Happy PA Week! I can’t believe how quickly October rolled around. This year’s PA Week just hits a bit differently as we’ve all been battling the ongoing pandemic and the never-ending PPP trolls and Reddit subthreads… it’s honestly just all exhausting.  Regardless, I’m here and still practicing as a PA. I really thought this time around I was going to leave clinical medicine and return to my public health hat, but here we are. I’m soon approaching the end of my 90 day probation period (time really flies). Just like my entire PA career has been, onboarding always throws curveballs at me (Fi ..read more

When it’s more than halfway through March and it still feels like we’re living in a continued nightmare of 2020! …  Well hi fam! It’s been a long while.  Last weekend marked my “3 year” work anniversary. Normally, it’s not a big deal, but I’ll always remember that my first day of orientation as a PA was the last day my original hiring SP’s was in the clinic. I recently found out that my SP passed away. I had every intention of returning to reunite with my ENT family for his services… and then I received a text early from my mom Wednesday morning with  news that my grandmother pa ..read more

Since my last post, I’m so relieved to say that I’m now a week out since my second dose (yay immunity!) of Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine. I’m here to answer some of the most FAQ COVID-19 Vaccine questions. Of course, every time I attempt to make a post to answer these questions, I feel like this just opens up to more questions. So stay tuned for additional COVID-19 public health related posts in the near future! How many COVID-19 vaccines are there? Table adapted from Your Local Epidemiologist For other vaccine candidates: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-globa ..read more

So this post is a bit overdue…As much as I would like to turn this into a reel, I honestly don’t have the mental capacity to sit down and make a video, so blog post it is! Fair warning! This post is extremely heavy so I have opted to make a second post with more FAQs/Public Health perspective. It comes as no surprise that the number of COVID-19 cases have increased following the Thanksgiving holiday. Anyone working in healthcare KNEW and dreaded this as we’re are trying to mentally prepare for the weeks to come now that we’re also in the middle of flu season. So at this point, you’ve hear ..read more

While the holidays feel a bit drab this year, I wanted to share some of my favorite items for those that plan on doing a bit of shopping this weekend or items that you may want to request as holiday gifts this season. I’ve got you covered from head to toe… literally! Stoggles: I signed up for these originally as a kickstarter member AND only recently sent them out to have my actual prescriptions fitted. I cannot wait to start wearing them in clinic and around the hospital. It IS such a pain to wear glasses AND goggles in addition to masks these days. It is not too late to sign up with an ear ..read more

To wrap up US Antibiotic Awareness Week 2020, I figured I’d share a few pearls I learned at a grand rounds recently. Penicillin allergy is commonly acquired in childhood when allergic symptoms are found and confused with symptoms of viral or bacterial illness. Up to 20% of people in the general population are labeled as allergic to PCN by the time they reach adulthood. After formal allergy evaluation, <5% of people are found to be truly allergic. Most clinicians avoid the use of cephalosporins (contraindication) and do not override these alerts due to fears and misunderstanding of the patho ..read more

Well hello there! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve last blogged. 2020 has been a mood. I think we all can agree on that. Early on in the pandemic, I realized the need to step up and inspire the prePA community. When so many opportunities for PA shadowing fell through, I thought it was a great opportunity to connect with pre-PAs through virtual shadowing. While I’m thankful to have connected with so many pre-PAs, it also drew an interesting crowd that was following just for their “hours”. Some of these individuals went on to bombard my e-mails requesting “participation certificates” having no ..read more

Today marks the anniversary of my dad’s passing. Traditionally, we would celebrate and honor him at temple. However, COVID-19 has us celebrating a little differently. It’s insane how much has changed in a year. My days on the ICU floor and the triggers are getting somewhat better. Although from time to time, I do catch myself in a daze when I encounter an a critically ill/actively dying patient. I hope it continues to get easier with time. Looking back, as crazy as it was, I’m glad I got to spend those three weeks in CCU with him. It was like a mini critical care rotation. That experience gave ..read more

Given our current COVID situation, it pains me that I am unable to accept pre-PA/PA students for shadowing/rotations. My heart goes out to those that had rotations planned or scheduled shadowing opportunities that have now been canceled. I saw through a Facebook Group of PAs that have been offering “Virtual Shadowing” and figured I’d join in on the action. And here we are… 5 sessions later! I have received a number of students asking to join in on these Zoom sessions. Unfortunately, due to the cap of 300 participants, I am unable to accommodate everyone’s request. I’ve also heard horror storie ..read more

So I meant to write this as a Mother’s day post, but that didn’t happen… And it’s okay. I’m tired of putting unrealistic expectations/non-sense deadlines, because quite frankly… who cares!? We should celebrate parent’s/family day all day err’ day! Am I right? Since today is also Monday, I figured I can combine this as a #MotivationalMonday post. The other day I had someone ask me on IG live what my parents thought when I told them I was going to PA school instead of pursuing medical school. I laughed because, in some ways, my mom is not the typical “Tiger Mom.” Growing up, of course, my parent ..read more