2nd Rotation, Week 2-Johnstown, PA

I cannot believe my first rotation has come and gone! I finished up at Butler at the end of February and I am now at Conemaugh Health System in Johnstown,PA.  I loved my time at Butler and but I am excited to be here.  This rotation is a little different in a few ways:

-I am paired up with my classmate Hannah. This is nice because we can ask each other questions if we are not sure about something and I always love company! (Fun fact about me is I hate being alone for extended periods of time…)

-They provide housing and we live right across the street. I only have a 5 minute walk which is amazing compared to the over an hour drive I had for my last rotation. We also start at 9AM which is an hour later which means I should get more sleep but I don’t… (Another fun fact about me is that I am an early bird!)

-They provide us $6 a day to eat in the cafeteria which is amazing because the food here is insanely delicious. (I know, I was skeptical too because it is a hospital cafeteria…but it is awesome!)

We both gross at least one larger specimen a day such as a uterus, colon, or breast, but we have been told it should get busier. We also should be really quick at grossing placentas, because they get a lot of them here…in addition to biopsies and the non-complex specimens.  So far I am enjoying it and I will give another update in a few weeks!

1st Rotation, Week 5-Butler, PA

I just finished my 5^th week at Butler Memorial Hospital! I am way more comfortable now with the people at the hospital, the drive, and grossing in general.  I really feel like a PA here even though I am only a student in my first rotation.  I am the only person available to gross large specimens and cut frozens so I get the opportunity to gross everything that comes through the door.  I have grossed no shortage of colons and uteri so I am getting pretty quick at those.  I was worried I wasn’t going to get any larger resection specimens during my rotation but this week I got to gross a cystoprostatectomy!  This is a radical resection they perform when they are concerned about a larger bladder tumor invading into the prostate of a male. (The female equivalent to this specimen would be a bladder and uterus.)  The day before I grossed it they sent the ureter margins for frozen so I cut those and grossed the entire specimen the next day.  I was intimidated at first, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be!  I feel pretty lucky because they said they only get about 2 cystoprostatectomy specimens a year.  I also had my first mastectomy this week as well.  I really feel like this is an awesome rotation for experience and building confidence.

Last Friday, we had our first Path Review exam.  Throughout the semester, we have reading assignments for each exam and they are a review of what we learned last year.  We have an exam the last Friday of every month.  They are certification style exams so 100 multiple choice questions.  I think the exam was alright and fair and I am pleased with how I did for it being the first.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect but it wasn't too bad.  I only have 3 more weeks left at Butler and I can tell I am going to miss it but I am excited for the next one!

1st Rotation, Week 1-Butler,PA

Christmas break flew by and now we are all one week in our first clinical rotations!  My first one is at Butler Memorial Hospital which is about an hour north of Pittsburgh. Here they do not have PA’s, it’s just me and a gross tech.  The gross tech does a lot of the smaller specimens and I get to focus on the larger specimens.  It is a little nerve wracking, but I can already tell this is going to be great experience.  I have only been there 4 days so far and I have already grossed 4 colons, a uterus, a thyroid, a lung lobectomy, a bunch of placentas, and some other miscellaneous type of specimens.  Two of the colons I grossed were for tumor so I also did my first full lymph node search. Monday they have a prostatectomy on the surgery schedule along with another thyroid!  I have never grossed a prostate so this will be another first for me.  In addition to the larger specimens, I am responsible for getting the morning run of smaller specimens on the processor.  This consists of a lot of skin biopsies since they have a derm pathologist that works there.  I never thought I would have gross this many larger specimens at this point in my rotation.  I was very nervous about there not being PA’s there to help me, but it hasn’t been too bad.  I definitely have to ask the doctors for help sometimes, but I really feel like our year of course work prepared us for rotations. 

I addition to our rotations, we also have exams the last Friday of every month.  We have a list of reading assignments and objectives to do in order to prepare for these exams.  I am so tired when I get home every day so I know it will be difficult to study but I am hoping to use the weekend to catch up!  I plan on blogging in a few weeks to share my thoughts on the halfway mark of this rotation and I will continue to blog throughout the year at all my other sites!