Friday, December 21, 2018

Goodbye Morgantown


I know it has been awhile since I have posted, but life has been crazy in these last few months of school.

Let’s start with my autopsy rotation at Ruby Memorial Hospital.  I had 4 weeks here and I assisted on more autopsies than I had during my 7 weeks at UPMC. That was a combination of UPMC being slower than normal and Ruby being busier than normal, but I was super pleased with the quantity of cases. Ruby started accepted cases from the Human Gift Registry which is something I wrote about last year. It is basically an organization where people can donate their bodies to science. Typically, they end up in a medical programs’ lab for students to practice dissection, but every now and then there are bodies that would not be ideal for that use, so they started sending them to the morgue so the PA students and pathology residents could get more practice performing autopsies. I think this is a great addition because some weeks and months are slower than others and we take what we get during our rotation.  Joy is the PA who works for Ruby and is in charge of the morgue and she is a fantastic teacher.  I learned so much and gained a lot of confidence working with her during my rotation.  I was there with another class mate which made the rotation fun as well!

After I was done with Ruby autopsy, I went to my last rotation at Ruby Memorial Hospital in the gross room.  I am not going to lie, I was nervous going into this rotation because they are busier than most places, and I was rotating with my teachers who know what they have taught us and they expect a lot out of us.  I ended up loving this rotation.  We were very busy and I got a lot of larger cases.  I basically checked off every specimen on my list that I didn’t get the chance to do up to that point.  You also get the opportunity to cut frozen sections here, but my bit of advice to any future or current students who may be reading this: take the initiative and ask to help, they are not going to invite you most days because they are too busy.  Pay attention to when they come in and request to do it. Carie and Trevor are in the gross room with you and they are awesome and great teachers.

During this last rotation I got a job!  Myself and my husband are headed down to Decatur, GA which is basically Atlanta! I am working for a private pathology group and I will rotate through 3 area hospitals.  Everyone seems super nice and I enjoyed my interview a lot! I am super excited!

Graduation was this Saturday so PA school is over!  The program had a nice dinner for us on Friday night before the ceremony and we got to say our goodbyes then! I attached a picture of our class with the president of WVU, Dr. Gee!  I think going back to PA school, and specifically choosing WVU as the program I attended is one of the best decisions I have ever made! All the stress and hard work is totally worth it! The director and staff of our program are awesome and they really prepare you for a wonderful career!  If anyone is reading this and trying to decide on whether or not to go to PA school or if WVU is the right choice for you, I am here to tell you that you will not be unhappy with your choice! I am going to miss it a lot!

I also PASSED my board certification exam last night so I am officially a board certified Pathologists’ Assistant!!! I have spent the past week packing up our apartment and cleaning and I am writing this while I am waiting on the management from our apartment complex to arrive and do our final walk through! So goodbye Morgantown, WV! It’s been real, but I am off to new things.
            -Molly Honeycutt, MHS, PA (ASCP)


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