The University of Florida (Go Gators!), Majored in Health Science. I loved my major!

South College in Knoxville Tennessee

In undergrad I worked nights + weekends as a Patient Care Tech (I became licensed as a Certified Nursing Assistant before applying to this position) in a Pediatric after hours clinic which was a part of a Peds Emergency Dept after graduating undergrad / during my gap yr, I worked for a surgical tool company- (not your avg post-bacc job & it did not apply towards my direct patient care hrs, but it gave incredible insight and the opportunity to network while spending so many hours in the OR (+ counted as HCE) Other direct patient care hours I used in my application were medical mission trips to Nicaragua and India.

I applied with roughly 1,000 hours of PCE and a full time year of HCE that I acquired during my gap year.

Overall, this comes down to personal choice & is a loaded question. 
I actually wrote a blog post on it too. Knowing that the medical field was an interest, I began taking pre-req courses when I discovered the PA profession. The role of being an advance practice provider with freedom to switch specialties seemed like a dream + sig. less schooling than med school. I immediately switched my focus to classes best preparing me for the PA school apps. Becoming a provider was the most important aspect to me;I wanted to improve the connection in the patient-provider relationships without the requirement of a residency in addition to the extra 2 yrs of med school. I researched the responsibilities & role of a PA in the healthcare team + knew it was the route I needed to pursue! 

I should preface that this answer will vary even within the specialty to any PA you ask- all dependent upon the scope your attendings practice at! But- since you asked: My provider role in Vascular is primarily surgical- so the majority of my time is spent in the operating room as a first assist to my surgeons (I scrub with all of the surgeons, currently there are 6). My job is not only confined to OR duties, but to assure patients are assessed & ready for surgery pre-operatively, as well. I assess patients in the inpatient (hospital) & outpatient (clinical) settings, this includes: new patient consults, pre-operative assessments; intra- and post-operative care. Some examples of conditions that our team treats and operations we perform include, but not limited to: abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture repairs and dissections, arterial reconstructions, arterial thrombectomies, carotid artery stenosis, endovascular repairs / stent placements, creation of long term access for hemodialysis use, &

I also take the first call for our entire vascular team every third night & every third weekend, which encompasses coverage for the surrounding associated hospitals &/or facilities that do not have the surgical subspecialty on site.

Because of COVID and abiding to hospital policies, students' applications to observe/shadow are not being accepted at this time. I will be sure to announce when this changes!

Currently, no ambassador codes are honored on the FIGS site at this time

Nope, however - I did make sure I shadowed with the practice in/out of the OR prior to accepting the position (definitely recommend it even if you have experience in the field).

I did not. However, some specialties like Emergency Medicine or Dermatology offer these (not required) which can assist new PA graduates to have a more competitive application for these fields.

Long story short: we’re from the same hometown, but for the more juicy version- look over here

Our wedding date was Feb 12, 2021 — to see all the wedding details of our perfect day, head over here