Happy National PA Week!!

Every year from October 6th-12th is national Physician Assistant week.  Since you are my friends, family, and patients, I thought it only fair to celebrate with you!  Several times a year I get asked questions about if I like my job, what I do, and how long I went to school, etc. This is a great opportunity for me to answer a lot of these questions and shine some light on a great career. 

The Physician Assistant profession was born out of the Vietnam War.  Many soldiers, specifically medics came home from war with great skills but had no place in the states to use their new knowledge.  In 1965 Duke University started the first Physician Assistant program with 4 Navy corpsman.  My own alma mater, Saint Louis University, was one of the first 12 PA programs in the nation opening in 1971.  Most programs have since transitioned from bachelor degree programs to masters level degree programs across the country.  There are now 170 PA programs and counting, the state of Missouri having 3 SLU, Missouri State, and the newly formed UMKC program. 

Getting into the PA school of choice can be a challenge, just ask my family!  There are interviews to drive to, essays to write, and lots of medical hours to log.   To begin you will have to fill out the online application called CASPA (Central Application Service for Physician Assistants) This is one application you fill out online for all the schools you are interested in attending.  It really simplifies the process.  If you would like more information on how to become a Physician Assistant take a look at our national organization the AAPA's website they have an overview of the process here.

The career is becoming increasingly popular.  Forbes Magazine named PA the #1 Most Promising Job of 2015  and we also make the top 10 list of the Best Jobs of 2015 in US Money and News Report.  The Bureau of Labor and Statistics shows the job growth for PAs from 2012-2022 as 38%!  That is more than triple the average job growth rate.

It is obvious that I am passionate about my career and continue to encourage young people to consider going into the field.  This week I would like to take note of the best part of my job.  As with all things in life the people you meet along the way are what you hold most dear.  I personally celebrate my fellow PA's this week because they are some of my very best friends and I am proud to know them!

National AAPA Conference Class of 2010 Atlanta Aquarium

PA School Kick Ball Team

My best friends at Graduation from SLU

Catching up with classmates

Follow up in two weeks for my Halloween topic...Total Knee Replacements--Why so Spooky?
    









Citations
-SLU PA Dept History
-http://pahx.org/timeline.html 

Good vs Evil Internet Searches

If you search Google for the term "ankle sprain" you will get one billion hits, including anything from Wikipedia to what high profile athlete just hit the DL.  How do you sort for credible data through all the bad?  The internet is a great tool full of valuable information, however when it comes to looking for good orthopedic information it can be a little daunting.  Let's look at some of my favorite ways to get good solid information on a variety of topics. I will also show you a brief overview of how to look for published articles on PubMed.

My two favorite sites to visit for general information are administered by the Mayo Clinic and the AAOS.  The Mayo Clinic provides small informational articles on just about every ailment, including treatment, symptoms, and a section on "preparing for your appointment."  The AAOS (American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons) has a great educational website that allows you to select a problematic area from a skeleton which then leads you to different topics.   The AAOS website also has a large library of videos and animations for those of you that like visuals.

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/

Finally, a quick look at PubMed searches.  I could do an entire post on how to look up credible scientific papers, but I don't want to bore you with too many details.  Let's start with the basics.  PubMed is provided by the US National Library of Medicine and allows people free access to medical and scientific abstracts and journals.  Not all the articles are free but you can view the abstracts (a sort of scientific summary) on almost every paper.  To search--go to PubMed, you will note a search bar at the top of the page.  The search bar is predictive, much like an iPhone it will try to finish your thoughts.  Type "ankle" and watch as it fills in all the possible searches including "sprain."

Once you select "ankle sprain" you will notice you get over 14,000 articles that meet your criteria. Now we must apply some "filters" to narrow our search.  On the left hand side of the screen you can select different options to apply to your search.  I usually apply publications in the last five years to make the papers relevant, humans so the topics relate to human beings not animals, and free full text so you can read the whole paper if you choose.  By doing this I narrowed our list down to 390 papers.

Ok, that's a lot of information for this round.  I will leave you there, feel free to ask any questions.

Check in next blog for the topic...Happy National PA Week!


Citations:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/pubmed.html     

Introduction

Welcome to my brand new Orthopedic blog.  I decided to start this space for several reasons, but I think a recent patient encounter helps shine light on the need better than anything. 

Often, patients will ask me about topics they have read on the internet from a variety of sources including blogs.  Actually the source that makes me cringe the most is the blog—unfiltered information from unchecked sources.  Scary! And that’s right where this particular patient had found themselves; up at night reading blogs about all the terrifying complications of surgery.

My family will tell you I have a bit of a worrying streak myself, so I can totally relate to this thirst for knowledge on a topic.  However, our now completely freaked out patient friend has read too much.  I found them the next day in a bad place, full of anxiety and misinformation.  That is when he/she encouraged me to start my own blog where I could put good information out to my patients and answer questions.

So, here we are--our new orthopedic frontier.  The Bare Bonez- an interactive forum where we can discuss ideas and share knowledge on a variety of topics.   I will write on some of the more commonly asked questions I get on a daily basis,  interesting new research coming out, and respond to feedback.  

Thanks for following and come back to check out my next topic…

-Good vs Evil Internet Searches    

Kelli PA-C