Medicine & Manicures

Happy National PA Week

Every October, PAs as well as PA students celebrate National PA Week by increasing awareness of this profession as well as promoting healthy lifestyles.  Over here at Campbell, we had several events including a bake sale & free blood pressure screenings.  The weather wasn’t ideal but we still had fun & raised a lot of money for our trip to Boston in May for the PA National Conference.
In honor of this week, here is a video that was made by last year’s class (the PA version of Thrift Shop) and this has become a tradition at our school.  I seriously can’t wait to start ours this winter!!
Campbell PA Week Festivities

 Class of 2015 at the bake sale/BP drive
Happy hump-day everyone!

Fall Lust List

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Ark & Co. leather bodycon dress / Burberry jacket / BB Dakota coat / DV by Dolce Vita faux-suede boots / Tory Burch shoes / David Yurman earrings

So I was doing some online window shopping.. when I should have been studying.. and came up with this ideal fall wardrobe.  Fall is my absolute favorite season and if I actually had a job, I would run out and get all this stuff right now.  Actually, thanks to my sweet boyfriend, the DV booties will be on my doorstep in a few days (he really is the best).  Leather is everywhere and eventually I’ll get my hands on one of these pieces.  And the David Yurman earrings… enough said.  I love anything with mixed metals.  Although it’s October, we’ve been having 85 degree days here lately.  By no means am I a fan of winter, but let’s get to the cooler fall weather already… hurry up nature!


xo, Kristina

EKGs & Yummy Cookies

Week 8 of PA school is done… Probably the most intense one so far. We actually calculated that we are 1/6 of huge way through with our didactic year (aka the bookwork)… Pretty freaking exciting. Honestly I can’t believe it’s already October. This is my favorite month of the year and I’m already looking forward to all the fun events (PA week, fall break, Halloween, oh and a Saturday full of male & female pelvic exams… Yikes!).

I haven’t posted in a while because we’ve been SO busy, but Wednesday night’s creation deserves some recognition. Sarah & I decided a few weeks ago that we wanted to make some really awesome EKG cookies for when we started that unit. So on top of studying for 4 exams, working out, and trying to keep our sanity- we got our bake on.. And I don’t bake. My idea of baking cookies is breaking them apart and sticking them in the oven, so this was my first encounter with dough, cookie cutters, and decorating. It took a while but it was worth it because our class and all the faculty loved them!  We even had different made different heart rhythms. Once again, when did I become so nerdy?

Sarah inspecting the cookies
Our crazy week ended yesterday with a super hard clin med test (this is how I feel about that one) and a history & physical checklist. This is where we are tested by the faculty to make sure we’re going through all the right steps in examining someone. I checked Sarah’s abdomen and she checked my lungs… and then it was officially the weekend!!

Oh and I just got a shipment of our “Class of 2015” PA shirts… they look pretty sweet if I do say so myself!

Happy Saturday everyone!

Where did September go?

Hello friends!  Quite a lot has happened this past week… here are some highlights:

On Tuesday, I saw my first standardized patient and it really wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be.  This was my first time in the “provider” role… crazy right??  We basically walked in, got the chief complaint & history, and performed a cardiac/lung exam.  These encounters are actually recorded so we can look back and evaluate ourselves and each other- that should be an interesting sight.

Don’t I look official?
Thursday was a special day- the official ribbon cutting of our new building with lots of important people in attendance.  One cool thing I learned was that our building (the Leon Levine Hall of Medical Sciences) was actually named after the same Mr. Levine that is all over Charlotte (children’s hospital, museum, etc).  I was pretty excited when I connected the dots.  With his foundation’s help, we were able to get this amazing new building and all the high-tech stuff to go along with it.   
Governor Pat McCrory even came!  Here he is hanging out with some PA students.
Leon Levine, Campbell’s President & Gov. McCrory at the ribbon cutting
This past weekend, I packed my bags and headed back to CLT.  We headed to food truck Friday & finally got to try the yummy grilled cheeses at Papi Queso.  I had the caprese and it was pretty much the bomb.  My Saturday was filled with studying/errands (how exciting) but that night we tried out Red Ginger, a new Japanese restaurant in uptown and the food was pretty amazing.  I had ran by it a few times and then a Groupon came out so of course Ryan got one.   I could seriously eat sushi every day, and their’s didn’t disappoint.  Nice decor, good music, and they even have Teppanyaki tables (we didn’t know until we got in there but definitely next time).
I was so very excited to go to the Panthers/Giants game on Sunday.  If there was a perfect day for football, this was it.
Fall, Friends & Football
Miss this lady!
Around here it’s definitely starting to feel like fall… and only 23 days until fall break!!  One test & lab practical down and one more history & physical exam to finish out the week.  School is pretty much a full-time job and even though it’s challenging and stressful at times, we all still have a blast (shoutout to class of 2015!).  Lately we’ve been studying the kidneys and our physiology professor showed us this cute cartoon- it’s only appropriate.

-Kristina

1 month down, 27 more to go

I survived!! Our first super intense week is  over and we only have 2 tests this week (yay?).  Before school started, I was definitely a little nervous about getting back in the swing of studying and the whole school routine, but I have been pleasantly surprised.  I must say that not having a job definitely helps.. We all pretty much eat, sleep, and breathe PA school. 

The beginning of the week started with a nice trip to Sunny Sky’s, an AMAZING little ice cream shop in Angier, NC.  They make yummy homemade ice cream and it’s so cheap!  Apparently people drive from miles around to eat at this place.  They have tons of flavors, even one called “cold sweat” that you have to sign a waver to even sample it.  Spicy ice cream just sounds gross to me but whatever.  




Lately we’ve been studying cardiology and on Tuesday.. (wait for it)… I get my first real patient!!!  I know this seems incredibly soon, I can’t believe it myself. This will be our first OSCE (or Objective Structured Clinical Examination). A standardized patient comes in who has memorized a script about a particular medical condition. We then have to get a history of the problem, give them and exam, and do our best to come up with a plan. No, they’re not expecting us to diagnose the patient yet or do any crazy procedures, but just to get comfortable with the patient-provider interaction.  Last Friday in lab we got to have some time with Harvey!  He can open/close his eyes, his pupils dilate, has a pulse, can cough, and has heart & lung sounds (and probably more than that).  This week, one of our professors would control his heart sounds and we all had to try and guess what they were.  We still need a LOT of practice but at least we know what “abnormal” sounds like.

It was great to have Ryan visit the creek again and this time he brought me a little care package with some of my favorite snacks!  On Saturday, a bunch of us had a relaxing day by the pool in Fuquay (we deserved it after that crazy week). 

…and then we got splashed!



Have a great Monday friends!

Me… Stressed??

We’re almost one month into PA school & it has actually been pretty enjoyable… Or have I spoken too soon?  I would say this is our first super busy/stressful week, and there are plenty more to come from here on out. Just to fill you in, we have 3 tests and 2 quizzes this week.. Crazy right?

Sarah & I had a nail party on Friday night.  Luckily this girl loves to paint her nails almost as much as I do and has quite an extensive polish collection.  We were meant to be roomies.

This past weekend was full of studying (aren’t they all?) and some movies… 3 to be exact.  On Saturday, Sarah & I went to the pool and made a “quick trip to Marshall’s & Target”.. or so we planned. I could walk around in Marshall’s for hours.  They seriously try to get you with all the random stuff they conveniently place at the checkout line.  Since all major shopping centers are >30 minutes away, we try to make use of our time by using our handy dandy Quizlet app to study flash cards on the go. PS: I’ve become such a nerd.

The highlight of Sunday was a trip to the outlets in Smithfield!  J. Crew was having a ridiculous sale and I seriously had to refrain myself from buying like 20 things. Here are my finds from this weekend:

What I’m looking forward to this week:
  • Getting 2 anatomy quizzes, 1 anatomy test & 1 physiology test out of the way
  • Watching the Mistresses finale- didn’t have time for it last night so I hope Facebook doesn’t ruin it for me
  • The iPhone 5S announcement today (finally!!!!!!)
  • Seeing my sweet boyfriend this weekend!

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