Graduate / "Well that's just my job", said Marcia; PA Narrative [3]

Coming from a small town where most of my family had little college experience, the idea of furthering my education post high school was always something that was both exciting and intimidating at the same time. I have found through the years that life is often filled with surprising events that challenge you in ways that lead you to the path that you were meant to take. In my case it wasn't until I was injured in an accident my senior year of high school that I realized where I truly wanted the direction of my life to go in.

As I sat in a hospital bed waiting to be rolled into the operating room I had no idea I would be meeting the first person in the journey that has led me to where I am today. Her name was Marcia, and she was my orthopedic surgeons P.A. I had barely talked to her for five minutes but her impact on me proved to be substantial. Shortly after this encounter I began researching the profession while shadowing as much as possible. The moment when I knew that this was the job for me came on an ordinary day when I watched a patient grab the hand of a P.A I was shadowing and say, "I hope you know what you do is a miracle, you changed my life and gave me hope." The P.A. simply smiled and replied, "Well that's just my job." The P.A. profession comes with countless positive attributes but after this short exchange I finally came to the realization of what the best part of being a P.A. actually was and knew it was exactly where I wanted to be.

My first job experience within the medical field came midway into my sophomore year of college; it was a position as a patient care aide at a specialized assisted living facility with Alzheimer's and Dementia patients. With little knowledge and skills in this setting I was far from the comfort of the children's clothing store that I had previously worked at for the past five years. The patients I took care of were difficult to say the least, not only did these people have numerous health issues that ranged from diabetes to cancer they could barely remember who they were most of the time. Even though things were challenging at first, this job opened my eyes to whole new perspective on the health care field. I gained so many essential skills as well as the compassion and drive to keep going beyond what I was comfortable with which was instrumental in propelling me towards the other positions that I have held.

I worked hard over the past few years to gain as much experience as I could by working in several types of health care settings that ranged from small rural medical buildings to large urban hospitals to ensure that I was as well rounded as possible. My time spent volunteering in the labor and delivery unit and working in cardiac rehabilitation really brought my sense of how a P.A. fits into the interworking's of the healthcare system. However, through my time spent in these various areas I have realized that the large amount of hours spent working with patients, though very valuable in my growth as a care provider, were not what has had the greatest amount of impact of my decision to move forward in becoming a P.A. It was the days when something happened that seemed like nothing short of a miracle, such as watching a baby being born for the first time or standing next to the table during a heart surgery. It was with these special moments combined with all the days in between that I realized I wanted to be the person that is truly making a difference in someone's life and I believe that becoming a P.A will be the perfect way for me to make this goal a reality.