Hello! My name is Stephanie Colella and I am a second year physician assistant student at Quinnipiac University. I cannot believe I am already in my second year and currently finishing up my THIRD clinical rotation. It is flying by!
We started our clinical rotations this past June. It was very exciting to leave the classroom and enter the world of medicine. My first rotation was in a private practice in pediatrics. It was a great experience! I worked with two physicians and one PA. I loved getting the opportunity to work with all three of them because they all had completely different styles of practicing medicine. I spent six weeks doing well child exams, sick visits, office visits, vaccinations, and more. It was a great place to get started! I even saw some rare diseases and syndromes. I saw angelman syndrome and beckwith-wiedemann syndrome, which were quite interesting cases to see and learn about. I had never heard about these two syndromes prior to this rotation, however after seeing these rare cases I can’t say I will be forgetting them anytime soon. I also saw quite a few children who had autism. The staff was great at teaching me ways to gain a child trust as a physician assistant and ways to handle children and examine them.
My second rotation was in obstetrics and gynecology. I worked with one physician who had quite a busy schedule. There were days when we would be in the office doing annual visits, office visits, and minor procedures and then there were days when we were at the hospital in either the operating room doing procedures, or on the labor and delivery floor seeing patients and delivering babies. Yet again, an amazing experience! My second day in New London brought my first delivery. Now, let me tell you, I am not one to usually get emotional, but it was an incredible experience to be the first person to touch a baby. I had to hold back the tears! Now, do not get me wrong, it is not all smiles and happy tears in obstetrics and gynecology. In this rotation I saw some pretty upsetting things as well. I assisted in biopsies that showed cancers. I worked on a case where a woman needed to be rushed to the OR for an emergent cesarean section. I saw so many different cases and I felt like everyday it was something new.
Now, I am currently completing my emergency medicine rotation. The rotations just keep getting better! In this current rotation I get to spend time in the main emergency department as well as the fast track and urgent care settings. It is great to get the balance of acute patients and patients that have simple injuries or lacerations. In this rotation I work with various different physician assistants. It is again nice to work with different people because everyone has a different style of doing things and everyone has different pearls to offer. In this rotation, I really started to notice how much I am gaining from my clinical experience. For instance, I have seen various patients present with pelvic pain to the emergency department. Because of the experience I gained in my previous rotation, I have had a great deal of self-confidence with these patients because I knew what needed to be done and knew how to help them. I am starting to pull my skills together and apply them in everyday work as a physician assistant student. Medicine is like an end-less puzzle and it is thrilling to be able to start putting the pieces together. I really enjoy emergency medicine because every patient is different and every patient has a different story to why they present to the emergency department. You just never know how your day is going to go in the emergency medicine!
-Stephanie Colella, Physician Assistant 2012
