One of the opportunities that is afforded to first year QU PA Program students is the ability to participate in the pre-clinical experience. One of the reasons that I was most drawn the QU program was for this very reason. The pre-clinical experience gives students the ability to gain clinical experience during the didactic year. This is not a shadowing experience. The pre-clinical experience allows students the opportunity to apply their classroom knowledge and gain hands-on clinical experience during the didactic year, an experience that I have found to be a very valuable one.

                As part of this experience students are assigned to a preceptor who they will work with at a particular clinical site. My pre-clinical site is in an urgent care setting that is at Mid-State Walk-In Center in Wallingford, CT. Other students are working in private primary care offices, occupational health settings, emergency departments, or other hospital settings. During pre-clinical hours, students work closely alongside their preceptors. The pre-clinical allows students the opportunity to practice history taking, physicals, and to practice oral presentations.

                I have found my pre-clinical to come at a very opportune time, because in just three short months I will be starting full time clinical experiences. The clinical portion of the QU PA Program requires students to undertake 9 clinical rotations: 7 six week core rotations and 2 four week elective rotations. The thought of this is at times a little bit over whelming, however, I have found that I have gained so much confidence during my pre-clinical realizing that I am in fact learning how to apply classroom knowledge in real clinical practice. While I’m sure the full-time clinical rotation will be incredibly challenging, it is reassuring to know that I have at least had the opportunity to get my feet wet.   

 I always feel so excited to go to my pre-clinical site every week. Whenever I started to feel overwhelmed or bogged down with studying and school work, my pre-clinical experience serves as a reminder to me of what I am doing all this work for! While school work and a strong medical background are very important, the purpose of studying medicine really is to put all of that memorization and studying to good use to help a patient! I always feel such a sense of accomplishment when I see something at pre-clinical that I have heard about in a lecture, or seen in a textbook, or discussed in a class, and I have that “Eureka!” moment where everything finally comes together.

--Kaitlyn Kasinskas Physician Assistant 2013