ER Site visit reflection: 

I had my evaluation with Andrea, who is a robotic surgery PA in NYPQ. This was my first evaluation that I had in person, as my other site visits have been over zoom. This was a really nice experience, as it felt more personal and informative to be able to discuss the rotation in person. Andrea was really nice and was willing to share information about her surgery PA experience and her role as a Physician Associate. She also was very caring about how the rotation was going and what I was learning.  

In our first evaluation, we discussed 1 full history and physical as well as 5 pharm cards. She wanted me to hand write my pharm cards on index cards, which was different then the other rotations. She then took the cards from me and quizzed me on them. This was very intimidating at first, however she discussed them as we went through and it was actually really helpful to have that challenge. This made me think about the cards and why we would use them. This helped the medications stick in my head more, then just reading them, and is a very good study technique. She then also had me present my History and Physical for one of my patients and discussed the case with me as we went through it. This was also very helpful to do in person as it felt like I was presenting to one of the attendings in the emergency room, which helped with my presentations as well as my noting taking skills.  

In our final evaluation, we discussed 5 more medications and 2 more history and physicals. This was helpful because I was able to make changes that we discussed in the first eval and better my notes. She discussed 5 more medications, indications and contraindications which was a good challenge. She also went through the journal article that I wrote based on my second history and physical. It was very informative to discuss the article after talking about the patient, since it made the case more clear. Over all these evals were very helpful and informative.