Reflecting back on this first year in Elon’s PA program has made me realize how lucky I am in so many ways.  I am lucky to have been chosen by the faculty to attend and then represent Elon as a practicing PA.  I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet 37 of the finest people on this planet and to call them my friends.  Each and every one of my classmates has shown to me that they will become invaluable assets to our profession, and I will have no hesitation referring any of my patients to them.  This year has also shown me that I am without a doubt the luckiest husband and father ever!  I owe so much to my wife for her support, encouragement, and patience with me having to devote so much time to school, all while she has worked a full-time job and cared for our 3 children all by herself (this includes two teenagers) 😊.  So, I owe as much of any accomplishments I have as a PA student and future PA-C to her.

This year has been one of the most challenging for me and my family, but we have persevered, just as will all of you incoming PA students.  Everyone’s journey is unique, because you all come from different backgrounds and have had your own life experiences.  I believe Elon chooses it’s PA students deliberately to find individuals who have overcome challenges in their lives and who have the ability to use those experiences to grow and to help others.

To get to this point, you have honed the ability to believe and trust in your own abilities, but now you must also learn to believe and trust in others.  You must learn to believe in your classmates; this is essential, because you are going to spend A LOT of time together in the first year. When the going gets tough, and it will get tough, you must learn to believe and trust in the faculty. They selected you for a reason, and they are invested to do whatever is in their power to make sure you succeed and become a competent and compassionate PA.

Out of all that I have learned this year, there are two things I feel made huge difference. So I will pass along some pearls of wisdom I gained from this year and throw them out there for you as my two cents about how to survive your first year in PA school, for what it’s worth😊

  1. You CAN teach an old dog new tricks. I am what is considered a “non-traditional” student, which is not only apparent by the grey in my hair, and groans I make when getting up from hours of sitting, but also by the “apparently dated” pop culture references from the eighties and early-mid nineties. All of us have developed strategies for studying and learning over the years which have brought us academic success, but keep in mind that strategies that used to work in the past may not prove as effective in PA school.  Especially with the sheer volume of information to acquire in such a short amount of time.  Learn to utilize different resources to find what works best for you.  From reading power point slides, to watching you tube videos, to answering review questions from a test bank, to acting out case studies–all can be valuable methods to learn medicine.  Make sure to remain open to changing things up when learning different body systems and disease conditions, because what works for learning one system may not work for another. Also, stop looking at your grades, or at least stop obsessing over them.  I realize that may be a little uncomfortable for most of you, since grades are the primary way you have been evaluated, and how you have measured your own success.  But scores on exams assess memory, which is important in learning, don’t get me wrong, but your scores do not measure your ability to learn from mistakes and gain wisdom, and they don’t measure your ability to be empathetic and connect with patients, which are the skills that are ultimately going to guide your success in the real world.  So if you find yourself getting bummed out because you aren’t making the perfect scores like you did in undergrad, stop looking for a grade and instead search for connections between disease pathology and how it may present in a patient, and search for understanding in how to ask the right questions when taking a patient’s history.  Stop trying to acquire points toward a specific GPA; instead, focus on learning as much as you can about what skills you need to become a competent, compassionate, and empathetic PA-C.
  2. Relentless forward progress. This is a mantra I learned and adopted from my experience as a trail runner that interestingly has applied well to navigating this first-year journey. Just like a long trail run/race on a long a challenging course filled with steep climbs, sharp descents, rolling hills, short flat stretches, switch backs, not to mention plenty of rocks, roots, stream crossings, and mud puddles, your first year has it all and every step has its own challenges. My non-trail runner friends always ask how I keep from falling all the time, and first I confess that of course I fall sometimes, but so far (knock on wood and rub dirt on my hands), I have not taken a fall that has ever kept me from finishing a run or race.  When I start a trail run, I make a point to know what my goal is, be it time on the trail regardless of distance, or to simply complete the course/trail.  With that in mind, I cannot run while only looking toward the finish line; that is a certain recipe to earn some “trail love” (what trail runners call wounds inflicted from falling/face planting on the trail).  These wounds always involve blood mixed with dirt and/or water and almost always result from a failure to keep track of what ground is beneath you.  The trick to minimizing falls on a trail run is to look forward, while being aware of what ground lies ahead so you can jump, step around, or duck under whatever obstacle lies ahead.  So during this year, keep focused on what’s in front of you, knowing that each conscientious step is relentless progress toward your goal of becoming a PA.  So when you trip, regain your footing, when climb gets too steep to run, slow down and lean in, and when you slip while crossing the creek or stream, remember that it’s just water, it’ll dry and keep moving, putting one foot in front of the other, with relentless forward progress.

Michael Whitehurst, husband, father, human, MS, PA-S

Class of 2019