I going to make it like be as good as I could in that role for a period of time? And then that is hope, like, hopefully that gets noticed or appreciated, and you know, people can see you're ready for the next thing. Or you can at minimum find find somebody to advocate for you. So um, like for this person specifically, right? If there's a specific doc that they work with a lot, if you can prove and show that you're really good at what you do and build trust, um, they'll advocate for you.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Yeah, I agree with that. But I also think find a mentor. Like if you if you like what someone does, like if you're a new PA and you there's a senior PA and you see what they do and you're like, I I want to do what they do, mirror everything, like all their habits, the way that they do stuff, the way they spend their downtime, the way that they interact with patients. Like that's huge. If you want to be recognized and you want to do more, find a mentor and mirror them.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Yeah. Or just come in like you did and be like, I'm gonna take a job.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

It's called bulldozing.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

You can either be the mentee of said person or you can bulldoze them.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

But did I have a mentor? I don't even think I had a mentor. Who's your mentor? No, I have a um doc that I worked with initially for eight years before I moved down here, and he like just uh really cared for the growth of his practice with me in it. Like he made me feel very important from the start, even when my decisions were like, you know, like they didn't mean anything. Why was he asking my opinion? Yeah, but I think that that confidence, like he he, the confidence he had, I it mirrored in me in that way. And I think that that, again, all things happen for a reason, right? It it it uh was a great stepping stone for what my next job was, which is this, you know? So I think that that was all necessary without him. I think you know, I don't know what I would be. Maybe I maybe I would be the maybe I'd be the overstimulated PA. Maybe I would be, I would be one of those like people that we didn't even talk about.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

One of those archetypes we didn't even talk about.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

Yeah, you would be the like boundary.

SPEAKER_02 20:09

Yeah, but if I was a crier.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Those cryer slash overstimulated. Oh my god, I would be. You know, I think the mentorship thing is super, super important because you can obviously they'll have advice to give you on how to get to that point. Um, they're gonna have connections and stuff too, but that really like builds who you are and how you work in the practice.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

Um but I also think like big, I'm a big fan of make a list of stuff that you're comfortable with, which again, that that helps build your confidence. Make a list of stuff you're uncomfortable with, the stuff you're uncomfortable with, instead of putting that on the list of like, ooh, I'm scared, tackle each one of those. Do all the things you're uncomfortable with. So that list becomes smaller and smaller. Yeah. So you may not know if you're being guided by the things that you already told yourself you're never gonna do, right? Like, I don't feel comfortable with that, or something like that. But if you take that list and you slowly start to attack that, like that's the difference.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Like take now, the whatever course. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

Next thing you know, your resume or your skills are just, you know, you compare to the next person, you can do this, or they can't. Oh, I can do it, no problem. Yeah, you work in a hospital setting, hang out in the ED more, like do the reductions, like yeah, but it was but even stuff like when I first started here, it was um, you know, admitting a patient. I was like, uh, like how do I do that? Right? I don't know how to do that. Like, who do I call? Who do I ask to help me? No, no, now I get to the point where I just figure it out. You figure it out. And then, you know, order a pick line. Okay. Don't have antibiotics. I guess I'll find an infusion agency. Like you just figure it out as opposed to being stopped and saying, I don't know how to do that. Like I think that that those little things over time.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Yeah. Like if you are the doer, you just figure out how to have it done without being like, hey, this needs to be done, and you know, passing it off to the person above you or whoever. Um, yeah, be that person that. tries to accomplish whatever they can without asking for help. And I don't mean don't ask for help in like a toxic way.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

No. And also not in a reckless way.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Not in a reckless way, right? Like, not like, oh, like I'm not really sure if this needs surgery or not, or if this is, you know, I need to reduce this. I'm just gonna guess and hope for the best.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Just figure it out.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

But even like we have um we have a provider in our practice who just started in a brand new position. This position we literally like created because we have a couple departments. We need a head of this department. So I meet with this person like, you know, every other day, something like that. And we got in a conversation about this schedule's so hard. Like there's so many variables. Like I've got this, I've got this space and I've got this space and this clinic and this person's off and this one split time. And I was like, well, you know, why don't you why don't you ask for access to more calendars? Why do I need more calendars? I'm like, you need more calendars. So you have everybody's whereabouts and now your game of Ted trips.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Yeah like when people are trying to find out who committed a crime and like the strings are attached.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

I mean not in like a creepy way but in a very calculated way. But even like I mean my suggestion was not my feedback was not like yeah man you're right that's really hard. My feedback was the more you know the more you can do. Yeah. So I suggest you take on more so that so that you can like look at me like what are you saying? No but that um again I think it's just a different way to approach if you want to do your job really well and you want to stand out and you want to be satisfied in your role and not look to see if you need a greener grass I think you've got to you've got to just I mean take it all in like drink out of a fire hose, right? Yeah.

unknown 23:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

And find a good mentor find a good mentor. Yeah. And just you know the clinic environment I grew up grew up in. You were raised you were raised raised in it. I'm not going to use the word that I was about to choose because I think I know what it was. But yeah just like the pace of clinic and the amount of patients that yours like I don't know any different like that is that's where I set my expectations.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

My doc also did a really good job at like trying to you know build my confidence and skill set very early on. So I think that was super important and just like building that teamwork mentality. Yeah. I think we have that going well for us.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

I also think though like again if and this is in reference to our um fan that wrote in I think if you're not satisfied in your role, figure out what it is like what is the thing? What is changeable, what is not. And again, if you work at a company that is willing to work with you and values you then it's a conversation as opposed to let it build up you know go find another job and then you present and then at that point you're like well it's because of this and it's because of this and it's because of this like you never send anything the opportunity exactly. Because a lot I think a lot of companies are willing to work with you know work with you as far as whatever the issue is.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

But um yeah and I think too like and when push comes to shove like if there's if they're not or it just doesn't seem like that is a changeable role there's a lot of jobs out there's a lot of jobs out there. There is potential to find exactly what you're looking for I'm certain of it. But you you should, you know, especially for somebody with their first job out of school, I don't know, do you think there's an appropriate timeframe like hey you know give it a year.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

It looks bad if you jumped sooner than um yes I think if you go I think if you're if I saw a resume that was a year at one job, a year at another job, six months another and it's a pattern, red flag. I think if it's a year and then six years somewhere like the the first one that's like a year, whatever. But if you then have a solid, you know, I think two years is good. But if you go two years next thing two years then I know that you're gonna be two years with me.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Yeah. But even if what you're doing within your specialty isn't exactly what you want to do long term, um, you will find some benefit from being in that position and getting as good as you can at it. Cause like I said urgent care like I learned how to manage um a heavy load and like trio and figure out what order to do things in efficiently. That carried over and helped me be more efficient in clinic. Oh yeah um you know splinting and stuff obviously I I don't do that as much in my clinic but need to know how to do it for my clinic and for uh in EOR.

SPEAKER_02 26:20

But you know we talked about this before like you have someone that comes in with like an index finger blah blah blah blah blah and then they're like hey man my knee really hurts. You are very capable of evaluating their name.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

If I'll still pick up some urgent care shifts from time to time but it but it is helpful. So you know if you're on the somebody who's working in an inpatient ortho setting and you wish you were outpatient, well you're gonna be really good at like all the hospital side of things if and when you have to do that and that crosses over and vice versa if you work you know outpatient but you want to be more of like a hospital type role and spend your time rounding well you're gonna have a lot more patient interactions and just be better at that aspect of things.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Um always something to gain from it.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

Um all right I'm gonna tie this back to a positive no again I don't know where the hell we went to I don't know where we went with it but like it was it was random. It was random it's fine it's Wednesday musings.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

This is the Wednesday musings. Where are you going this weekend?

SPEAKER_02 27:18

Uh back to the beach sand soccer tournament it'll be good. Nice yeah my daughter plays in a sand soccer tournament which is really really fun to watch but more importantly get to sit on the beach for most of the day. It's not supposed to be a little rainy but anyway um okay so three pieces of advice to new PAs to make themselves indispensable. Now this is for our listener who wrote in right this is for any of our providers who are kind of like in the mix of like is this the right job for me or how do I grow professionally okay one become relentlessly reliable. You don't have to be the smartest person in the room you don't have to be the loudest one. You are the one people never worry about follow through every time because it's not the times you follow through it's the one time you didn't that everybody remembers.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

No and is that like that haunts it haunts you of course it haunts you.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Always close the loop there's nothing that's left did they did they not um be the person who always makes things smoother not harder yeah okay um a dependable PA becomes incredibly difficult to replace because trust compounds over time. And again time if you're at a job that you don't really love give it time because good things will grow from that. Okay two master communication and emotional intelligence um a huge percentage of your career success in medicine has nothing to do with your medical knowledge true or false true that's true um learn how to talk to patients when they are scared angry confused unrealistic learn how to talk to surgeons when they are wait for it scared angry confused unrealistic um learn how to take uh learn how to read attending preferences without taking feedback personally very very hard oh that is so hard very very hard so hard to do very very hard yeah um communicate concisely and clearly so nobody's asking you what you meant and know when to listen. Yeah yeah okay master of communication is not talking all the time but knowing when to shut the fuck up and listen.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Yep even when you feel like you could defend yourself and should defend yourself. So hard it's so hard it's so hard. And listen to their opinion on what you should have done and sulk about it later.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

Yeah yeah um last one this is your favorite one because you've talked about this a lot own your growth instead of waiting to be taught fast rising PAs are always proactive learners um review things before hearing you know the result of it like review the MRI before you go in with the patient right um study techniques study postoperative protocols you're not showing up for surgery and they're like you know hey is this is this patient a baseball player or a football player know the answer know the answer yeah um know everything outside of your job billing workflow scheduling documentation practice operations know how to do everybody else's job yeah and then yes that is that's true um and then develop some type of skill set that makes your team better something that you again put your stamp on it something that you did that nobody else can do.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Now you're indispensable. Yeah yeah I feel with that don't expect that your growth is going to come from somebody else pushing you to do it or giving you these recommendations on hey you need to do this next yep and if you were gonna leave a job know that you did all of these things and you have grown from that and that's the best um that's the best advice I have. And you might do all these things and still find out that like hey this is not the fit for me. Exactly well we wanted to make that was that positive was that more positive than normal I think so I think so like I gave positive energy into this I think like I mean I honestly think I think one the goal at least in my head um I don't remember what we're supposed to talk about today but the goal in my head was to end here.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

It was kind of to end here but also like it is normal to go through these ebbs and flows and I feel like when things are challenging like again I always picture that I always picture that. Yeah well you know my one friend who's like a teacher I'm like I could be a teacher okay I could be a teacher no but I could yeah maybe you could but I picture myself I'm like okay like what would I wear?

SPEAKER_00 31:40

Like I don't know like what would I wear to make to start all over I would like would I cut my hair differently like I don't know yeah I always think about that. Who was the the magic school best teacher?

SPEAKER_02 31:51

I know with the glasses and Rizzle Rizzle.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

I was gonna say Rhonda your first name was probably Rhonda Rhonda or Brenda or something. But yeah yeah I I feel that um so we have one of our PTs who's gonna come join us soon talk about some you know inner uh interdisciplinary collaboration and um I think that that'll be super good super important.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

Oh my god I'll have to show you what so I saw Hamilton some Oh we didn't debrief I'm going tomorrow yeah yeah we didn't debrief about was it good?

SPEAKER_00 32:23

No well we have to debrief after you do yours. Okay. Um I had moments of time during it that I was like wow these struggles I can relate to my own life which like I guess I am the martyr right I'm comparing my life to Alexander Hamps you are him yeah yeah yeah yeah um so we can we draw parallels next time we are gonna draw parallels chat GBT gave me a list of all the songs in it and the parallels to how it relates to our job I am so excited for that yeah that's a thing that's happening so very excited okay all right until one of these thanks for tuning in to Joint Effort PAs if you enjoyed this episode be sure to subscribe leave a review and share it with a fellow PA or med-minded friend you can also follow us on Instagram at joint effort pAs for updates and extra content.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

See you next time