Stephanie is an OB/GYN PA, and this episode is a good look at what women's health actually involves day to day.

She walks through what her patient load looks like, how much she manages on her own, and what it's like being a PA in a specialty a lot of people don't realize is open to us. There's more to it than deliveries - it's well visits, contraception counseling, prenatal care, and a lot of continuity with patients over years.

Her big piece of advice is about rotations. Show up, ask for things, and don't wait to be handed opportunities. The students who get the most out of clinical year are the ones who make themselves useful before anyone asks.

What we talk about:

• What an OB/GYN PA does in a typical week
• Managing obstetric patients and where the PA fits on the team
• Why women's health is a great fit for PAs
• Being proactive during clinical rotations
• Finding mentors and actually using them
• Building a strong base in your prereqs and early classes

Resources:

Free application timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Free resume download: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-resume-download

Pre-PA counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Today in episode 52, I'm speaking with Stephanie, an OB GYN PA.

Welcome to the Pre PA Club podcast.

If you want to learn how to become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

Hey, guys, this is Savannah.

I am your podcast host, host of the Pre Pa Club podcast, and this is episode 52, and we've had an episode a week for an entire year.

That is insane.

It's been so much fun, and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon.

In fact, I've got about six interviews coming up for you guys.

Really cool stuff, but I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's been listening and just stuck through this process with me.

I know that I've had some technological difficulties at times.

Whether it be the sound is funky or there's a weird echo, or you hear my baby in the background, I'm still learning the technology part of things, but hopefully getting better every time.

But I just want to say thank you.

The podcast, it's been fun.

It's been a lot of work.

We have over a hundred reviews on itunes now, and I cannot tell y' all how happy that makes me.

And just reading some of these really, really kind words that you guys write about the episodes is what keeps me going and keeps me doing this.

So I just want to say thank you, and I think if you've been listening for a while, you know that if you guys need anything, just feel free to email me or reach out on Instagram, send me a message, whatever.

I like connecting and hearing from the listeners.

So it's been a lot of fun.

If there are any subjects you.

You want me to cover, let me know.

Somebody's requested supplemental applications.

We can definitely do that.

Yeah, just shoot me a quick contact email, whatever, if there's something you want to hear about.

But anyways, we'll get to today's episode, which I'm really excited about.

Stephanie is an OBGYN pa and we connected on Instagram, which is where I connect with just about everybody.

But she has a really cool account because it's more clinical, where I share a lot of Pre PA tips and stuff about my job as a pa. Stephanie shares a lot, just about women's health and her job and more clinical things.

And she also has a podcast that's fairly new with her friend Britt, who's also a gynpa, and it's really fun.

It's called at yout Cervix, and I'll Link to that in the description and you'll hear us talk about it in the interview.

Stephanie and I were supposed to do this interview, actually, back in June, and I ended up having some contractions.

I was pregnant at the time, which was ironic because she's an OB gynpa.

So I'm telling her what's going on.

She's telling me I need to go to the hospital.

I go in.

It was a false alarm, but we had to reschedule.

So I was really excited that we were able to find a time to do this interview, and I hope you guys enjoy it.

Let's jump into our interview with Stephanie.

So my name is Stephanie Howard, and I am a physician assistant.

Okay.

Has that been your only job?

Yes.

So I actually did a rotation with this physician, my supervising physician now.

And I always knew that I wanted to do women's health.

And undergrad I did followed around an OB gyn, and so I kind of knew that that's what I wanted to do.

And so I did my elective in women's health also, and I went back and did my elective with her, and then she offered me a job.

Okay, cool.

So I did something similar where I actually got hired before I did my job or my electives, and so I was hired, and then I got to do eight weeks of basically training before I jumped in my job.

So we kind of did the same thing there.

Well, I think that that's awesome.

And I tell, like, I precept a lot of clinical year students.

Yeah.

And I try to tell all of them, treat every rotation like it's a job, because you don't know if people are going to have openings where you're at.

You don't know who they know.

And, you know, if you do a really good job, you could be offered a job.

I think I was offered, like, five.

I was offered five jobs during clinicals.

And of course now, you know, in Knoxville, where I am, it kind of seems like it's a saturated area for PAs, but at the time when I did it, it wasn't.

And so I always try to tell everybody, like, if there's something that you like or you want to do women's health, see if you can set up your own rotation or your own elective somewhere you may want to be and, like, prove to them and show them why they should hire you and why how they could benefit from having a.

Pa. That's really good advice, and that's something I wish someone had told me.

And we'll backtrack in a minute.

But I went into rotations with the mindset that I should.

This is really dumb.

Don't do this.

That I should tell everywhere I was working that that's what I wanted to do, which was not.

That didn't get me anywhere.

So at the beginning, they would say, let's say I'm on family medicine.

They would say, well, what do you see yourself doing?

What do you want to do?

Oh, family medicine.

And so really, I knew I liked derm.

I knew I liked procedures.

And when it came to rotations, I actually really liked everything except for psych.

But it wasn't until I actually, about halfway through the year, started telling people, when they asked, it was my surgery preceptor that I first told, you know, I really think I'd want to do surgery or maybe dermatology.

Once I started being honest about it and I told him and my emergency medicine preceptor, that's when people actually started seeking me out and saying, like, oh, I've heard about this job.

Send your resume and getting calls.

So it's interesting that I don't know that you give that advice of go into it thinking of it like a job interview, because you don't know who those people know.

And my surgery preceptor is actually the person who got me my job.

Yeah.

Because he had that connection, and he was able to make a phone call and say, you need to interview her.

And I think it'd be a good fit.

So I was very appreciative of that.

And they're more likely to take advice from a colleague who they respect and has been with somebody than something that comes across on, like, indeed.

Or an ad in the newspaper.

Exactly.

No, I agree.

And that's kind of what I tell people with shadowing, too.

Like, use all of your connections.

But when it comes to clinicals, something else I found interesting, and you can maybe speak to this is I had a couple preceptors who would tell me, like, you really seem like you want to be here and you're really participating, which I found to be a very strange comment, because I felt like all students would be like that, but apparently maybe not.

Like, what makes a student, like, a good one or stand out versus one that you're like, please can your Time be over.

I know.

Yeah.

So, you know, and I get that from my end because if you ask the majority of people, like, about their women's health rotation, there's so many mixed feelings.

Like you either want to do women's health or you want absolutely nothing to do with women's health.

So it's one of those things that I tell everybody, like, even if you don't like the rotation, be interested, participate.

That's.

This is our only time as PAs.

You know, we're trained as generalists and so to make the most out of our education and be the best, most well rounded PA we can be, we really need to be all hands in and try.

But yeah, a lot of people, you know, have been on my rotation and they're like, ooh, I, I don't really want to do this.

And I'm like, well, you're here, so you're going to do pap smears until you're comfortable with it.

You're going to do pelvics.

But yeah, I mean, a lot of people don't.

And, you know, your preceptor can pick up if you don't want to be there or not.

And it all goes back to how likely am I to refer somebody for a job or.

Right, it doesn't matter.

Even if you want to get your license in that state, you have to have letters of recommendation.

So I mean, it's just important to try and, and be there because they're taking the time out of their day to teach you and obviously they enjoy their job or they wouldn't have students and they wouldn't be doing their job.

Yeah, that's so true.

And I've seen the same thing.

Shadowing.

Like, if you, if somebody's letting you shadow, you need to act like you want to be there and pay attention.

Yeah, for sure.

And on clinicals, like, that may be your only time getting exposure to that.

So you need to soak up as much as possible, especially if you know you want to do something else.

Because, like, I found in derm, and I think y' all have spoken about this on your podcast, you kind of said it in the first episode, like, even if you aren't working in women's health, you see it in other areas.

So being in derm, there are certain things that affect women in areas that would cross over with OB gyn.

And so I definitely see things and treat things that you guys see and treat.

And I get referrals from OB GYN offices.

So it's important to kind of have as much knowledge as you can, even of other areas, if possible.

Well, yeah.

And patients don't understand.

Obviously, they're different specialists, but your patient doesn't.

I mean, they think that, you know, what their derm knows or what their internal medicine doctor knows, so they're going to talk to you about it.

So at least being familiar, you know, and saying, well, you know, I don't do that every day, but I. I do remember this for my rotation.

And this sounds familiar because they're going to ask you about stuff.

Yeah.

And we'll talk about your podcast more, too.

But Yalls first episode was about birth control, and we prescribe birth control and dermatology.

Not to the extent that you guys do, but it was nice to hear that refresher of things that we don't hear as much about.

But it's important to kind of know if you're gonna prescribe it, so.

Exactly.

Yeah.

All right, let's backtrack a little bit.

Why did you decide to become a pa?

I think that I was fortunate because my aunt and uncle are both PAs.

Cool.

And so I grew up knowing what a PA was.

You know, I was in high school, I was exposed to what PAs were, and around that time, it wasn't.

Not that I'm super old.

So I went.

When I went to undergrad, I knew I wanted to do something in the medical field, and being a PA was always that option for me.

So I did that whole biology undergrad and basically had to do the pre med route because you would say, like, oh, yeah, I want to be a pa. And people are like, what's a pa?

You know, and of course, now they have, like, pre PA tracks that you can go through in school.

So I got to shadow PAs, went around and realized that was something I wanted to do as a female.

I wanted to do something in medicine, but I also wanted to be able to have a family and be able to have a life.

And so the balance of what the PA profession gives you to have a life and a family and be able to be a practitioner, it just was something that worked out really well for me.

Okay, so what did that look like?

And it was kind of the same thing if I'd go to my advisor and you want to do What.

What's a.

So I can imagine you ran into that even more.

But how.

What was your application process like?

Did you, like, get in your first time?

How many schools did you apply to?

Yeah, so I. I don't know when CASPA had started or not, but I had to apply through that.

Okay.

So I did apply through that.

I applied to four schools.

I'm from Alabama, and so I applied to two of them in Alabama, and then I applied to one in Arkansas and then the one in Knoxville, and kind of, you know, being a student in undergrad and knowing I wanted to do that right when I got out of school school, my biggest challenge is really my patient care hours.

So trying to find something that, you know, I could get in with, not having tons of patient care hours was kind of challenging.

So I applied to those, got interviews at three places, was wait listed at one, and then was accepted into south here in Knoxville.

And that program was nice because it started in September.

August or September.

I don't remember which one.

And a lot of them were starting in December or January.

And so it was kind of those things that everything just really lined up for me.

Nice.

So once you got to PA School, was it what you're expecting or was like, what was the most difficult part for you?

I think when you go to PA school, I remember our first day, they told us the amount of information you're gonna get is like drinking water through a fire hose.

And I'm sure everybody, you know, tells you that analogy.

And so I knew that it was gonna be.

There was going to be a lot of studying going on and a lot of information.

But honestly, the hardest part really has to do with kind of like, the fear of missing out.

Not that you're missing out on things, but people don't understand how much time you spend studying and how your priorities have to change when you're in school.

And so I remember having friends.

You know, I missed weddings, and not so much in clinical, but in didactic.

I mean, you were studying all the time.

I remember I had some friends who came to Knoxville for the weekend because we had a wedding, and I had, like, a pizza heeds test and Oski and, like, a farm test on Monday.

And so Saturday, they were like, hey, come to the pool.

Let's go to the pool.

We're gonna have some cocktails.

Have fun.

And I was like, I can't.

I've got to go to the library.

And they were like, why?

They just didn't get it.

And I'm like, you know, I Have to go study my life away so I can have these four hours tonight to have fun.

So it's kind of like either or so really.

It was more so about things that were going on around me that I missed out on because I had to do school.

Yeah.

I mean, I had.

I felt the same way.

I mean, you have to make those decisions.

And I was living at home, and my parents would.

I always felt so bad.

And I got better about this as I learned how to study.

But they would ask me to go to dinner and I'd be like, I can't.

I need that 30 minutes or that hour to study.

Which was a little bit dramatic.

But, well.

Well, you have to eat.

Yeah, I think you're right.

Like, you have to learn how to study.

Yeah.

And you learn what's important and what's not important.

Of course, you're not going to know everything, but you have to get those basic concepts.

Yeah.

And those first few at south, we have had quarters.

Okay.

So probably the first two quarters to try to, like, get in the groove and figure out studying and all of that.

You know, you could get more of a flow.

But, I mean, it can be done.

I got married the second quarter.

Quarter of PA school.

Okay.

It can definitely be done.

It's just more so time management and just knowing you're not going to get to go out every night, and there's some things that you're gonna have to miss, but it's a small, small amount.

Of time, and it goes by so quickly.

I felt like.

I mean, I felt like it flew by.

So, I mean, I agree.

Small sacrifices.

So once you got to the end of PA school, you knew you wanted to do obgyn, and you kind of got lined up, did your electives.

Did you interview for any other jobs, or was that, like your only.

This is the job I want.

Yeah.

Once she offered me that job, I knew that was what I wanted to do.

So, like I said, during my rotations, I had been offered other jobs, and it was kind of one of those things that they were getting in touch with me, and it was more so, if this falls through, I'll get in touch with you.

But I knew that's what I wanted to do, and I just really clicked with my supervising physician.

And basically, she has taught me everything I know about women's health and has trained me to really do things the way she wants them done.

And so we have a great relationship.

She values, you know, PAs and their role in medicine, and she's a very big supporter and you know, that's so important as the PA to make sure the person that you're working for really understands what you can do and uses you to your full potential.

Yeah.

So in your job, what does a day at your job look like?

So my job, you know, it differs day to day.

I do a lot of annual exams, birth control, consulting, irregular periods.

I see everybody from adolescents to teenagers, pregnant women, menopausal women.

I work up a lot of different things like dysfunctional uterine bleeding or pelvic pain, deal with ovarian cyst, fibroids, all of those things.

So we even do weight loss counseling in our office.

So, I mean, there's a lot of stuff.

And I am procedure oriented.

I love to do procedures.

So I do biopsies, endometrial biopsies.

I manage abnormal Pap smears and do follow ups with the colposcopy.

I do lots of ultrasound procedures like sono histograms and hysterosalpingograms to look at the lining of the uterus and then to make sure that tube tubes are open.

We do a lot of bladder installations in our office for interstitial cystitis and put in birth control, take birth control out.

So there's a lot you can do in women's health besides just pap smears all day long.

Yeah.

One question that I get a lot about specifically PAs working in OB GYN, is what can you do as far as pregnancy and delivering babies?

Which I don't know, I feel like some of this varies by state, maybe, but what are your thoughts or role in that way?

I know that I asked you lots of pregnancy questions on Instagram.

Thank you for answering.

Yes.

Yes.

So I deal with pregnant patients all day from, you know, conception, trying to conceive, helping people conceive with Clomid and different medications to managing them throughout their pregnancy.

Our.

Our hospital or the hospital that I work at doesn't currently have any PAs midwives or nurse practitioners that deliver.

So I think really it's hospital oriented and what the hospital wants you to do.

I have delivered babies before with my supervising physician.

And, you know, it all came down to what did I want to do.

You know, I look at that lifestyle and delivering babies is awesome, but babies do not wait on anybody.

And so if you get into the delivering thing, you're going to be on call during the weekends.

Right.

You're going to be having to get up at three in the morning and go deliver a baby.

And you know, it can be a rough lifestyle.

And so for me, I don't personally want to do that.

Like, I love managing my pregnant patients.

I love managing gestational diabetes and hypertension and, you know, helping them throughout their pregnancy.

But when it's time for babies to be delivered, generally my supervising physician, she leaves the clinic.

And when she leaves the clinic, like, it's mine to run.

So I see her patients and make sure they're taken care of so she can go do that.

And when she comes back, she doesn't have 15 patients still waiting on her before she can leave.

So I think it's really personal preference.

I know that there are two residency programs now for postgraduate OB gyn and they do a lot of vaginal deliveries.

But I think more than anything, it really depends on hospital systems, because if the hospital's not going to let you deliver, it doesn't matter where you've trained or what you can do.

Yeah, I remember in school we had a.

A dermatology PA come and do a talk, and she had done one of the OB GYN residencies, I think, in California maybe.

Yeah.

And she said when she was out there, she delivered 300 babies, like a ridiculous amount.

And then when she moved back to Georgia, they.

She could not get approved by the medical board to deliver babies.

They just said no.

And even with support from her supervising physician and proof that she had done all these deliveries, they just.

In Georgia, it's not considered a part of a PA's scope of practice.

And we do have a lot of midwives who deliver.

So I think that's something.

For somebody who, like, wants to deliver babies, you have to look at that.

If you're thinking about being a page, look at your state and figure out if it's something you can do or not exactly.

Because, you know, there's definitely not a reason that we can't deliver babies.

I mean, we're trained adequately.

And then obviously, if you do post residency, it shouldn't be an issue.

But a lot of states, and that's unfortunate too, that they put that.

But then a lot of it could be, you know, that's a midwife thing.

It's a midwifery.

And so a lot of times you have different organizations that maybe don't want PAs to get in there because that takes away, you know, job security as well.

Yeah.

And I think that's definitely part of it, of why that kind of separation is there.

But.

Yeah, so.

Yeah, so what.

How many patients do you typically see in a day?

I see about 25 patients a day.

Sometimes I can see more, depending on, you know, if she has to go do a delivery or, you know, what's going on in the office.

I've got slots in there to work in, but generally it's about 25.

Okay.

And do you work full time?

I do.

So full time for us is four days a week.

Nice.

So, yeah.

So I have Tuesdays off, which is nice because I can spend time with my kids at home or kind of have a me day.

You know, I always tell everybody, like, working in medicine, I love it and I would not trade it for anything, but especially women's health.

You know, we see a lot of psych stuff.

So there's a lot of anxiety, there's a lot of depression.

And I think because not.

I think because we are such.

Have such an intimate job, people are more likely to talk to me about things and tell me things than they would like primary care.

And so emotionally, you know, it can be really exhausting some of the stuff that I hear.

So it's nice to have just a me day to decompress.

Yeah.

Not take too much work home with you.

Exactly.

That's important.

Yeah.

Let's talk a little bit about your Instagram account and now your new podcast, which I didn't know it was coming.

We first connected on Instagram in the little, the little PA community that is there.

But what made you start what was teenage female health and is now the gympa?

Yeah.

So I see so many teenagers in my clinic and, you know, it's just so crazy because half of the stuff that I hear from them is they're not very well educated when it comes to the female body.

And I think a lot of that has to do with, you know, we, we grow up and we're told girls have vaginas, boys have penises.

Those are very private things.

We don't talk about them.

And then in fifth grade, like someone takes us in a room and they're like, you're going to have a period and we watch a video and you're like, what in the world is happening?

And so then parents are kind of like, oh, well, she learned about it at school.

And we kind of rely on the school system, but, you know, living in the Bible Belt, especially where we are, it's an abstinence only education system.

And so there's a lot of misinformation out there and there's a lot of information that these girls aren't getting.

And so I wanted to create a program where they could get information that's correct because, you know, you can look up Anything on the Internet and you can find out, you can make it say exactly what you want it to say.

So I wanted to be a source of information that was correct for these young women.

And I actually have an online sex ed and comprehensive health program for girls from seventh to 12th grade.

And it's online.

And so I started my Instagram because I quickly found out that Facebook isn't cool anymore.

Facebook is confusing.

Yeah.

And everybody has Instagram.

So my.

I quickly noticed that my audience started becoming a lot of pa.

So pre.

Pre pas.

Adolescent girls, you know, young women and their 20 somethings and then also nurse practitioners, different healthcare providers.

And I felt like naming it Teenage Female Health wasn't very inclusive.

So I think a lot of people thought, well, maybe this page isn't for me because I'm not a teenager.

So that's why I changed it to the gynpa.

Okay, cool.

And then you've started your podcast, which I love the name, by the way.

You want to tell us about that?

Yeah.

So our.

The podcast is Brit and Steph at your cervix.

So good.

Brit is one of.

Was one of my students.

And so she.

We went and got pedicures a few months ago before she moved to Texas to start her job in obgyn.

And she was like, we need to do a podcast.

And I'm like, well, I have no idea how we would even do that.

And she's like, I got you.

So we kind of talked about it and she is a huge podcaster.

She was like, you know, there's just not anything out there for women's health to listen to.

She was like, I think there may be something, but it's kind of like dry.

And our personalities are, you know, we're very kind of like laid back.

And we both value education and think knowledge is power.

And so we wanted to get material and present it to healthcare, future healthcare providers and current practitioners in a way that just kind of seemed like you were sitting down, like having a glass of wine with your friend.

Yeah.

And make it easy to understand.

Well, I listened to the first episode and I can say that you guys nailed it.

I listened to that while I was taking my baby for a walk and it was a great.

Just refresher.

And like you said, really easy.

Like easy to listen to concepts laid out really simply to understand.

Nothing crazy or conceptual or I don't know.

It was great.

So I'm excited to see where.

Where you guys take it.

I'm sure there are plenty of topics to cover and we'll get lots of questions and all kinds of things.

Oh, yes.

So we already have 42 topics.

Oh, my God.

That's almost a whole year.

It is, yeah.

Gotta get on lots of stuff.

Yeah, Yeah.

I don't know what episode I'm on for almost 50 something.

So it kind of gets addicting once you.

Once you get it going, but then you just have to do it.

But yeah.

And then again, thank you for answering the questions I send you on Instagram, and absolutely.

You're very helpful throughout my pregnancy.

Not that people should send you their questions, but.

Yeah, well.

Yeah, well, thanks.

I think we covered everything.

Any other advice or tips or anything you want to throw out there?

I think that definitely, like, one thing is, if you're interested in women's health, don't be scared.

For some reason, people have this misconception that women's health isn't for PAs.

But my question is, why?

Because we're trained as generalists.

I mean, we have just as much training in women's health as we do general surgery and pediatrics.

And, I mean, I have more women's.

Health training than derm from school, you know?

Yeah.

And so most people are like, oh, women's health, women's word.

PAs just aren't in women's health.

And that's true.

I mean, there's less than 1% of us.

But it doesn't have to be that way, and we shouldn't be discouraged.

So I would just say if women's health is something that you want to do, it's definitely an attainable goal.

It's a great career, and go at it and find your rotation and let people know that that's what you want to do.

Don't be scared to do women's health.

And, you know, like we talked about earlier, if you want to do vaginal deliveries, then look at the States and know where you can do that, or hospitals that'll allow you to do that.

Just before you jump in, get all the details.

But I'm sure Stephanie will help answer any of your questions that she can about her job.

And just it's kind of nice to have the social media to be able to get more awareness out there about our role in different areas.

So I think you're doing a great, great job.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Well, thanks for coming on the podcast.

Absolutely.

Thanks for having me.

No problem.

All right, guys, I hope you enjoyed hearing from Stephanie.

Make sure you check out her Instagram, her website, her podcast, and there's some really great info out there.

And.

And so I hope that you guys benefited from that.

But if you have any questions, feel free to ask her.

She's so sweet.

But thank you for being here with me.

For if you've been here for all 52 episodes, I would love to hear that.

I love when people tell me they've binge listened the podcast, because that's what I do with podcasts.

But feel free to reach out.

Let me know if you have any feedback, and I will see you guys next week and in the coming weeks for some really awesome interviews.

Thanks guys.

Have a good week.