Buying for a pre-PA, a PA student, or a working PA? Send this to whoever keeps asking what you want.

This is my 2021 gift guide, split by where someone is in the journey. Applicants need different things than students, and students need different things than a PA who has been in clinic for five years.

The practical stuff always wins. Good shoes. A blood pressure cuff that isn't garbage. Coffee. Anything that saves time. And for someone in the thick of applications or didactic year, a resource that actually helps them move forward beats another mug.

I also talk about building small themed baskets, which is my favorite move when you don't want to spend a lot but want it to feel personal.

What I cover:

• Gifts for pre-PAs still in the application grind
• Gifts for PA students surviving didactic and clinical year
• Gifts for practicing PAs
• Practical picks versus the fun ones
• How to build a themed gift basket cheaply
• Ideas that work all year, not just in December

Resources:

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

Personal Statement Guide: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-school-personal-statement-guide

PA School Interview Guide: https://www.thepaplatform.com/physician-assistant-school-interview-guide

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

Mentioned in this episode:

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Hello.

Welcome to the Pre PA Club Podcast.

This week we have a fun episode talking about gifts for all of the Pre Pa students and PAs in your life.

And if that is you, feel free to forward this episode to the people who love you.

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.

Today will be a solo episode and since it's been a while since I've done a real introduction, I figured this might be a good time to do it as we get towards the end of the year.

But I am Savannah Perry.

I am a dermatology pa.

I attended the University of Georgia for undergrad.

I was a biology major and then I went straight into PA School at Augusta University.

My program was 27 months, came out and went straight into working as a dermatology pa.

So it's a little bit about my background.

I've been doing that for seven and a half years now.

And after I had graduated for about a year is when I started the PA platform, which is a website where I started blogging about the PA school process and how to become a PA and just sharing information and resources and connecting with students.

Because in another life I would be a college advisor.

That was my backup plan.

And I really enjoy just kind of planning out schedules and helping people figure out what it is they want to do.

And I feel like the PA profession is still such a new thing that there needs to be more awareness around it.

So my goal is never to tell anyone they have to be a PA or it's the only profession or anything like that.

But for anyone who's interested in medicine, I think it's something worth looking into and considering.

So that's a little bit about the motive kind of behind why I do what I do.

On the personal side, I have a three year old and she is very fun and my husband is also in medicine.

He works as a hospitalist.

And we, fun fact, started dating at the end of senior year.

We have been together a very long time.

But today's episode I think will be really, really fun.

Just because every year I really like to do a gift guide just as some ideas for you for things that you can give and things to ask for if you are celebrating any holidays or even throughout the year.

I find it hard sometimes people will say, what do you want for your birthday?

What do you want for Christmas?

What do you want?

We hate to, you know, be like, oh, I really need this or I want this.

So you can just send people this list and you're good to go or.

Actually what I do is I have a note on my phone and it's a shared note between me and my husband.

So if there's ever anything I think of, I just add it to the note and then he can see that and get some ideas.

So that's something else that you can kind of do.

But yeah, I just thought this would be fun.

And I have a bunch of different ideas on there.

Some are very affordable or free and then some are more splurges.

But I think, I just, I think one of my love languages is gift giving.

Like I love buying gifts for people.

I love wrapping presents.

I know a lot of people hate that, but I think it's so much fun.

And usually I have everyone's present way ahead of time just because I think about it all year long and it's always on my mind.

I saw a really cool TikTok the other day.

I'm on TikTok if you are on there.

My name right now on there is Physician Assistant.

It may end up being the PA platform in the future, but I didn't want any trolls to take physician assistant.

But I saw an idea where somebody said they have kind of different baskets or bins for the people that they typically buy presents for and they just put their names on them.

And then throughout the year, if they see something that they feel like that person would love or the person mentioned something that they need, they just go ahead and get it and put it in the bin.

And I just thought that was a great idea.

I guess with that, you may run the risk of them getting something for themselves, but I really liked that.

So if you want to follow along with some of the stuff I'm talking about, or if you're like, this is overwhelming and I'm in the car and I can't look this stuff up.

This is in a blog post.

If you go to the PA platform.com up at the top, you can find it under the blog and that will help you see all these things, find links.

I'm going to mention some promo codes and coupon codes and so you can find those on there as well.

And then you can find that link in the description also to the gift guide.

And I also linked in there our gift guides from the past few years which have some similar stuff, some different stuff.

And I mean some of the things on here are just new things that have come out this year that weren't available in the past, so you can look at that.

And then we'll be posting on social media as well.

So if you go to Instagram, just look up the PA platform and you'll find a lot of what we're talking about.

It'll probably be saved in a highlight on there to make it a little bit easier for you also.

All right, I would also love to hear if you have any ideas.

So if I'm like going through this and you go, oh my gosh, I would like to give someone this, or I have this great idea, please tell me because I'm always looking for ideas.

But let me get my post pulled up.

And one thing that I wanted to keep in mind this year is that shipping times have been a little craz and a lot of things are out of stock or unavailable for a long period of time.

And so I tried to put some options on here that are things that you don't necessarily have to ship, but you may have to get creative with how you would give those gifts.

Whether you print something off and use a card or something that represents the present, I think there's some options of how to do that.

And we'll talk about that a little bit, too.

So let's start with pre PA and also linked in the description is a link to my Amazon store.

I have a ton of stuff in there as far as my favorite skincare, which we'll talk about, my favorite PA school products, study resources, my favorite scrubs and equipment.

A lot of it's in there.

And so that's also a good place to go if you're looking for recommendations.

But for pre pa, so I think for prepa, this is a little bit hard to generalize because students are at such different stages.

You know, you may have somebody who's an undergrad, you may have somebody who has a stable career and is doing a career change, or someone who's a reapplicant.

So there's lots of different variations there.

So there are a few things that they may have in common.

One thing is just things that are going to help them prep.

So that could be things like test prep for if they have a GRE coming up, or PA cat, you know, books or resources to prep for that, which I actually didn't even put in the post, or even like, I'm a big fan of, like baskets and collections.

So if you wanted to do a little test day collection, I think that could be really cute.

Maybe with some cozy socks, some drinks, some candy bars and snacks, maybe some little reminder cards wishing them good luck.

I just think there's a lot of options there that you could kind of put into a little basket to help them feel encouraged.

This process can be so long and discouraging and overwhelming that I think those little, you know, supportive gestures from friends and family help you to remember why you're doing this and help you to feel like it's worth it in the end, even when you're struggling to know what to do next or to know if you're doing the right thing.

So just showing your support is going to be a great help.

I put in the post and we can link to these as well.

The PA School Interview Guide and the Personal Statement Guide are books that you can send them and we have those ready to ship through the PA platform or you can get them on Amazon with Prime shipping.

Either way works.

Your shipping is going to be a little bit quicker with prime typically, but those are a good cost effective present and if you use the code Future PA you get a discount on those through the PA platform as well.

We also have the PA platform gift cards now so you can get a gift card that can be used either on an essay revision or a book or or we have them for the mock interviews as well.

So that's something nice and added that may be helpful.

If you aren't really sure when you're going to be applying, I will give you a heads up.

Our Black Friday deals are coming next week and they will be limited in number, they will be limited in time, but we will have our mock interview specials, we will have our books on special, our counseling specials, pretty much everything in the interview course.

So make sure you are on the newsletter list and following along on social media, the newsletters, the PA platform.com newsletter and you will get all of the information on that straight into your inbox if you're signed up for that so you don't miss out.

But I'm telling you they will be limited and every year I have people email me right when it ends.

You know I meant to get this and I just forgot and we've had to get pretty strict because we can't keep opening and closing them.

So make sure you are ready to go for that.

Alright?

So another thing I put in here is just medical attire and I actually put this under pre pas pa students and PACs because I've tried a lot of scrubs, I've tried a lot of medical wear and shoes and things and I have some favorites.

So I Included those in the post and we'll talk about them a little bit, which if you ever have questions about scrubs, like what's available, how fabrics feel, how they fit for different body types.

I'm petite, but I've tried a bunch of different ones.

My husband's gotten to try a bunch of different ones.

Feel free to reach out.

So either send me an email or message me on Instagram and I can try to help you out a little bit, even with sizing and stuff because they run very differently and some are true to size, some run a little bit bigger and some draw up, some don't.

So happy to always help with that if I can and kind of point you in the right direction.

But one of my favorite companies is Medalita and they are a PA founded company.

If you are in California or if you're in the Orange county area, try to go visit their headquarters.

They are very welcoming.

They love to have visitors.

The founder is Laura Francisco.

She was an ERPA and she is one of the sweetest people ever.

So I highly recommend, you know, if you are in that vicinity, if you live there or you're on a trip there, try to make that part of your trip.

My husband and I did that and we had such a great time.

They have a little storefront where you can shop and then they actually have where they'll take you back into the warehouse and you can see all the embroidery happening.

You can pick out your thread color.

They have a few on the website, but they have so many in person.

So it's just a really cool experience to do that.

But they have some of my favorite medical wear and I'll tell you about some of my favorites.

So the under scrub is really good.

So one thing about their products is that the quality is very, very good and the products hold up.

So I have under scrub that I bought when I first started working six or seven years ago that I still wear and it looks the same as new, like maybe the tag wore off a little bit, but that's it.

So the under scrub is great.

I always wear a long sleeve under scrub under my scrubs.

It, you know, protects me, keeps me warm.

That's just something I do.

My husband also loves their under scrub and he actually just wears it as a scrub shirt because he loves it so much.

So the under scrub is great.

They have a ton of different scrub jackets now.

So your options with those are the Kinetic, which is a lightweight scrub jacket.

It feels like scrub material but looks very clean.

So their material is got a little Bit of stretch to it, but the colors don't fade, it doesn't shrink, so you don't have to worry about any of that.

The Ionic is a little bit heavier, and it almost has kind of, I don't want to say a heathered look to it, but the fabric has a little more texture to it looking.

But it's also a great jacket.

Tons of pockets.

That's probably the one I wear the most right now, just because it's like a medium weight and I live in Georgia, so it's kind of starting to get cold, but not too terribly cold yet.

And then they have the Strata jacket, which is a fleece jacket.

Mine is in the mail and should be here today, and I'm so excited about it.

And then they have the Quantum, which is a little bit of more of a medium weight, but a more structured fit.

So the Ionic is going to be a little bit longer, and the.

The new Quantum is a little bit shorter and more structured.

So I wear a scrub jacket instead of a white coat most times.

And so a scrub jacket would be perfect for any pre PAs or PA students or any PAs who don't wear white coats regularly.

So there's some options there.

They also have scrubs.

So when it comes to scrubs, there are, like your traditional pants and shirts.

They also have joggers now, and they have a pant that is my favorite, which is called the Pixel Pant.

It's like a straight leg.

So I'm petite.

I'm five one.

It hits me perfectly, like, right at my ankle.

And it looks.

I don't say classy.

Classy, professional.

It's nice enough that you could even probably use it for, like a business casual.

Like, pair it with a business casual shirt, and people probably wouldn't even know you're wearing scrubs.

But it still has that scrub material.

Stretchy and super comfy.

You almost need to try them, which Medalita does have a free shipping and free returns.

And so that is a really great thing to try some stuff.

Or if something doesn't fit, you can always send it back in and trade it out.

So that's the scrubs and their colors you can see on the website.

There's navy, black, gray, and a beautiful wine kind of burgundy color.

Those are mine.

That are coming in today too.

And then you have white coats, which a pre PA wouldn't need white coats, but a PA student would need a short white coat, which they have.

And then they also have many different long white coats in different price points.

You can use the code PERRYPAC20 for a 20% discount.

But I did notice that for Black Friday they have a 30% discount, so you should jump on that.

Definitely.

And I have links to all that in the description, so.

And in the blog post.

But that's kind of what Medalita offers.

They also have a stethoscope, which is a sensitive stethoscope.

It is equivalent to a Littman.

It's very good.

I have one, my husband has one and I think that would be a great present for a PA student when it comes to medical equipment.

I didn't know I could talk about scrubs that long.

Sorry, you may be like, I am not interested in this, but if you are or have more questions, send them to me.

Let's talk about shoes for a second.

So my go to shoes right now are Crocs clogs and you can get them on Amazon.

I'm sure you can get them on crocs.com or something too.

But they are very comfy, they're very lightweight.

They're rubber, so they're easy to clean and disinfect.

You just wipe them down.

But that is what I wear every day.

I do not typically sit down in clinic.

I am on my feet for eight to 10 hours and I have no issue in these.

They don't.

My feet don't hurt, my back doesn't hurt.

I do wear compression socks with them.

But I love my Crocs clogs.

So highly recommend if you're a Dansko fan.

They have a similar fit and feel, but they're lighter.

I found Dansko's to be too heavy.

And when I don't wear if I wasn't wearing Crocs, typically I just wear a regular tennis shoe.

I've tried some other medical shoes.

Some of them I like more than others.

There is a tennis shoe.

I didn't put this in the blog post, but there is a tennis shoe I really like called Frankie 4.

They are orthotic tennis shoes, but they have a very stylish look.

So I can also wear those every day.

So if I'm wearing like joggers or my straight pants, which do not look cute with crocs, I typically wear my orthotic tennis shoes that look like just kind of sneakers.

So those are some ideas for medical attire that, you know, somebody may kind of want but not buy for themselves.

I had an idea for a. I guess it would be low cost to make, but it may cost you a little bit of money to do stuff.

But I love a good DIY coupon book as a gift.

I just think it is such a thoughtful and meaningful gift to put your time into creating it and also give your time to whatever you put in it.

So I put some ideas in the blog post.

Here were some of my ideas.

You can use an online digital editor like Canva to make it cute and then you can either print it or send it digitally.

So some ideas for like a stressed out pre PA student or a stressed out PA student or a PA would be a home cooked meal, a coffee date or bringing coffee to their work or house, pet sitting or babysitting, a day of running errands for them or maybe just a couple hours, a movie night, bring the popcorn, help with cleaning or organizing for a period of time or like a room or something, maybe help with laundry and then a study session.

So those were just some ideas.

I'm sure you can come up with some really good ideas too, but I think that could be a really sweet gift for someone that would just make them feel good.

All right, let's move on to my PA student section and we'll skip the medical wear part because I already talked about that.

But PA students, they are going to be struggling with self care.

In the previous gift guides I've talked a lot about like resources for pants, like pants Prep pearls and books and things like that, which I think are good gifts.

But I also think they just need encouragement on helping themselves.

So in this year's guide I put some books that are not necessarily for PA school.

There are a couple that are medically related by an author called Atul Gawande.

He is amazing.

He has two books.

One's called Complications and the second one's called Better.

I think they should be mandatory reading for anyone in medicine.

So those are on the list.

And then I put some books that I've read this year.

So I'm in a book club.

We've been doing book club now for probably five or six years and we have a pretty extensive list of books we've read.

But each month we read a new book.

And so some of the ones that we read this year that I really enjoyed and I have a ton more.

If you want book recommendations, just tell me and I'll give you more book recommendations.

But I loved Circe by Madeline Miller.

It was a fictionalized telling of the story of Circe.

And so, so good.

I'm about to read her second.

I think it may have been written before, but another book by her called A Song of Achilles.

And then another one was the Henna Artist by Alka Joshi.

A beautiful book, beautiful read.

And I actually listened to that one.

I've gotten really into audible and so that was a really good one to listen to.

I also put the Midnight Library on there by Matt Haig.

That's the book we read most recently in book club.

But it was a.

A read that really made you think about just kind of life choices and regrets.

And it was a fun read.

I had listened to that one too, so also good to listen to.

I put a Kindle on the list too.

I have become a dedicated Kindle reader.

If I read them on Kindle, if I listen, I use audible.

And I usually am reading a book and listening to a book at the same time, but different books.

But Kindle makes it so easy to take it with you.

And I read every night.

So I think for PA students that could be a nice little break if they have some books to read.

Non school books.

All right, the next thing I put in here was self care because we're bad at that.

So definitely visit my Amazon store.

And I think this would be a another cute idea to do like a basket or collection of just kind of skin care, water bottles, drinks, treats that you like especially to get through the end of the semester.

I also put one of my other favorite products on here, which is Babelash, which is an eyelash serum.

It sounds dumb, but not having to wear mascara every day is super helpful.

Even though they do have the best mascara ever.

So I have a code for that also.

It's Savannah.

You get 20% off.

They have some really, really good Black Friday deals coming up that it stacks with.

So I'll be sharing more about that on social media, on Instagram, but that's just kind of like a fun thing that people don't always buy for themselves.

I really like getting that as a present for people and they really like it.

So you can check that out.

And there's more about that in the blog post as well.

And then I put kind of this like, holy grail splurge for PA school.

Because I've been really into researching this and I always get questions and see questions.

And that is an iPad.

It seems like everyone has an iPad in PA school and they all love it and they take notes, they have all their textbooks on there.

They stay organized.

I used a computer and I guess I don't really know since I'm not doing it, like why an iPad's necessarily better than a computer.

I think it comes down to this, this Apple pencil that you're able to take notes with and I'm going to do a blog post on all of the research I've been doing on iPads for PA school because I've gotten a lot of great feedback from people and so I'm going to put all that into a blog post soon.

But it sounds like what most students have is an iPad Air with the Apple pencil and the smart keyboard.

If you have an iPad Pro, it seems like you need a magic keyboard, but most students said you don't need the Pro, it's more for video and photo editing.

And for school purposes the iPad Air is sufficient.

I haven't been able to tell why the iPad Air is better than just a normal iPad.

I'm still trying to research that, but it didn't seem like most people had the iPad Air, so I put those in the post just as ideas.

Maybe that's something good for people to go in on to get you, but I thought those were fun and they're hint hint on my list too.

Alright, let's move on to some things that I think PAs could use.

But again, I think anyone would be really happy with some of these, especially PA students too.

So I was trying to think what did I not put in the gift guide before as a PA that I love and have been happy with and I think just things that make life easier.

So when I get home after a busy day I just want to spend time with my family.

I don't want to have to think about things quite as much and so a couple things have made that easier for me.

Number one is my crock pot.

I use it all the time.

I think it's super helpful to make meals very quickly so I use that a lot.

I put that on there.

I just have the most basic one and it does great.

I get the little crock pot liners which are awesome.

I also put an instant pot on my list this year.

I don't have one yet, but I've heard they're very helpful.

I have a bunch of instant pot recipes saved and so I think that's another one.

And usually I see a lot of Black Friday deals so that may be something good as well.

One thing I started using recently is Butcher Box which is a meat delivery service and it's all grass fed, very high quality.

I've been very impressed by the quality and the convenience of it.

I did the special where I got a turkey so I am going to try to make a turkey next week but right now they're doing a special where you get, I think a free pack of bacon.

And then for Black Friday they are doing a promotion where they will get.

If you sign up through Black Friday, you will get two New York strip steaks for free in every box for a year in addition to the meat that you normally get.

And you can choose between chicken, beef or pork or a mix of those.

And then they also have a Cyber Monday deal coming up where you get chicken wings for free in your box for the lifetime of your subscription.

So both of those are really great deals.

And it just again, makes my life easier because then all I have to do for grocery pickup is get basically like produce and things we need for the week and not have to worry about meat.

So if you enjoy eating meat, that may be a good option or a subscription that you could get for somebody else.

And if you I put the link in the description and in the blog post where you can make sure you get those deals because you do have to go through the links to get those.

Okay.

And then we are going to talk about a splurge.

So.

Well, this is something else I think everyone would like.

But coffee.

Don't we all love coffee?

Maybe too much, but I put a few different price points on here.

The easiest, cheapest one is a milk frother.

It is a game changer.

I've been starting to make my own sweet cream to put in my coffee and it's so good and so easy.

So a milk frother, it's like 10 to 15 bucks on Amazon and I think a really fun gift.

And again, something that could go in a nice little coffee basket.

But I've started to look at espresso machines because regular coffee is just not cutting it anymore.

But a Keurig would be great.

Or Nespresso seems to be like the quick kind of coffee machine.

Or the like ultimate that I found is like the Breville espresso machine.

So those may be good options.

You know, if somebody wants to try out their hand at being a barista or make it through PA school or their long day as a pa, maybe look into those.

So those are things on my list for this year.

Maybe that's helpful.

I would love if you find any great Black Friday deals on any of these or anything else that you think would be helpful or great, send it to me.

Just send it to me on Instagram.

I love sharing deals and finding them.

Me and my sister, my mom have always been kind of deal finders.

We enjoy the hunt.

So I think I also my husband mentioned we should get an Oculus, so we probably won't But I've heard they're fun.

Maybe that'll be a fun thing for PA Students.

All right.

But I hope this was helpful and kind of a fun episode.

And then I will see you next week.

I can't believe that.

What year is this?

2021 Is almost over.

We're going to be talking about careers, the future of the profession, budgeting.

I have some guests to finish out this year, and then we'll get some new guests on for next year as well.

So I thank you for listening to the podcast.

I would love a review on itunes if you can leave five stars.

That helps other people find it.

And I will see you guys on social media and here next week.

Bye.