First Week at St. Clair Hospital

St. Clair Hospital is a 328-bed independent, acute care facility. The Pathology Department receives about 16,000 surgical cases per year and since the hospital is a general hospital, they get a variety of specimens (great for a first rotation). The lab is set up so that the gross room, histology, and cytology are all in one room, which has been really great because it allows for immediate feedback on issues that may arise (thick sections, submitting sutures and staples, or any stones, etc.).

This past week I was able to gross several smaller specimens (biopsies, appendixes, gallbladders, placentas, etc.) and then I would observe the PA as he grossed larger specimens.  I’m still getting used to dictating using the Dictaphone (and having to hear my own voice on a recording).  While shadowing at Ruby I got used to the “Voice-over” technology and being able to see what I’ve dictated on the computer screen as I’m working. With the Dictaphone you press down on a foot-pedal and say your dictation into a microphone.  Once you’re finished, the dictation gets sent to the transcriptionists and they type it up for you.  There were many times where I would lift my foot off the pedal too soon and my lasts words would get cut off or sometimes I would end up saying a sentence later in the dictation that I wished I had said earlier.

I think the highlight of my week was cutting a frozen section for intraoperative consult with success! This was something I was definitely nervous about doing so I was happy that I didn’t panic and was able to cut decent sections for the Pathologist.

Another great thing about St. Clair - all the employees in the lab are super friendly and more than willing to help me out when I have questions. The Pathologists have been awesome at explaining certain gross descriptions that correlate with what they see microscopically and giving me pointers on what sections will work best for what they need to see microscopically.  The PA and the grossing tech that work with me have been such great teachers and have been so patient with my awkward, just-starting-out dictations and millions of questions.

Overall I’d say my first week of rotations was a success and I’m loving clinical year so far! On to week 2!

Moving to Pittsburgh

With clinical rotations starting, I have moved to Pittsburgh!  Having lived in Morgantown for the last 5 years, it has been a huge change moving back to a bigger city (but also extremely exciting at the same time).  Three of my classmates and I found an awesome, quirky 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house in Squirrel Hill to live in for part of this year! The Squirrel Hill area seems to be really safe and there are tons of restaurants, shops, and grocery stores nearby.  Also because our house is on the other side of the tunnels, we are able to avoid most of the dreaded Pittsburgh traffic.

My advice for any first year students who are reading this is to wait until you get your rotation schedule before picking a place to live (this will let you avoid renting additional housing while living in provided housing, or paying double rents).  I know the wait will probably kill you and you will feel like it is very last minute, but my roommates and I wish we would have waited.  

In other news – the first day of rotations was today! A brief overview of my day: I battled the arctic tundra to get to the hospital, made it there on time, didn’t get lost inside the hospital, found the cafeteria (really important), got a surprise flu shot, grossed some specimens, and mastered the Dictaphone (just kidding- I struggled). Overall I’d say it was a pretty good first day!  Expect more about my St. Clair rotation this weekend- but for now I have tons of unpacking and reading assignments to do!

White Coat Ceremony

We have received our white coats, finished finals, and the current second years graduate today (BIG CONGRATS) therefore I am officially a second year Pathologists' Assistant student.  It is such a relief to have finished a whole year of graduate school, especially that last semester! My classmates and I have worked so hard this past year and have really come together as a team; I am so proud of them all.  Just a 2 week break until clinicals start; I'll be heading to Disney for Christmas, but don't worry I'll have a 12 hour car ride to study up on my copy of Lester.

PA Class of 2014 and our professors

Future Pittsburgh roommates

Clinical Rotations

We have finally received our clinical rotation schedule for next year so without further ado here is where I’ll be:

• January 6 – February 7: St. Clair Hospital (Pittsburgh, PA)

• February 10 – February 14: University of Pittsburgh HSC Tissue Bank (Pittsburgh, PA)

• February 17 – March 28: West Virginia University Healthcare Autopsy (Morgantown, WV)

• March 31 – April 18:  St. Francis Hospital (Charleston, WV)

• April 21 – May 9: UPMC Children’s Hospital (Pittsburgh, PA)

• May 12 – June 20: Butler Hospital (Butler, PA)

• June 23 – August 1: Thomas Memorial Hospital (Charleston, WV)

• August 4 – September 12: Conemaugh Hospital (Johnstown, PA)

• September 15 – October 24: UPMC Presbyterian (Pittsburgh, PA)

• October 27 – December 19: PathMD Labs (Los Angeles, CA) 

I am absolutely ECSTATIC that I was given the opportunity to go to LA. I cannot wait to get through these last couple of exams and start putting to use all the information I’ve been learning the past year.

Our program also has a few clinical sites that I do not rotate through:

• UPMC Shadyside (Pittsburgh, PA)
• Allegheny General Hospital (Pittsburgh, PA)
• Ruby Memorial Hospital Surgical (Morgantown, WV)

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I'm very thankful that the university gives us the whole week off for Thanksgiving break. It has been nice to relax a little, but I've also been taking this time to get caught up on school work (yay for papers and study guides).  The week we come back from break will be extremely hectic, but we finally get to find out our clinical rotation schedule! I can't wait to start the clinical year and put all this knowledge to use.

On another note - one of my classmates got married this past weekend and our class had a great time celebrating with her and her husband.  I don't know how she managed to plan a wedding during the craziness of grad school, but it was beautiful!

PA Program with the bride - Congrats Amanda!

Almost There

So I have been terrible at blogging this semester (I apologize).  I could give you a million excuses as to why, but in all honesty this semester is just HARD.   For me it has by far been the hardest of them all.  Having 7 classes definitely keeps you busy at all times, but at least that means that the days are passing by at an alarming rate (only 57 days until we start clinical rotations)!  I cannot wait to start rotations, but we still have 6 exams, 3 quizzes, 1 essay, and 4 finals to get through first! 

And next Saturday is our frozen section lab test!  The goal of this test is to prepare good slides in under 7 minutes; this includes everything from cutting a piece of tissue from the specimen, freezing the tissue, cutting beautiful sections on the cryostat, staining with H&E, and coverslipping the slides.  I can remember back to the first frozen section lab and how horrible I was at the whole process.  I was completely awkward using my left hand (non-dominant hand) to pull the frozen tissue off the block and all of my slides would have wrinkles or tears.  But I’ve been spending a lot of time in the gross room practicing on hotdogs and am feeling much more confident now.

 

Practicing frozens on hotdog specimens

Happy Halloween

My class is dressed as the Despicable Me cast today (Minions, Vector, and the fluffy unicorn)! This is how we keep our sanity in a week of exams!