She decelerated in PA school. She still graduated.

Taylor Anderson just finished her PA program, and her path through it wasn't the standard one. Anxiety hit her hard early on, and at some point she made the call to decelerate and stretch her didactic year out instead of pushing through and hoping it worked.

That decision is one nobody warns you about, and it carries a lot of shame that it does not deserve. Taylor is honest about the academic pressure, the emotional weight of it, and what finally helped. A big piece was asking for help from faculty and leaning on her classmates instead of hiding what was going on.

If you're struggling in a program right now, or worried you'll be the only one who does, listen to this.

What we cover:

• Taylor's experience with anxiety during PA school
• What decelerating actually means and how the decision got made
• Academic pressure in the didactic year
• Asking faculty for help and what support was available
• Leaning on classmates instead of isolating
• Finishing the program on a different timeline

Resources:

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

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

Pre-PA Academy: https://prepaclub.thepaplatform.com/landing/academy

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

Mentioned in this episode:

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Hello, everyone.

Today I'm speaking to a new grad PA who has a very interesting story and has volunteered to share how she kind of got overwhelmed by PA school and decelerated in her program to still finish successfully.

But you'll hear from Taylor in just a second.

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.

Hello.

I hope everyone is surviving this crazy Corona Covid stuff.

It seems like everything changes day by day and definitely week by week.

Don't really ever know what's coming.

So it is just a very wild time, especially to be in medicine right now.

We're not going to dwell on that too much because I know y' all are hearing from it everywhere.

I mean, I feel like I can't open social media or turn on the TV or Internet without hearing all about it.

So we're going to talk about other things today.

I'm Savannah, by the way.

I'm a dermatology pa.

I'm also, I don't know what to call myself, the founder of the PA platform, which is a blog for pre pas.

I've also recently gotten on TikTok.

If anyone's a big tiktoker, it is so much fun.

And if you're not, you should, because it's so much fun.

And for whatever reason, I'm Savannah Perry on there, but if you want to find me, I would love to let you laugh at my ridiculous videos and follow you back.

So, yeah, it's been a lot of fun.

Obviously, quarantine has made me even stranger.

But before we jump into today's interview, I do want to mention our sponsors.

The number one sponsor being mypa Resource, which is a personal statement editing service.

CASPA is opening soon, in about a month, I guess less than a month now.

So that means it's time.

You know, if you've got some extra time on your hands, you should be working on your essay.

That's a great thing to do.

Right now, my PA Resource only uses physician assistants to edit the essays for PA School, and I am one of the editors.

You can use the Code futurepa for a discount on their services.

And then once you get accepted to PA School, if you're looking for something to kind of refresh your knowledge, check out PA School Prep, which has a review in anatomy, physiology and med terms.

Again, you can use the Code Future PA for anything there, as well as on the PA Platform website.

One thing I need to mention about the PA platform.

So we have a book, I don't know if anyone knows about this.

It's called the PA School Interview Guide.

I did that a couple of years ago and it was kind of a.

What did he say?

Accumulation of all of my interview tips and we go kind of question by question.

But anyway, so that is available on the website.

If you go to the pa platform.com book due to Amazon increasing prices, because that's who I publish through, and shipping prices increasing, that book will be going up in price just by a couple of dollars within the next couple of weeks.

So if that's something you're planning on getting for this cycle, I just want to give you a heads up to go ahead and get it.

And you can use that code future PA on the PA Platform website.

It's also available on Amazon with prime shipping and those links will be in the description.

But yeah, just be on the lookout for that.

And so now we'll jump into hearing from Taylor.

So Taylor agreed to do.

Well, she actually reached out to me, I think, to do this interview and she has an interesting story because I feel like we all deal with anxiety throughout the process of becoming a pa, but we don't ever really touch on what happens once you get to PA school when it's even harder and there's even more going on.

So she's sharing her story of how she was able to kind of adjust, realize where she was struggling and make some corrections to successfully complete PA school.

And I think you're really going to enjoy this.

And this is something we've had requests for lately.

All right, we'll jump in and I will talk to you guys later.

Okay.

My name is Taylor Anderson.

I went to PA school at the University of Tennessee Health Science center in Memphis.

I did my clinical rotations in Nashville.

I graduated in December, took my pants in December and passed.

I was a publicist for five years in LA and then for a year in Chicago and then realized that I didn't really want to be a publicist.

I was good at it, but I didn't like doing it.

So I ended up flying home.

My parents are both in medicine.

My dad's physician and had lunch with my dad and he was like, he could do anything in the world.

Don't think about school, time, money, etc.

What would it be?

And I Said, well, it's always good medicine.

I wanted to be a doctor since I was like 5, but thought I wasn't smart enough because I was a high level gymnast.

So I was doing a lot of gymnastics outside of school and science didn't come naturally.

And he was like, oh, well, if that's what you want to do, let's do it.

And so I was in my, like late 20s at that time, like mid to late 20s at that time.

So I ended up 100% being like, okay, well, pa school is the thing.

I wanted to be able to not wait until I was 40 to be able to practice medicine.

So I think that weekend I was like printing out information about PA programs in Chicago.

And I had enrolled in my first two of nine prereqs I had to take because I only took one science in undergrad and it was meteorology.

Not too helpful for peace.

Okay, so there's a lot to kind of unpack there.

And you've been all over the place, which is awesome.

Okay, so.

So it sounds like the career change for you wasn't, wasn't a big deal because you were moving into something you really wanted to do.

But was that scary at all to leave a stable job and.

Yeah, it was definitely scary.

Especially I'd been out of school for like five or six years since I'd been in undergrad.

So I mean, just going back to having to learn to study.

So kind of just having to get back into that student mindset and having to just remember things that I had learned so many years ago.

Especially even preparing for the green where I was like, okay, I'm learning this geometry stuff that I learned when I was 14 and I'm 27.

Like, I don't remember any of this stuff now.

It's a big, big refresher.

Yeah.

And then, I mean, also going to, from not having a job too, because it was pretty hard for me to find clinical experience opportunities when I had really no background.

So, I mean, I was lucky in that I was a pretty freaking flyer at my PT place.

So they were able to hire me as a rehab assistant for a bit.

And then after I applied to PA school.

And once I was able to be a cna, then I was able to get that more.

I did a six to eight week volunteer stint in Africa, working in a local hospital in Tanzania.

And I think all of those things kind of like bumped me up a little bit in terms of getting the patient care stuff.

Okay.

Do you think the patient care is what held you back from getting accepted the first time?

Oh, definitely.

Okay.

Yeah.

Because my grades were really good.

I was one.

I realized once I am just focusing on science classes, I can handle the science classes.

So I was doing really well in those classes and my GPA was good.

It was just that I was lacking on the patient experience hour, patient care hours.

And then also going to Africa gave me a much better framework for my personal statement and I think that kind of helped me get in the door a little bit.

I talked to someone who, I don't even remember what company it was, someone who was just talking to me about what I should have my essay be about.

And I kind of just pitched him my first two days in Africa and he was like, that's your essay.

They're going to read that and they're going to say, I want to meet that girl.

It's going to make you like stand apart from everyone.

And I, I think that that really did help because there were schools where I didn't even get an interview the first time around.

And I got many more interviews the second time.

That's awesome.

So what did that application process look like as far as how many schools you applied to, how you chose those schools?

The first time around I applied to like 10, I think.

And the second time around I had a list of like 25.

I had a really extensive Google Doc or not Google Doc, an Excel doc that had each school where it was located, what was required of me, like what prereqs, what essays, what dates everything was due by.

And then I would add in when I completed each thing and then what day it was received, what day I got a response back saying I was verified, what day I got interview decision whether it was positive or negative.

And same with what day I did interview and then acceptance are being declined.

But so keeping that organization was helpful, especially the second time around when I had a lot of schools.

But I basically went through like the Casper, like math, I guess.

Yeah.

And found any city that I'd be willing to live in for two to three years, any place that wasn't too far away from an airport.

So I capped it kind of an hour away from an airport.

And any place that took community college credits, because I know that there were some schools, I think Tufts was one that didn't.

And then schools that I didn't meet the prereqs.

There were a few in Chicago that had weird ones like college algebra.

And I was like, I'm not going back and taking college algebra.

Or like USC that has three years of college level Spanish and I took Italian in college.

So that did not help me.

So kind of just filtering it down by that, where, where I'd be willing to live, who would actually accept what I have done and what additional steps I had to take.

Okay, so in the interview process, did your background as a publicist come up?

Like, was that seen as a benefit or like, were they questioning your motives for changing careers?

No, I think that it, it was a benefit.

I think people are a lot more open to non traditional students now than they have been in.

And I think it really shows, especially when you're older, that you're really committed to this and you really want to do it.

And I'm not just doing it because my parents told me to, because I started undergrad pre med and decided not to go to med school or something like that.

This is definitely a decision that I made.

And I was willing to take the pay cut, take the extra money I had to shell out to go to community college and things like that.

I think it made it seem like I was a lot more serious about it.

And I think they also appreciated the maturity that I had in terms of having worked in an actual, like office setting where, especially in pr, where it's, it's very team based.

So it's very similar to how it is when you're a pa, having everything be very collaborative and stuff like that.

And honestly think that people were a lot more excited about my Africa stuff.

That ended up being a lot more of a discussion.

But I mean, honestly, in my UT interview, the first thing that I was asked before I even sat down was, why would you ever move from Southern California to Chicago?

And my response verbatim was, ask me a better question.

That's really the first question you're gonna ask me.

And my, the head of admissions, I told his wife this after the end of my didactic year.

And she was like, oh, that 100% was when you were accepted, like within that first sentence.

And I was like, I mean, they were looking for fit at this point, so.

So, yeah, they saw my personality.

So I guess being like just myself was helpful.

Not being hand dancers, all that kind of stuff.

Yeah, just talking like you normally.

Yeah.

Okay.

So.

How many schools did you end up interviewing at and how many did you get accepted to?

Oh, you can like.

I can't even remember.

I mean, the first time around, I know I interviewed at 2, and I was actually maybe 3.

Getting interviewed at 2 or 3, and I was wait listed at 1.

And then the second time around, did an interview in Chicago.

I did my UT interview.

I interviewed Penn State.

And then actually when I was at my Penn State interview on my.

Actually in the Uber on the way to my Penn State interview, I found out that I got hsc.

So I was like, oh, great, this is the best way to go into an interview, because I was literally getting dropped at the airport.

And I was like, this is no pressure.

This is amazing.

And then when I came out of my Penn State interview, I had probably five or six interview offers, and a lot of them I declined just based on timing.

I interviewed at UT in late October.

This is before they went to just like one standard time frame for when they accept applications and when they do interviews.

When I applied, it was rolling.

And so I entered.

I was the last interview slot at uthsc and I found out in like late October.

And I got a lot of interview opportun for mid to late December.

And I didn't feel comfortable taking those and foregoing an acceptance, so I ended up declining all of my interviews after that.

And so I think I got about five after that.

So I think I got like.

I think I also got some interview offers once.

I already started PA school.

So you got accepted in October and started in January?

Yeah.

Okay, cool.

That's what.

So the January start dates mess up a lot of people because sometimes you apply like a year and a half ahead, and sometimes it's like that where you start right away.

So you kind of had to like, pick up, move to Memphis.

Get ready.

Yeah, yeah.

It was very fast.

I think that I told the nursing home that I was working at, like a week later.

I was like, okay, I have to get my two weeks now.

And right away was flying to Memphis to go look at apartments and stuff so that I could do it all before the holidays.

Those holidays really get you?

Yeah.

Oh, for sure.

Okay, that's awesome.

Okay, so.

So tell us, give us a little breakdown of what happened once you started PA school.

What'd that look like?

Okay, so when I started PA school, I was very overwhelmed from the get go.

I was told I would be in advance.

Our orientation day was kind of, we were told that classic trope of it's going to be like drinking water from a fire hose.

And it very much was the case for me in that sense, especially in my more conceptual science classes like phys and pharm and specifically phys.

I'm one of those people where I'm very linear.

So my clinical medicine classes were a lot easier for me because it's like, okay, symptom, diagnostics, results, treatment, boom, like, step, step, step.

Okay, I'm able to do that.

But things were kind of bigger picture or things that I couldn't really just understand it on a more base, not basic, but on a more, like, practical level.

That was definitely more difficult for me.

So his specifically was where this was an issue.

And it was very frustrating on my end, on my professor's end, on faculty's end, on my tutor's end, because I was doing everything they asked of me and more.

I was studying a ton.

I was foregoing sleep, food, workouts, personal life.

I was doing outside tutoring as a group.

I was doing.

I was paying for tutoring on my own.

I was asking for help from my professors.

And I was.

What was most frustrating was I was able to verbalize every concept.

So everyone was very confident in how I was going to do when I took a test.

And then I would take an exam and I'd fail.

And I never really failed at anything in my life.

I was really shocked that this was the case.

I'm a super type, a former competitive gymnast.

Like, I mean, failure is not really a thing in my vocabulary, but I was failing my exams.

And a lot of it was that I was having issues with how much time I had for tests.

I was having issues with being able to see people get up and be done and getting extremely anxious and wasting a lot of time being anxious.

And I mean, I was able to do verbal remediations and I was able to explain everything.

And the professors and my program director were like, okay, well, if this had been the exam, you would have been getting a B wouldn't have been failing.

And so that was just a really frustrating place to be.

And I kind of just barely ended up passing Fizz.

And at that point, it was spring break, and I just so emotionally, mentally, physically, just kind of down that I was kind of in this hole that I couldn't really climb out of.

And we were going into anatomy and uthsc, it's cadaver lab too.

So it was about, like, Four to five hours, three days a week.

And I was already kind of in this, like, low place where I wasn't running at my optimum level.

And so I didn't pass a single practical exam, partially because we had two minutes per tag on cadavers.

And I spent 90 seconds of that freaking out and panicking and not even being able to really answer most of the time.

So leading into my last anatomy test, it was.

We had a break from Memorial Day, right, like two weeks before my first semester was going to end.

And our anatomy professor, who did everything through the College of Medicine because that's what the programs in at UT told me, that mathematically there was no way that I was going to be able to pass the course and there was no way that I'd be able to go on second semester.

I didn't even know that was a thing.

I honestly didn't.

I'd never heard of deceleration, didn't know it was an option.

No one had mentioned it to me.

I thought, oh, well, my faculty would have brought this up if it was a concern.

No one did.

And so I, like, ran to our PA building and was hysterically crying in the faculty offices and was talking to my program director about it, who was also my advisor.

And we were in the process of kind of figuring out if I could.

If we could fight to get the one extra point I would have needed to have passed anatomy, but you need a3.0 to be able to go into clinical year.

And he was saying that just.

He didn't think that it was going to be in my best interest to have that much pressure on me.

And I 100% agreed.

And so he ended up talking to the College of Medicine, and we came to the conclusion that I would decelerate, I would finish my first semester.

So I still had, like, two finals to take or something like neurology and something else.

And I was going to take anatomy with the CRNA class, which was not a dissection lab.

It was just a lecture lab with the preset with a prosector cadaver.

And.

And then I was going to do, like, a lot, a lot of counseling with Student Academic Services, which ended up being the best thing I could have done.

It was really sad.

I was not happy having to make the decision.

It was a very emotional time for me.

It was really hard seeing my friends go into second semester and me not do it, not being included in a lot of stuff within my class and being in Memphis and being like, okay, cool, I'm not near any family.

I don't have any friends outside this program.

I mean, I ended up making great friends within the CRNA class and they're amazing.

So that was so fortunate for me.

They kind of took me in and I ended up doing very well in CRNA Anatomy.

I think that my background at the community college I went to wasn't the greatest for anatomy.

So I didn't really have a ton to work with.

But also when I was doing all my stuff with Student Academic Services, I realized that I had really bad test anxiety.

And coming from a more humanities based writing background, I was used to having a ton of essay exams.

So I didn't really notice that I ever had issues with test taking because everything was kind of short answer essays, all that kind of stuff.

So I also have generalized anxiety disorder.

So between those two things I was able to apply to get extra time.

So I did one and a half time for all exams and I was able to take my exams kind of in like a little cubicle in Student Academic Services.

And when I started with the next cohort I had to take any class that I didn't get a like solid B or higher end.

So that was like one section of pharm.

One of the three sections of FSB did hematology and anatomy.

And so not having to take all the classes was really nice for me.

I was able to make sure that I was sleeping more and working out and eating and having a life and all of that kind of stuff and that that helped a lot more for when I came back the second time around.

And I mean going from like not ever passing a practical exam.

I was mad when I didn't get an A on my last one the second time around for anatomy.

So my grades skyrocketed.

It was like a night and day difference.

And so I think that was a big deal for the faculty who was like, okay, we're, we're putting the pressure on you, like you need to deliver if we're going to give this opportunity to you.

And it ended up working for the best.

And then my second semester of my second didactic year, I ended up getting like the highest GPA of my life because most of it was all clinical classes and doing really well in phys and farm and all these things that I didn't think that I was going to do that well in before and getting 100% on exams and getting the highest grade in the class on things and being kind of shocked at my performance.

So I think it helped my, my confidence a ton going into clinical year Too.

But that's my saga.

Yeah.

So PA school, I mean, it is difficult to explain exactly how hard it is until you're in it.

And I think part of it is the material.

Part of it's all the material all at once.

Part of it is just how quickly things move and it's on a whole new level.

So that's kind of at the anatomy level.

Like people.

And I'm kind of talking and like one of my best friends who is my medical assistant is in PA school now.

And she was funny because before she started she was like, if one more person tells me it's me, drink.

Like drinking out of a fire hose.

Like I cannot hear that one more time.

And then like two weeks in she was like, I understand now.

Like this is not like anything I've ever done before.

And like the anatomy, the graduate level anatomy is so different than.

Yeah.

I mean I explained it as like the structures have structures and those structures have structures.

Yeah, exactly.

Have a function and like you have to know all of it.

And it's just so fun fast.

Like even talking to med students, they had so much more time doing anatomy and that was kind of their sole focus, I think that they didn't have like a lot of other classes, whereas we were taking like five other classes at the same time and condensing everything into a much shorter period of time.

So it's having to know the same amount of material, doing it faster, and having a lot more that you're doing concurrently.

And I think that that's something that no one really prepares you for.

And people can tell you that until you're blue in the face, but until you're actually experiencing it, you really don't understand the magnitude.

Right.

And that's what it comes down to.

And you're, I mean, surrounded by people who are in the same situation and kind of everyone's trying to make it, but also trying to not freak out.

And it's a lot.

I, I mean I tend to be probably err on the side of being an anxious person, which I think has gotten better with time, surprisingly, for some reason.

But I kind of thinking back, I would say my experience was kind of similar, but I experienced that in my undergrad chemistry at UGA.

I was in a 300 person class.

Our tests were on a computer and they would essentially you'd answer your questions and then you'd submit your test.

It was all timed and it would pop up.

And the ones you got wrong were red and the ones you got right were green.

And then you got to retry the red ones for, like, 75%.

Yeah.

And then you got to do it again for half credit.

And so, I mean, for me, I mean, I.

Those days of tests, like, I could not eat.

I was, like, shaking before I went in.

I left every test crying.

Like, that was not good for me.

And looking back, I'm kind of like, if I just hadn't have been so stressed out about it and so worried, would I have actually done better, like, now if I went, like, would it actually be interesting?

And I would learn it, because my husband, he loves chemistry.

Like, he thinks it's so interesting, whereas I'm like, I just don't.

I feel like my dad was like that, too.

And I'm always like, who are you?

Right.

What a weird person are you?

Like, people talk me, they're a chem major.

And I'm like, why?

But for those people, good for you.

Yeah, if you're a chem major, Mazel tov.

No.

And so, yeah, so I actually failed my first farm test, which we had to have a 75 to pass.

And I got, like, a 74 or 73.

Yeah, it was, like, super close, but it was.

It was very eye opening because also, being a type A person, I'm sitting there going, what did I do wrong?

What can I fix?

Why did this happen?

But it's.

It's kind of disheartening to be in that position because you are used to doing really well, and then, yeah, you're.

You're doing this thing that you're actually passionate about and really excited about.

And so to.

To feel like you're not doing it as well as you should be is kind of.

It's difficult.

I think that's also why I was fairly verbal about my struggles when I was in PA school, because there would be exams where other people would fail too.

And I wanted to let them know that, like, it wasn't just them.

Like, it's me too.

Or even exams where, like, in clinical medicine courses where I did well and, like, one of my friends would fail.

I was like, okay, well, let's, like, figure out, like, do you want me to study with you?

Like, I'll help you prepare for, like, through mediation.

I'll help you prepare for the next test.

Like, let's figure out, like, what went wrong and.

Because I didn't want people to think that it's just.

Just them because I've been that person and it.

It sucks.

It's not a fun position to be in.

So kind of knowing that it's not just you.

And that everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses.

Like, things that I thought were so easy were very difficult for other people, and things that I thought were horrifically difficult just came so naturally to other people.

So, I mean, once you.

Especially in my program where it's not competitive because we're not ranked or anything, once everyone kind of realized that, like, you just need to pass to graduate, I think people kind of dropped their guard a little bit and kind of dropped any air of, oh, I can totally handle this.

You got a lot more real, and it bonds you as a cohort, and it bonds you with your friends.

And it's helpful to know that other people are struggling, too, and it's not just you.

And.

And then also, like, learning, being told from the beginning from the tutor we had who is one of the smartest people I know.

He actually runs a medical review podcast and, like, genius level human being.

Having him tell me in the beginning, oh, you need to take at least one day off a week and, like, not study and do anything.

And I looked at him like he had five heads.

I was like, are you on drugs?

Like, what is going on?

And so my first time around, I didn't do that at all.

And I was so burnt out so quickly that I wasn't retaining anything.

I was staying up super late, but I wasn't retaining anything.

And so the second time around, I really made the concerted effort to have at least a day that was just for me, even if it was like, I just watched Netflix in my apartment or something and, like, had a glass of wine, that was fine for me as long as I wasn't studying.

And then I also decided to not study in my apartment.

And I think that was a really, really monumental change for me because I was no longer stressed in my sleeping environment, and it helped me sleep a lot better.

And so when I got to my apartment, that was where I could just chill and relax, as opposed to, that's also where I study.

That's also where I stress out.

So having it be like, when I come home, it's done, as opposed to, I have more to do when I come home was a big change I made from my first time around to my second, and it was definitely for the better.

Those are really good tips.

How many people are in your class?

We started with 30 and we graduated with 29.

Okay, so that's a pretty small class.

Yeah, it's a small class.

So you know everybody.

Everybody knows you.

Yeah.

My faculty was a super familial Atmosphere, I mean, very Southern.

And they.

They knew I didn't have any family nearby.

And they were one of those programs where when they say it's an open door policy, like it is literal.

If the door is open, you can come in.

And I did that many, many times.

Sometimes just for validation, sometimes to cry, and sometimes, like, just because I wanted to talk to somebody.

And also, like, when you don't have any family, they're your surrogate family.

So I mean, I cried when I left to go to my clinical year because my clinicals were in Nashville, and that's like a three and a half hour drive away from Memphis.

And I was just like, oh, my gosh, what am I going to do with that?

These people here all the time for me.

Um, and I mean, saying goodbye when I graduated was.

Was hard too, just because these are the people that have seen you at your highest high and your lowest low, and now you finally have achieved something and you're leaving that in that comfort zone.

So, I mean, I think that's something that people should really consider when they interview at programs, kind of seeing what that dynamic is like with faculty.

Because I definitely wouldn't have been able to make it through without having my faculty be as supportive as they were and having them really tell me how much they believed in me.

And when I just wanted validation for doing well, they were like, well, we knew you would.

Which is, like, the most frustrating thing to hear, because my dad would do that too.

Yeah, well, we expected you to do well.

And I was like, well, what happened if I hadn't done well, you expected me to do and I didn't do well.

Yeah, but I mean, once you do well, it's nice to have people say they expected it.

Yeah.

I had a great advisor who I just like.

Like that I would just go talk to her.

Like, I just really liked her.

And I thought I respected her and respected her advice and felt like I could talk to her at any time.

And that was very, very important to me as well.

Yeah.

I never felt like I was a burden.

Right.

And that I think is important to not feel like you're a burden.

Yeah.

I mean, yeah, for the most part.

I hear that about programs, but sometimes you hear the.

Hear the opposite.

Yeah.

So at any point, did you think about just giving up, or was that not an option?

No, because this is already my plan B career.

And I remember telling my parents, like, there's no plan C. So if this doesn't work, then, like, I have honestly no idea what I'm Doing next.

So not having it work out is not an option.

So I think that being able to get a lot of the, the mental aspect out of the way in that semester that I took off just because I only was taking one class.

I think it was like two days a week for like two hours or something.

So having such little class time that I actually had to spend meant that I was going to like, Student Academic Services like three to four times a week with my counselor.

And I did EMDR for like, the PTSD basically that I experienced from my first semester PA school and all of the pressure that was on me and to kind of just like develop better coping skills to handle that anxiety, to handle that pressure.

And kind of continuing that into my next, my next didactic year.

And then also my next didactic year, I found like two really great friends where we figured out the best way to study together, even if it wasn't talking, it was having that accountability of, hey, we're going to meet at this place at this time and we're going to get this much done and we're going to go over this lecture by ourselves and in an hour we're going to discuss it.

And we would make up like the weirdest, like, stories to remember stuff where they took their exams in Student Academic services too.

And like, we'd get to.

We both.

I would tell when they would get to other questions because I kind of hear them, like, sort of giggle and I would do the same thing.

I'd be like, oh, my gosh, I remember the story.

Like, I know the answer before I even finish the question.

So it was nice to kind of like, share in those dictatories with your friends too.

Yeah, for sure.

How did these, this experience translate into clinical year?

I. I knew kind of, and I'd been told a lot that like, clinical year was where I was going to shine, just because I'm a talker, I'm a people person, that kind of thing.

But I didn't, I guess I didn't really know the magnitude of it until I was in it.

My first year was rough.

I failed my first eor, but I think a lot of that was.

I just didn't really understand what to expect out of ERs, I think not really talking to anyone near above me about what the ers entailed because we took the PAEA ones, not really knowing that it was a lot of like, secondary and tertiary type of questions.

Some of that are very difficult.

We did right after I graduated, praise the Lord.

But yeah, I've heard that they are.

They're tough.

But also finding the right resources that was helpful and not over resourcing because I think I kind of did that a little bit in Didactic.

I over resourced a bit, but I think I. I really learned how to figure out through the NCAA and the ncpa.

Sorry, I've been watching a lot of NCAA things with like all the cancellations and stuff.

I'm a big NCAA gymnastics fan and like, they canceled the season and I canceled everything.

Yeah.

So that through going through the NCCPA blueprint and being able to kind of pick out what stuff I basically felt comfortable with and what stuff I didn't feel comfortable with, knowing in my downtime that I could ask my preceptors.

That was nice.

And in Nashville, that's.

It's different than the other locations that my program does because we're the only state run PA program in Tennessee.

So they have people in Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga, so we kind of have visibility throughout the state.

Nashville is the only one where you are primarily outpatient and you're almost always the only student.

So I felt very comfortable asking questions and being able to discuss topics with my preceptors and learning how to kind of study on the fly, like whenever you have spare moment, study that kind of thing.

But also kind of just translating what you see every day into what you see in test questions.

And I mean, that helps me a lot in pants as well.

But I think having a really good second go around of the diadem to cure gave me that confidence to be like, okay, I am smart enough.

I feel like I don't remember anything, but I'm capable of learning it.

And then having preceptors ask me questions and me answer them correctly before I really, like, processed what the question was, I'd be like, where did that come from?

From like, okay, like, I know things like, this is cool.

Hopefully it sticks.

Mine's all gone.

Yeah, that's what I'm hoping.

Yeah.

So what was your favorite and least favorite rotation?

My favorite rotation was peds.

Hand down.

Hands down.

A close second was outpatient neurology.

But I'm looking for jobs in peds.

So if anyone lives in Chicago and they want to hire a peds pa, I'm here.

I loved outpatient peds.

I love developmental milestones.

I think kids think I'm one of them.

Like, I'm barely five feet tall, and in clinic I wear glasses, so I think that they can, like, see the reflection too.

So they're big fans.

I mean, that Two to three year old boy age range.

Like they loved me, so they're my, my biggest fans.

I just like really enjoyed my outpatient peds rotation.

I think having a great preceptor for that was awesome.

Least favorite.

I didn't, I wasn't a huge fan of my ER rotation.

I didn't get to see a ton.

And when I did my night shifts, I was with the PA who really didn't want students.

And I understood that vibe very quickly.

There were days where she didn't acknowledge me for like two to three hours.

I didn't have access to their emr, so she would go see patients and I wouldn't know what room she was going to.

I wasn't able to see labs, I wasn't able to see, see films, I wasn't able to see anything.

So I was kind of like a glorified scribe for a day or two.

And so like my third day going into it, I mean, she'd asked me to go home early a lot and I was like, no, you never know what you'll see, so I'll stay until I'm supposed to stay.

And I made sure I left after her every day.

I didn't want her to kind of have that be something she could say I did wrong or something like that.

But my, like last day and nights with her, I went to a physician and I asked him if I can just be with them for the night.

And so I think that that taught me like, you really need to advocate for your own education.

I'm paying to be there.

I was paying an out of state tuition to be there.

I deserve to learn.

And that's not an outrageous request.

So I think kind of being respectful, but also knowing like that this is something that you need.

I mean, it also kind of sucked that I was in like super rural er, so I didn't really see much anyway.

And it was like in February, so it was the height of like flu season.

That kind of didn't help either.

But I think being able to like learn that I could, I could manage to be respectful without compromising my education was, was ideal.

I also just like, I don't like inpatient medicine, so I love my second internal medicine rotation.

Even though Vanderbilt's great.

Loved being in Vanderbilt, loved the PAs I was with, but there just wasn't a ton to see.

We were kind of a step down unit from the er, so it was a lot of like fairly basic stuff or people just in a bed waiting to get admitted.

So I didn't really get to do much a lot of those days.

But again, I took that opportunity to find one of the docs in most of the IR stuff and told her if she ever had cool procedures to come find me.

And if I was sitting in a specific room, it meant I wasn't seeing patients.

So grab me and I'll go do stuff with you.

And I got to do a lot more stuff than I anticipated as a result.

And then I loved my outpatient neuro elective.

My preceptor was only a couple of years older than me, so he kind of just, like, treated me like a little sister and just made fun of me the whole time.

But that made it really fun.

And it was one of those things where I, again, didn't really know how much I retained until we were talking about it.

And it didn't feel like learning because we were enjoying ourselves so much and we were joking and I was having a blast and having fun with the patients.

And so, I mean, those kinds of rotations where you kind of just feel at home are ideal, in my opinion.

Oh, I agree.

So much of it is where you're at and who you're with.

And, I mean, that can make or break a rotation for sure.

So.

Yeah, no, that.

That's awesome.

Well, hopefully you find your dream peach job.

I mean, this is, like, the worst time, I feel like, to be trying to find jobs.

I have really bad timing.

I graduated from college at the height of the economic decline, and, like, now COVID 19 is here to ruin my life.

So maybe.

And everybody else is ruined.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, where can everyone find you?

And kind of follow along if you.

So @taylor anderson87 on Instagram and then @t anderson87 on Twitter, and then also I did a podcast in late December with my program director for his podcast, which is called Pain Podcast, and that kind of goes more in depth with, like, clinical year and all that kind of stuff.

And that was right before I took pants.

So that's always a good one to listen to.

And he's also an amazing resource.

So, yeah, between him and, like, my good friend who has a podcast called Ian Board, Ian Bored Bombs, follow.

It seems Blake Briggs finishing residency with Forest Shout out to him.

Those were, like, such great resources.

And then obviously, like, Smarty pants and you, I listened to you a ton in the car, so it was, like, very helpful to be able to have those kinds of resources to listen to when you're commuting, because it's a deal.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, I'll link to all of that in the description.

So everybody can.

Great to find those resources.

Well, thank you so much.

And if any pre PAS or PA students ever have questions, like shoot me a dm.

I'm totally responsive to anything.

And I mean, you can ask people who are in my current PA programs second year class, I would spend like two hours on the phone with people before interviews just telling them about the program because I just enjoyed it that much.

So.

Yeah, Let me know if you guys have any questions and I'd be happy to talk about things in more detail.

I'm sure they will.

No worries.

Clearly I'm a chatter, so.

Yeah, no.

No worries there.

Yeah.

Okay, I'll stop the official recording.

No, you'll get question.