Skip to main content

Resources for PA Students

Everyone studies differently, of course. But I wanted to share some of the resources that have helped me survive PA school!

BOOKS

PANCE Prep Pearls 
This one is an absolute must-have, and I'm pretty sure any PA student will tell you this. It takes a minute to get used to how it's formatted, but this book is a great way to review prior to your exams. The newer version is actually two separate books (which is nice because the one book is pretty heavy!).



Lange Q&A
One of the ways I like to study is with practice questions. It's one thing to review all the information, and entirely another to be able to put that information to use in clinical scenarios. My university provides a short practice test on ExamMaster, but generally I am looking for more than just a handful of questions to practice. Highly recommend this book.



 Rapid Interpretation of EKGs
This obnoxious orange book is also a little weird to read, but it's a good way to learn how to read EKGs. This was required for us to purchase for our first semester, and I am planning to read this again during my summer break to keep my skills in tact.



 Antibiotics Simplified
I've struggled to learn antibiotics, and this book was recommended by pharmacy residents at my hospital. So far, it has been a very helpful survival resource, and I really plan to dig deeper in this over my summer break, so that I can go into my next year of didactic feeling more confident.



A small but mighty little guide to carry in your pocket during clinicals! Recommended to me by PAs and MDs alike.



Another great reference to have during clinicals, or so I've heard from both PAs and MDs. Plus, I got a killer deal on this book from Walmart.com.




WEBSITES


APPS


TOOLS

Laptop: HP Envy x360
I ended up buying this laptop during my first summer semester after cracking the screen on my old laptop. This ended up being a huge blessing in disguise because I LOVE this laptop. I'm not an Apple fangirl (probably mostly because it's expensive), and I am so used to Windows at this point, that it didn't make sense for me to change. Also, I have just an absolute kickass setup for online learning. I attach this to my HP monitor, flip the screen around, watch my lectures on the monitor and take notes on the PowerPoint slides that I've imported into OneNote. It's such a great setup.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Distance Year 1: My daily routine

Over the summer, I wrote about my daily routine . Remember, at that time I was living in a tiny studio apartment and doing school full-time on campus. As expected, the transition to life as a part-time student, part-time dietitian has been challenging. I'll say this upfront. I knew PA school, even in a part-time program, was going to be difficult. But this has, well, exceeded those expectations. When people tell you that you'll be studying basically all the time, they weren't kidding. But I'll let my daily routine help you see that! Work Day Schedule I work three days a week (generally W-F), and I have quickly realized that I can't slack off on these days. If I do, I definitely get behind! 5:15 - Alarm goes off. My small dog Milo somehow takes up the whole bed but I try to sneak out of bed without disturbing him too much. He's lazy so he'll sleep most of the morning. 5:30-6:30 - Watch a lecture while sipping on my coffee and eating a simple...
Post a Comment
Read more

My favorite books about medicine

I am a medicine junkie. Medical shows (House, Grey's Anatomy), documentaries (Diagnosis), and books … I love it all! Even though summer is coming to an end (and we're about to kiss our free time good-bye!), I wanted to share a list of my favorite books about medicine. Side note: Even though we don't have a lot of free time, I have found that reading a little bit for fun before bed helps me wind down to go to sleep. Way better than staring at my phone like I used to do! Anyway, these books are in no particular order (because ranking them was just too dang hard!). Also, I'm pretty sure that all of these books are $15 or less, so it won't break the bank for us poor college kids to read a few. Every Patient Tells a Story This book was actually recommended to me by PA students when I was interviewing at the school I am currently attending! Apparently it was strongly encouraged to read by one of the professors, and it sounded amazing. Written by Dr. Lisa Sand...
Post a Comment
Read more

Resiliency: PA School During a Pandemic

I saw this article on Facebook and it really hit home for me: "Your 'Surge Capacity' is Depleted -- It's Why You Feel Awful." I strongly encourage you to read the whole article yourself, but a few things stuck out to me that I feel compelled to share.  First, what's surge capacity? It's your adaptive abilities for dealing with acute stress. The problem with a pandemic is that it isn't really acute in the same way that a massive tornado or other disaster might be. We're in this for the long haul, and if you're like me, those adaptive abilities have worn thin.  For me, this has looked like feelings of helplessness and exhaustion. I've spent a lot more time on my couch watching bad reality TV than I'd like to admit. But with school starting in up in less than a week, that really isn't going to fly. So how does a student (in an intensive graduate program) keep moving forward? "Both-And" Thinking One of my favorite lessons fro...
Post a Comment
Read more