Meet Taneisha Graves. She's a second year PA student and creator of Practice By The Book blog where she shares about her journey through medicine, faith, and healthy living.
Why PA?
I like that PAs can work in several different specialties, whereas a doctor has to do another residency to work in a different field. I have always been a lifetime learner. I love growing and trying different things. There are many areas of medicine that I am interested in, and I might want to change specialties once or twice in my career.
Do you have any study tips for PA students?
- Understand that PA school is not like undergrad: there is more information to learn in less amount of time.
- Get a good note taking strategy or app - I love Notability!
- Review big concepts with classmates! I never liked group studying in undergrad, but then I found the way to use study groups effectively.
- Change your study strategy for different classes. For example, I did well studying alone for classes like Anatomy. However, I found that I didn't perform well studying alone for Pharm. So my classmates and I worked together to form drug cards. We each form our own cards and then make connections looking for similarities and differences.
- Everyone studies different and that's okay! Do what works for you, not what works for everyone else.
Having a life outside of PA school and doing things I enjoy has helped me tremendously so far. I made a promise to myself in didactic year that every Friday after school, I'd have a study free night. I also always made sure to go out with friends and continue to do things I enjoyed. Also, I liked to remind myself that some days you will be great and some days will just suck. However, those sucky days don't determine how you'll be as a PA. It's a journey and every day you are learning to become the best practitioner for your future patients.
Most challenging class and why?
Pharmacology because it felt like I was learning a whole new language! The words all sound funny and you have to learn so many things about each drug, including it's mechanism of action, side effects, concerns, contraindications, and doses. So at first, it all seemed very overwhelming and I didn't know where to begin. But after learning how to study pharm by organizing, using white boards, and my classmates, it become more bearable.
What's a good resource that you've found helpful so far?
- Notability - for note taking
- Anki - flashcards
- Lange Smart Charts for Pharmacology - This book is a flip chart of all the drugs separated by class with everything you want to know, including brand name, mechanism of action, side effects, and contraindications. Lifesaver for Pharm!
- EKG Pocket Guide
- Perfect H&P - I couldn't live without this in my EM rotation. It fits the entire history and physical in two small pages and this notebook fits in your white coat pocket. Absolutely perfect for those visits when you don't have the EMR with you or if you want to be more personal with your patients.
Best experience in PA school so far?
My favorite experience so far is now being on rotations and seeing how the things I learned in didactic year are helping me treat and diagnose patients. I'm currently in Emergency Medicine and I feel like I'm really honing in on some of the skills taught in didactic (suturing, lumbar punctures, etc.) Some days it was hard for me to actually envision myself doing procedures on real life patients and it calms me to see that didactic year has paid off and all my anxiety is slowly being put to rest.
Advice for pre-PA students and/or current PA students.
There's plenty of advice for study tips and how to deal with stress, but my only advice is: Be grateful and thankful with where you are in life. PA school takes A LOT of your social time and you'll have friends going on lavish vacations, getting married, and starting families and you may feel like PA school is hindering you from doing those things. That's not to say you can't because people have done it before. However, if you are happy with where you are and understand that PA school is only a season of your life, you'll find it easier to combat jealousy and live the best life while studying to be a PA.
For more on Taneisha, you can find her on IG: @neishig and Practice By The Book
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