My Road to the OR

Hello, I am Chase Allen and this is the first post of many that will document my journey to the Operating Room or the "OR".

I am a student in Orlando, FL (right now, however this will soon change) with a Bachelors from UCF in Psychology and now finishing up my pre-med coursework at Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences.

I applied to many schools and I will be starting Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) in June of this year to begin my journey into becoming a Physician Assistant (PA-C) certified in Surgical First Assisting (CFA)

The next two years for me will be done in the Graduate Surgical First Assisting program at EVMS then the next two years after that will be in a PA program to finish off my education into becoming a PA-C CFA.

In the last year or so in applying to PA schools I have engrossed myself in pretty much all of the literature available on the internet for pre-PA and pre-CFA students and found plenty of great forums and websites that are full of information for those who are in the same position as myself. However, there was a great lack of blogs that gave a detailed account of a personal experience of the entire process. That is why I am starting this blog today, to give all that will come after me an idea of the sacrifices and rewards that will undoubtedly fill the next years for me.

I hope this serves you, the reader, well and I hope nothing but the best for all of you out there trying to make it.

I am 24 years old and have a wonderful girlfriend whom I love very much and will be leaving for a year in June as she too is in a medical program and has one year left before she is an official Dental Hygienist. This is the biggest sacrifice that I will be making among many but I believe that it will all pay off in the years to come.

I hope to look back at this first in a few years, tired from a long day in the OR and smile knowing that it was all worth it.

So I invite you all to come along with me and share my experiences in...