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Studying Effectively in PA School with Jono of Quill Notebooks
Episode 2138th January 2022 • The Pre-PA Club • Savanna Perry
00:00:00 00:38:59

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Jono started PA school with one daughter. He finished with three.

He's a PA in Washington, and he's also the guy behind Quill Notebooks. Those two things are connected. He couldn't study the way everyone else was studying, so he built a system that fit the hours he actually had.

That's the part I want you to hear. Most study advice assumes you have unlimited time and a quiet apartment. A lot of you don't. You've got kids, a job, a commute, a partner working opposite shifts. The answer isn't studying more hours. It's studying differently.

Jono also says something I'll repeat until I'm blue in the face: no program and no career is worth losing your relationships or your health over. PA school is two years. Your people are forever.

What we cover:

  • Going through PA school as a parent, and what actually made it work
  • Why he started making his own notebooks instead of buying study guides
  • Building a study system around short, unpredictable blocks of time
  • The difference between reviewing material and actually learning it
  • Protecting your family time when the program wants all of it
  • What he'd tell a pre-PA who's worried they're too busy to do this

Resources:

Free PA School Application Timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

CASPA GPA Calculator: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-school-caspa-gpa-calculator

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

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

Mentioned in this episode:

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Transcripts

Speaker A:

Happy:

Speaker A:

We are in a new year and we have some great podcast episodes coming up this year.

Speaker A:

Today you're going to hear from Jono.

Speaker A:

He is a PA in Washington.

Speaker A:

He had a lot of children during PA school, so we talk about that as well as just the overwhelm that comes with trying to figure out how to study.

Speaker A:

So I think this is a great episode to start off our semester.

Speaker B:

Welcome to the Pre PA Club podcast.

Speaker A:

If you want to learn how to.

Speaker B:

Become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

Speaker A:

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Speaker A:

Let's get to it.

Speaker A:

Hey guys, thank you so much for tuning into the podcast today and happy New Year, Savannah.

Speaker A:

Here your friendly Pre PA coach, Dermatology,.

Speaker B:

Pennsylvania in Georgia if you're new, but.

Speaker A:

If you are a regular listener, you may have noticed that there were not any new episodes the past two weeks.

Speaker A:

It was Christmas and then New Year's and to be perfectly honest, I just needed a break.

Speaker A:

The podcast has been such a project that I've enjoyed, but to be honest, I hadn't been enjoying it as much.

Speaker A:

So I needed to step away a little bit.

Speaker A:

And I really am trying to figure out what the podcast is going to look like for this year.

Speaker A:

So if you are listening to this, head over to my Instagram it's HEPA platform.

Speaker A:

I'm going to post some question boxes on there to really see who's listening, what you want to hear about if the podcast is still helpful now that we're 200 and something episodes in and we'll kind of go from there.

Speaker A:

So I have some other things I'm working on some projects and videos that I think will also be really helpful.

Speaker A:

And so I'm just trying to figure out where to put my time to make sure that I am helping as many people as we can.

Speaker A:

Some of you may be doing our personal statement challenge if you missed out on that, we started this past Wednesday.

Speaker A:

You can sign up at any time.

Speaker A:

So if you go to the paplatform.com Personal statement, what you'll sign up for is a free two week email course.

Speaker A:

You'll get an email every day for two weeks that gives you an action so something that takes 10 to 20 minutes that you can do to get a first draft written of your personal statement.

Speaker A:

So if you commit to that, you.

Speaker B:

Can stretch it out if you want.

Speaker A:

But it also has an application or a personal statement checklist.

Speaker A:

So just a lot of resources to kind of help you get over that hump of starting, help you get past Writer's block, get some ideas down.

Speaker A:

So that's something that you can sign up for at any time.

Speaker A:

But on Wednesday, we started going through.

Speaker B:

It as a group.

Speaker A:

So there's a Facebook group.

Speaker A:

I'll put that in the description.

Speaker A:

You can go ahead and join on.

Speaker A:

Join in.

Speaker A:

Everything will be listed in there for you, and we would love to have you join for the challenge.

Speaker A:

You can also grab your copy of the PA School Interview Guide or, sorry, the PA School Personal Statement Guide, either one.

Speaker A:

And use the code Future pa. We are still seeing a lot of people booking interviews and getting interview invites.

Speaker A:

So, you know, if you're in that waiting phase, don't be too discouraged because there are definitely still interviews going out.

Speaker A:

All right, so for today's episode, we have Jono, and you can find him on Instagram ilnotebooks.

Speaker A:

We're going to talk a lot about his PA school journey and kind of how he got through it, how he found was the best process of studying and how that has translated into him creating quill notebooks, which I love.

Speaker A:

A good PA entrepreneur.

Speaker A:

And these are really cool.

Speaker A:

They're actually physical notebooks where you can get one for each subject.

Speaker A:

I've posted about him on Instagram before, and they're really neat.

Speaker A:

So he has a cool story, just really positive vibes, which we love.

Speaker A:

And you're going to enjoy hearing from him.

Speaker A:

So we'll jump into that and head to Instagram.

Speaker A:

We are going to have a giveaway, so if you want to get in on that, go see the post from today and we will get you entered for that.

Speaker A:

All right.

Speaker A:

Hope you have a great week or weekend.

Speaker C:

So my name is Jono.

Speaker C:

I am a PA in Washington, and I have been working for almost two years as a pa.

Speaker C:

I started off in interventional radiology and on the side some emergency medicine and urgent care work.

Speaker C:

Transitioned to being near family in Washington and took a job at a clinic up here.

Speaker C:

But I'm going to be transitioning to hospital critical care ICU medicine in a couple months.

Speaker B:

Oh, gosh.

Speaker B:

Okay.

Speaker B:

Yeah, that's exciting.

Speaker B:

Very different.

Speaker B:

A little more intense.

Speaker B:

Well, let's take it a step back and just kind of tell us what led you to wanting to be a pa.

Speaker C:

Okay, so this is my.

Speaker C:

My journey to become a PA is, I think, as disjointed as anyone could be.

Speaker C:

I hated science class, never wanted to do any science classes, put off science classes until my last semester of my senior year of college, and then took the easiest one I could.

Speaker C:

And at one point in school, because I was a communications major.

Speaker C:

My goal going to college was I want to play in a band and work at camp.

Speaker C:

And I did those.

Speaker C:

And then I didn't know what to do.

Speaker C:

But I had a thought where I was like, maybe I should go into medicine.

Speaker C:

And my next thought was, no, I'm not smart enough for that.

Speaker C:

And I probably were watching too much Scrubs.

Speaker C:

Never precede it, never gave it a second thought, but I was doing a lot of youth work, high adventure youth work, like being a backpacking guide, being an outdoor adventure director, a lot of climbing overseas stuff.

Speaker C:

And I really liked that and thought that maybe I would start pursuing a career where I would like develop my own program or run a program.

Speaker C:

And a lot of those required some sort of medical training.

Speaker C:

So I did a wilderness EMT certification.

Speaker C:

And that.

Speaker C:

That then scratched the surface of patient care, anatomy, physiology, trauma response, and walked away from that.

Speaker C:

I was like, oh, that was awesome, now what?

Speaker C:

And so continued to work with students, continued to run programs, but kept having this thing molding around in the back of my head where I was, maybe that'd be cool.

Speaker C:

And like found myself looking up programs at night online.

Speaker C:

And I'm like, how could I, how could I do this?

Speaker C:

And eventually my wife just had to be like, just stop talking about it and take a class.

Speaker C:

And so at that time, being 27, married in junior college courses with a bunch of 18 year olds was like, super humiliating.

Speaker B:

Appreciate the honesty.

Speaker C:

Yeah, I was just, I was like, man, I don't remember what osmosis is.

Speaker C:

I don't know what the mitochondria is.

Speaker C:

Like, I put all this out of my mind.

Speaker C:

And so I'm like sitting there, like desperately trying to make sense of things, even at the most basic level that now I look back, like, man, I really didn't know anything.

Speaker C:

And then it just became one step in the same direction.

Speaker C:

Not really sure where I was going to land, but I, you know, continue the classes.

Speaker C:

And then my wife, surprised, became pregnant and I needed to take on a second job.

Speaker C:

And so ended up, for some reason, finding a job as a scribe in an er.

Speaker B:

Nice.

Speaker C:

And it was so.

Speaker C:

It was just kind of, okay, let's keep going.

Speaker C:

Let's keep thinking about this, let's keep trying things.

Speaker C:

And then next thing I know, I'm.

Speaker C:

I realized I qualified for a PA school.

Speaker C:

I sat down with, actually my uncle and he made me, like, go through every program.

Speaker C:

He's like, what do you qualify for?

Speaker C:

And we listed out all of them.

Speaker C:

He's like, you're going to apply to all these.

Speaker C:

So I applied to 22 schools.

Speaker B:

Oh, wow.

Speaker C:

They get 26 on my list.

Speaker C:

Got immediate rejections by 12 of them.

Speaker C:

The hardest one was, like, on my birthday, where I get this email from the school, and I'm like, oh, cool.

Speaker C:

And then it's like, you got rejected?

Speaker C:

Oh, no.

Speaker C:

You know, 30.

Speaker C:

Like, oh, God, what am I doing with my life?

Speaker C:

And then ended up getting into school.

Speaker C:

Our goal was to either be near family or we didn't care.

Speaker C:

And so I got into school near family and, you know, and went through PA school.

Speaker B:

Oh, my gosh.

Speaker B:

Okay, so wait, out of 22 applications, how many interviews did you get?

Speaker C:

I got four offers that I remember.

Speaker C:

I think I may have had other ones, but I accepted.

Speaker C:

I ended up going to Davis, and that was near family.

Speaker C:

And so once I accepted that, I stopped hearing from schools.

Speaker C:

I don't know how Castle works.

Speaker C:

You probably know how Castle works, but.

Speaker C:

Yeah, so I had a couple more offers, but I didn't want to fly to the east coast at that point.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

I mean, once you are happy with your choice, you know, let it be.

Speaker B:

Okay.

Speaker A:

So we.

Speaker B:

I mean, that is really interesting, and it is really great that you had support, Even though it was, you know, a little scary to make the change there.

Speaker B:

Going into PA school and especially, like, touching on having a family.

Speaker B:

You know, what were your expectations?

Speaker B:

What did you do to kind of prepare for that as somebody who's basically going back to school, you know, making a big life change after you've been kind of settled?

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

So I think the biggest thing that I.

Speaker C:

So, just to put it in context, I started PA School with one daughter and ended with three daughters.

Speaker B:

I love that.

Speaker C:

So going into it, like, my.

Speaker C:

My wife and I, we were on the same page.

Speaker C:

We knew what we were getting.

Speaker C:

We knew what we were getting into, but, like, we had a common vision together, and we're gonna work through this together.

Speaker C:

And just, you know, people say you treat it like a job.

Speaker C:

That was more of an easy adjustment for us because we've had jobs.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

So it's just kind of a.

Speaker C:

Okay.

Speaker C:

From this time to this time, every day, I'm working, and then I'm done.

Speaker C:

And so for my wife and I, being having that plan and knowing that Monday through Thursday or Monday through Friday, be in class.

Speaker C:

Saturday I study.

Speaker C:

Sundays I'd be off.

Speaker C:

And we were able to kind of consistently keep that schedule.

Speaker C:

Really worked well for us, learning how to.

Speaker C:

And we could get into this more, but, like, learning how to strategize my Study instead.

Speaker C:

Really, really, really, really hardcore boundaries on my time was a big factor.

Speaker C:

And I became pretty like I had this underlying philosophy that I started when I was in school was just that no program, career, school, job, anything should ever win in a battle against my marriage, my kids or my health.

Speaker C:

And so then all my decisions were based off of that, you know, which included then diet, exercise, time with my kids, time with my wife.

Speaker C:

I ended up the way I approached my study and strategies, my studies.

Speaker C:

I never studied at night and partly just because I found that it was useless for me.

Speaker C:

I was so tired by the time kids went to bed.

Speaker C:

So I was just like, okay, I'm gonna be up early.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

So preparation wise, I didn't know what I was getting into.

Speaker C:

I took the advice.

Speaker C:

People that were like, just chill, you know, it's going to be hard.

Speaker C:

Just, you know, in hindsight I'm like, I wish I had like developed more of a strategy and gotten some more resources lined up instead of just, you know, panic for a couple months.

Speaker C:

But I was able to figure it out.

Speaker B:

I mean, I think that's so normal though because it is a big adjustment and it's just different and.

Speaker B:

But I like that you didn't necessarily put life on hold, which I think is what a lot of people feel like they have to do.

Speaker B:

And I mean there's going to be sacrifice in the pre PA path and definitely in PA school.

Speaker B:

You know, there's gonna, something's gonna have to give at some point, but that doesn't mean everything.

Speaker B:

And it can be so easy.

Speaker B:

I found myself doing this, getting just PA school being all consuming.

Speaker B:

I mean if you let it consume all of your time and thoughts and effort, it 100% will.

Speaker B:

But that doesn't necessarily mean you do better.

Speaker B:

And I found the same thing once I actually started studying more effectively and less I did better because studying at 9 o' clock at night when I was exhausted, not really learning anything but going through the motions of study.

Speaker B:

So I think we had very similar experiences and kind of what that was like, what was the hardest class for you?

Speaker C:

My first thought was like the classes that we had to do that were medically based that I felt like were kind of a waste of time.

Speaker C:

Those weren't really hard.

Speaker C:

Those just I didn't enjoy.

Speaker C:

I think the hardest subject for me was renal.

Speaker C:

That was the one.

Speaker C:

And I, and I hadn't, I hadn't really figured out my strategy at that point.

Speaker C:

I think if I was to go back and do it with what I obviously with what I know, but, like, with how I would approach it, I might do better.

Speaker C:

But that was a test I walked away from.

Speaker C:

I'm like, well, I guess I'm not going to be a pa.

Speaker B:

Well, mine was definitely farm.

Speaker B:

Farm was so hard for me just trying to figure out how to learn that.

Speaker B:

And it was just so different.

Speaker B:

And without being able to, you know, apply it to real patients, it was just hard.

Speaker B:

So that was definitely my hardest.

Speaker B:

Well, I want to talk about studying, because you kind of alluded to it, but having a good study method, study strategy, time management, resources, like, all of those things are so important.

Speaker B:

And I think the sooner you pinpoint them as a PA student, the better for your academic and mental success.

Speaker B:

So what was your experience with kind of figuring out what worked best for you?

Speaker C:

So I knew going into school that I learned best writing things out and drawing same.

Speaker C:

And that's how I made it through anatomy and physiology.

Speaker C:

That's how I made it through micro, all those things.

Speaker C:

And so I was like, okay, I'll just do the same thing.

Speaker C:

But I got an iPad.

Speaker C:

Because I was like, I'll do it on this and I'll annotate notes and all these things.

Speaker C:

And I got really even with that.

Speaker C:

Like, I thought, like, oh, I'll just annotate slides and I'll review them.

Speaker C:

But like, I couldn't review.

Speaker C:

You know, at the end of the day, you have a thousand slides you've annotated.

Speaker C:

I'm like, I can't review this.

Speaker C:

This isn't helpful for me.

Speaker C:

And then I found, and this is the experience I've heard from a lot of students in PA schools, NP schools, medical schools, even nursing schools, is give a huge amount of content that's presented in a really disjointed way.

Speaker C:

And a lot of that, the challenge is you have expert lecturers coming in and teaching on their different things and their different passions.

Speaker C:

And you're sitting back like, I don't know how loop diuretics work.

Speaker C:

And I need to know how loop diuretics work.

Speaker C:

And you're telling me about this research 20 years down the road about this new thing that doesn't mean.

Speaker C:

So there's like a lot of anxiety that comes with it.

Speaker C:

And so for me, and I was class president, I met with the faculty and I said to them, hey, this needs to be more organized.

Speaker C:

What can we do?

Speaker C:

And one of the professors kind of rolled her eyes and he's like, well, we're not going to spoon feed you guys.

Speaker C:

And my response, I hope graciously Was, could you show us the table?

Speaker C:

Like, we don't need you to feed us, but we need you to show us how to start.

Speaker C:

And I'm giving a more roundabout answer to this, but it's something that I put a lot of thought into.

Speaker C:

As someone who's been a backpacking guy for a long time, I would never say to a group of students who had, for example, never been outside overnight before and be like, hey, we're going to just go climb the mountain.

Speaker C:

Good luck.

Speaker C:

Let's go start hiking.

Speaker C:

I would say, here's the map, here's the trail, here's where we're going to take breaks.

Speaker C:

Here's the strategy.

Speaker C:

Here are your tools.

Speaker C:

Like, kind of lead and guide them on this.

Speaker C:

And so then for myself, I made a guide.

Speaker C:

Like, I took what was the blueprint and made notebooks out of them.

Speaker C:

And so.

Speaker C:

And I've seen you post where you're like, I want to see your notes.

Speaker C:

So these are my notes, and you've.

Speaker B:

Posted yours on Instagram.

Speaker B:

I've seen them.

Speaker B:

I can't get rid of mine either.

Speaker C:

These are.

Speaker C:

This is gapping tape, which is kind of like duct tape.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

Paper I took from the school, my tuition money.

Speaker C:

So who knows?

Speaker B:

So you, like, literally made the book out of tape and paper.

Speaker C:

So I would sit down at the beginning of every section and take the blueprint.

Speaker C:

And this looks like chaos right now, but I would be like, okay, this is the blueprint.

Speaker C:

And make a table of contents and go through and number every one of these pages.

Speaker C:

So I do this, like, at night watching Netflix with my wife.

Speaker C:

And then I would sit down and I had one review book that I really liked.

Speaker C:

One or two video sources that I really liked that for me were really visual, gave me lots of drawings to recreate.

Speaker C:

I'll gladly endorse them if you want.

Speaker C:

I don't know if you want that, but I would, you know, spend the weekend before a section building this.

Speaker C:

This notebook out so that when I got to lecture, I had everything I needed to know.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

And I felt I went from, like, being, like, desperate and lost and confused to feeling like, oh, I'm really prepared and I feel really smart, like, to sit.

Speaker C:

I remember sitting in the hemonk lecture with.

Speaker C:

To me, hematologists are superheroes.

Speaker C:

Like, the way they can.

Speaker C:

They can process things.

Speaker C:

I'm just like, that.

Speaker C:

You're in a different world.

Speaker C:

But I was tracking with everything she was saying, and everyone else in my class was just, like, sitting back like this.

Speaker C:

And I was like, oh, no, it's just, it's this.

Speaker C:

It's right here.

Speaker C:

Like, I opened a blank page.

Speaker C:

But yeah, so I have, I don't have them all here because I want to hear them.

Speaker C:

I have 14 of these, plus, like a pants review.

Speaker B:

Wow.

Speaker C:

That I did.

Speaker C:

And I have, like, such an affinity for them.

Speaker C:

I would get so excited when people would ask me about them.

Speaker C:

I would have professors stop lectures and be like, oh, those are really cool.

Speaker C:

Like, I love your notes.

Speaker C:

I love it.

Speaker C:

And which just like built up this, like, ah, I'm doing something cool.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

Preceptors would, would take note of it.

Speaker C:

And what it did, what I realized is, like, I would finish cardiology and be like, this is it.

Speaker C:

I made this.

Speaker C:

I'm done with it.

Speaker C:

Wasn't just, I need to absorb this information, take a test and move on.

Speaker C:

It was I. I made this and then I put it in my stack.

Speaker C:

And then I would get excited about, like, okay, we're going endocrine.

Speaker C:

And I'd be like, oh, cool, I get to start a new book.

Speaker C:

So it created this sense of, in, like, hindsight, I'm like, oh, there's a lot of mental health to that.

Speaker C:

Of like, this is my project.

Speaker C:

I'm going to work on this project.

Speaker C:

Done with this project, it's time to move on.

Speaker C:

But also the process of, like, reviewing it and even the physical, like, flipping through the pages, getting to it, adding to my notes, making sense of it for myself, made this funnel.

Speaker B:

You kind of like, owned the information.

Speaker C:

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker B:

Took ownership of it.

Speaker C:

Exactly.

Speaker B:

But it sounds like, yeah, that's.

Speaker C:

That's entirely.

Speaker C:

Entirely what is.

Speaker C:

And you can tell, like, I get even before I started Quill, and we can talk about that.

Speaker C:

Like, I would just get excited about this.

Speaker C:

I would even show people, like, when they're going to school.

Speaker C:

I'm like, hey, this is what you need to do.

Speaker C:

Because they always ask, what do you do?

Speaker C:

I'm like, get this the work for you.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

And I think it may be hard for some people to understand, but I like, completely understand.

Speaker B:

Like, as you were talking, there were very specific lectures that came to mind that I remember sitting there going, why are we sitting here?

Speaker B:

Why is this a two hour lecture?

Speaker B:

I.

Speaker B:

This is over my head.

Speaker B:

I don't know what you're trying to get me to get out of this.

Speaker B:

And it was just, you know, frustrating as the student, because, like, you said, this, our tuition, we're paying for this.

Speaker B:

I don't want you to spoon feed me, but I need to know what's important And I need to know what's going to help me in the future and help me with patients and a two hour lecture on acid base is not it.

Speaker B:

So like, it just.

Speaker B:

I can like completely remember those moments.

Speaker B:

So I get what you're saying and it is interesting.

Speaker B:

So I.

Speaker B:

Were you a group study or at all or like.

Speaker B:

No,.

Speaker C:

I had one or two people I enjoyed studying with, but we didn't talk.

Speaker B:

Yeah, yeah, that was me.

Speaker B:

That was me and my like two best friends in the program.

Speaker B:

We would study together in the same geographical location, but we weren't talking about school.

Speaker B:

We were.

Speaker B:

Every once in a while it's like, you know, I have a question about this, but I don't, I don't want you trying to teach me stuff and I don't know it well enough to teach you yet.

Speaker B:

Some people, that's how they learn and that's great.

Speaker B:

But it's just interesting because I. I've been posting some of my study stuff on Instagram and I'll probably keep doing that, but I was a note taker before PA school and I just found I didn't have time to do as much as I wanted to with writing everything out.

Speaker B:

Um, so I kind of transitioned to mate learning how to make study guides on the computer.

Speaker B:

So taking kind of like you did like taking the information.

Speaker B:

What's important from the lectures, from all my resources, putting it together in the study guide.

Speaker B:

But the funny thing is I never actually use them to study.

Speaker B:

Like making it was my studying.

Speaker B:

And then I didn't really look at them.

Speaker B:

I just made it.

Speaker B:

And then I would do questions.

Speaker B:

But my classmates loved it because they used it.

Speaker B:

So we had this huge drive where we would share stuff.

Speaker B:

And that's the hard part about writing it too, is then it's harder to share.

Speaker B:

You want to copy a bunch of pages.

Speaker B:

I'm.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

Surrounded by my notes that I've been going through right now trying to decide what to keep.

Speaker B:

And I'm also very attached.

Speaker B:

I don't want to get rid of them.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

Even though the information will probably be outdated by the time I need it.

Speaker C:

Well, at the end of school, a lot of people would sell their textbooks to younger class.

Speaker C:

And I was like, I can't justify this.

Speaker C:

Like, here, take them for free.

Speaker C:

Like, I don't.

Speaker C:

These have no value to me.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

I would never.

Speaker B:

I got what I need.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

Like, a lot of my textbooks, they were booster seats for my kids.

Speaker B:

They weren't like, yeah, well, you just don't have time.

Speaker B:

Like in a Two week section or a four week section, you're not going to go through an entire textbook.

Speaker B:

Like, there's not time, unfortunately.

Speaker B:

I mean, it just doesn't work well.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

So tell me how.

Speaker B:

Because you have this resource that worked for you.

Speaker B:

Quick.

Speaker B:

Quill has come out of that.

Speaker B:

Tell us about kind of your mission there and that process a little bit.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

So you touched on it, the ownership of it.

Speaker C:

And that's exactly what I'm going for is the feeling like the problem that students face is every student wants to be an incredible clinician.

Speaker C:

The challenge is that you have this massive amount of information that's presented in a really disjointed way, which then makes you or any student feel anxious and unprepared.

Speaker C:

And to hear a student say, I don't feel like this school is preparing me for rotations.

Speaker C:

I feel like it's preparing me for the boards.

Speaker C:

I don't feel like it's preparing me for practice is a terrifying thing.

Speaker C:

And I think it's just plain wrong.

Speaker C:

For students who want to care for other people to be subjected to an education that makes them feel anxious in the process.

Speaker C:

It can be hard.

Speaker C:

Hard's not the challenge.

Speaker C:

But when people have the attitude like, well, I suffered through this, therefore you should suffer through this, it's just, you know, almost like, yeah, it's not, it's not helpful.

Speaker C:

So, so, and like, I believe, and this is from my experience as a backpacking guide, I think, I believe that every student who wants to care for other people in a clinical setting deserves a guide.

Speaker C:

And so that's what Quill was made out of.

Speaker C:

And so I have a couple examples here.

Speaker C:

I'll grab the GI one.

Speaker C:

Quill was, was based off my experience.

Speaker C:

So those notebooks.

Speaker C:

And it was made to be a guide for any student going through school so that they can feel like, empowered and motivated.

Speaker C:

It was made so they could strategize their learning and internalize their education and own it.

Speaker C:

So all that stuff, all of my experience then pointed towards this, where they made a book for every section and I'm working on other ones that I can talk about too.

Speaker C:

But you would, you'd get the book, go into GI system, you open it up, there's obviously a dedication page for you to dedicate all that hard work to someone, because God knows you're not doing this for yourself.

Speaker C:

You even write for my future.

Speaker C:

But there's a table of contents which is the total breakdown of this is just based off of pants.

Speaker C:

It works for.

Speaker C:

It works for the step Two, it works for the NP boards or the nclex, but then you get into the subsection and then every disease is just broken down by illness, script, pathology, patient diagnosis, treatment.

Speaker C:

There's space for pearls, there's space for drawings, references, lecture notes.

Speaker C:

And then this is, I think, almost more important is the space for your own illustrations, algorithms, stuff that's going to help you remember it.

Speaker C:

And so this then would go through the entirety of the GI system.

Speaker C:

And then at the end of every system, there's.

Speaker C:

A quick reference for medications based in that section.

Speaker C:

And then each medication is indication, metabolism, name, dose, side effects, mechanism, action.

Speaker C:

Perfect.

Speaker C:

I've worked on and I've made.

Speaker C:

This has been.

Speaker C:

This would have been good for you.

Speaker B:

Yeah, I would have definitely knew that.

Speaker B:

I have so many pharmacology charts.

Speaker B:

I have essentially made a book of like, and kind of similar.

Speaker B:

Here, I'll grab one and show you.

Speaker B:

But mine were typed up, but each drug had its own page.

Speaker C:

Yep.

Speaker C:

And that's exactly what this is.

Speaker B:

So I had each section, and then this is what it looked like, where it was the drug, name, the class, metabolism, mechanism of action, indications, and like, I have hundreds of these.

Speaker C:

And so that's what, that's what you get into.

Speaker C:

Same thing, but it's like every drug class you get into.

Speaker C:

And so I've had students buy individual books for sets and people have responded saying, like, I opened these up and I felt motivated, empowered.

Speaker C:

I felt like I could tackle medical school.

Speaker C:

I felt like I could tackle my dnp, my PA education.

Speaker C:

And to me, it's really exciting because I want to, like, I want to get ahead of that feeling that everyone talks about of just cure anxiety and stress when you're in school that then leads to a continued anxiety and stress when you're in practice and instead give people tools to own their, their own journey, to take charge of it, to own their education.

Speaker C:

Because I like said, I believe every student deserves a guide.

Speaker B:

Also, MPA school, you just don't.

Speaker B:

I feel like when you're in it, you don't have the energy or the time to be worried about everything.

Speaker B:

So anything that, like, saves time or makes your life easier is just so helpful.

Speaker B:

And for some people, you know, some people group studying is overwhelming.

Speaker B:

Some people making charts is overwhelming.

Speaker B:

So I think identifying how you study is really important.

Speaker B:

And then like, clinging to that, like, once you find it.

Speaker B:

Yeah, you know, go with that.

Speaker B:

You don't need to change it.

Speaker B:

You don't need to find something new.

Speaker B:

Like, if you're struggling.

Speaker B:

Okay, do something Different.

Speaker B:

But if something's working, then just keep doing that or finding ways to make it more effective or efficient.

Speaker B:

So that's what you've done.

Speaker B:

Like, you've kind of like taken away some of that stress of like, I don't really know what, where to start.

Speaker B:

Okay, here's where you start.

Speaker B:

Yeah, go from here.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

And I think a lot of the anxiety people feel is that like, comparison of, oh, well, this person used osmosis.

Speaker C:

They didn't better me.

Speaker C:

And I used online medit, so I didn't know.

Speaker C:

And I should probably be using boards and beyond and I didn't use picnomonic and oh my gosh, I need to do all these things and taking lectures and taking podcasts and like, and instead just being like, use one review book.

Speaker C:

For me, I would say use one review book, use one or two video resources, use these, you'll be good.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

And that's what.

Speaker B:

Yeah, it does feel like you need to do and use everything.

Speaker B:

And there's so much out there.

Speaker B:

And not like, honestly, none of that was even out there.

Speaker B:

When I was in school, we didn't have any of the video kind of stuff, which I think for pharmacology would have been really helpful.

Speaker B:

But no, I think it's, I think it's really cool.

Speaker B:

And I have said before, but I just love when I feel like PAs in general are like such go getters that, like, we see a problem, we want to fix it and we want to make things easier.

Speaker B:

We want to help each other.

Speaker B:

So I just love seeing other PAs doing that too.

Speaker B:

And really kind of, you know, trying to make the path a little smoother for others.

Speaker B:

Yeah, go ahead.

Speaker C:

I was just saying I think that would be, I think that would be great.

Speaker C:

I think it'd be great.

Speaker C:

What I've noticed with PAS is there's this, I think, because when I started putting it out there, I'm like, I'm going to put this out there and people are going to hate me because I just, I had pulled away from social media entirely prior to this.

Speaker C:

And what I found is people, their more responses, excitement and support.

Speaker C:

And I think a big part of it is like PAs still don't really have any cultural cachet.

Speaker C:

Like, even, even with COVID they're like, you know, the hospitals are overwhelmed and all these doctors and nurses are frontline workers and there's this cool new thing called a physician's assistant and you're just like, oh, come on.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

In a one on one basis.

Speaker C:

I think when people hear PA they're like, oh, cool.

Speaker C:

I respect that.

Speaker C:

But, you know, we don't have a huge.

Speaker C:

We don't have a lot of weight behind us.

Speaker B:

No.

Speaker C:

We don't have thousands of years of being a profession.

Speaker C:

And so I think people who are putting themselves out there generally are just like, let's just support each other and do our best.

Speaker B:

It's a fun little, Little community.

Speaker B:

Big, big world of social media, which can be not fun sometimes.

Speaker B:

So, yeah, it's fun.

Speaker C:

And you're just.

Speaker C:

You're just deeply positive and like, the stuff you post.

Speaker C:

I'm always just like, oh, this is just great.

Speaker B:

Oh, gosh.

Speaker B:

I try.

Speaker B:

That's why I always.

Speaker B:

That's my biggest concern is always that I'm going to, like, stress somebody out more or make them feel discouraged.

Speaker B:

That's like, I'm like, please don't, like, don't freak out.

Speaker C:

So I didn't.

Speaker C:

I didn't have.

Speaker C:

When I applied, I didn't know about any of these resources.

Speaker C:

I didn't.

Speaker C:

I didn't.

Speaker C:

I applied.

Speaker C:

I don't even know anymore a couple years ago, but.

Speaker C:

So I don't even know if you were doing your thing then.

Speaker C:

Um, but I also, like, had to hide it because my main job was not.

Speaker C:

Like, they, like, my boss knew that I was pursuing this, but it wasn't like I could be posting online and getting support and talking with people.

Speaker C:

I was just like, you know, I flew across the country to interview in the east coast and came back the next day and didn't tell anyone because I didn't want to get caught.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

And so I, you know, the.

Speaker C:

The amount of, like, help that I didn't have, I now, like.

Speaker C:

And I had a lot of free help, a lot of PAs that, yeah, were really supportive, but I definitely had to keep things really close to the chest.

Speaker C:

And so I think I get really excited when I see people who are applying to school or even are close to applying to school, and they're like, hey, I'm working towards being a pa.

Speaker C:

Here's my journey.

Speaker C:

I'm like, good for you.

Speaker C:

Yeah, share that.

Speaker C:

Put that out there.

Speaker B:

Yeah, that's what I mean.

Speaker B:

It's fun.

Speaker B:

And that's why I like being on that side.

Speaker B:

I get so excited whenever I get messages about acceptances, and I'm like, I am so thankful and happy that I'm someone you thought to share that with.

Speaker B:

Why we've never met, we've probably never spoken, but I'm so excited that I'm someone you wanted to tell that to.

Speaker B:

And so that's really cool.

Speaker B:

That's one of my favorite parts.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

I've had a couple people that I, like, supported and mentored come back around and tell me they got me.

Speaker C:

I'm like, what a cool, cool process to just.

Speaker C:

You're.

Speaker C:

You're able to just kind of jump on board and celebrate them in something that, like, it's completely life changing.

Speaker C:

Like, their life is.

Speaker C:

Their trip in life is going to go like this and you get to just bless them or not, or maybe.

Speaker B:

Like this and then this.

Speaker B:

But yeah, okay.

Speaker B:

Emotionally this, eventually you'll come back, you'll.

Speaker C:

Find that healthy balance of stress and anxiety and income and all those things.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

I spoke to my class last week.

Speaker B:

I did a lecture and I was like, y' all regretting this yet or are you good?

Speaker B:

Because they're about a month, two months in now, but it's overall a good thing.

Speaker B:

Well, yeah, I appreciate your insight so much and tell us kind of where people can learn more and follow you and, you know, find your notebooks and all that.

Speaker C:

So Instagram at Quill Notebooks.

Speaker B:

Okay.

Speaker C:

I started a TikTok and I have no idea what I'm doing.

Speaker C:

And I was.

Speaker C:

My cousin's a social media manager and she was like, you need to start TikTok.

Speaker C:

And I was like, no, I don't.

Speaker B:

Want,.

Speaker C:

But it's there.

Speaker C:

But mainly if you go to quill notebooks.com, it's the website, that's the best way to get in touch with me.

Speaker C:

That's the best way to buy the books.

Speaker C:

And I'm really, like, trying to build it, but also looking to the future of how not only, like, you have this didactic set, but what would be stuff that would benefit pre students going to, like, A and P or micro.

Speaker C:

I've designed and I'm working on a surgical set.

Speaker C:

So either, like, you want to be in surgery, here's like, the brunt of it, or you don't want to be in surgery, but you don't want to look like an idiot in your CT surgery rotation.

Speaker C:

Here's the CT surgery book.

Speaker C:

And the process of, like, doing this when an attending is talking and writing down things looks a lot better than pulling up a phone and looking like you're texting.

Speaker B:

100%.

Speaker B:

Yes.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

So I'm working on emergency medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine.

Speaker C:

But I want to be able to resource people before school, in school, and after school, because, like I said, I think everyone who wants to care for people deserves a guide.

Speaker C:

And I think students when they own their education, can internalize it and strategize it in a way that makes you feel empowered and motivated.

Speaker C:

So the main one would be Instagram, OOL Notebooks and Quill notebooks dot com.

Speaker B:

Got it.

Speaker B:

And all that will be in the description.

Speaker B:

And it helps that they look nice, too.

Speaker B:

So all good things?

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

Awesome.

Speaker B:

Well, thank you so much.

Speaker C:

You're very welcome.

Speaker C:

I'm so happy to be here.

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