 DJ, turn it up, better DJ bring it back. Solid DJ, turn it up, better DJ bring it back. Solid DJ, turn it up, better DJ bring it back. Tell him, play the shit again, tell him that you like that. Like DJ, turn it up, better DJ bring it back. Solid DJ, turn it up, better DJ bring it back. Solid DJ, turn it up, better DJ bring it back. Come on. Physician Assistant Field is consistently recognized as one of the fastest growing professions. Visiting a doctor's office, you have doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. But do you know the difference? These are the professionals that you'll be seeing more of instead of doctors. Welcome, I'm Adana, the PA. And this the True Life, True Life, True Life, True Life. And this is the True Life of a minority PA student. My name is Adana, and for those of you who don't know me, I am a first-year PA student. Some of you may know me as Adana the PA on YouTube and Instagram and on YouTube I actually make weekly videos about my experience going through PA school. I also make videos just informational videos about what I wish I knew before entering into PA school so that pre-PA students and just anyone that wants to see may have an insight on what to expect in PA school. I'm a minority PA student and really and truly we are the minority in PA school and it's kind of across the board that is what you'll see. And I thought to myself well that's not necessarily cool like I want to see people like myself because I want to be able to relate to somebody else. Not everybody is going to be able to understand what I'm going through as a minority if you don't experience the same things that I experienced. So I thought let me make this documentary about this whole experience about being a minority in PA school. Of course I could not do it by myself so I enlisted the help of some amazing future PA's and my future colleagues to give you their experiences thus far in their PA school journey. Hopefully you will enjoy this documentary and just get a little bit more understanding on the minority PA student experience. Hey guys my name is James Kim. I'm Korean American. I'm a first-year PA student in the state of Nevada. You guys may know me by my Instagram handle Fresh Prince of Healthcare or my YouTube channel James Kim PA Student. Hello everyone my name is Amber Henry and I'm a first-year PA student at South University in Savannah Georgia. I'm a hundred percent African American. My mom and my dad are both black so it makes me black. Hi everybody my name is Stefania. I'm a second-year PA student and I live in Miami Florida. I am originally from Peru. I came here six years ago so yes I'm part of the Latin community. Hi my name is Tuno Chacoya. I'm a second year PA student here at the University of Florida and I'm from Nigeria. My name is Jasmine. I'm a first-year PA student at Western U in Pomona California and my nationality is Chinese, 100% and I speak Cantonese. Nice with you guys. I was pre-med in undergrad. I did not know what a PA was until my senior year of undergrad and I didn't know about this until I started working in the hospital. I saw all these white coats walking around and I saw like PAC under behind somebody's name. I just assumed it was some type of specialized doctor so I was like oh what type of doctor are you? What's that? They're like oh my physician assistant. I'm like what's that? And they you know told me what it was and their scope of practice and their role and I did more research and I was so like taking it back so like a surprise about what a PA was and it wasn't until I started applying in med schools that's when I realized that I did not want to become a doctor and it wasn't in God's will for me to become a doctor anyways. I wanted to become a PA because I shadowed an amazing PA in orthopedics. I was initially pre-med and I decided to change my mind soon after that after shadowing him. Honestly I feel that the PA profession chose me. The ability to interact with patients on a daily basis was what instantly gravitated me towards the profession. As I researched more I was able to see that not only did they have the lateral flexibility meaning they can switch specialties at any point in time but they also have the autonomy the ability to make their own clinical decisions and make their own prescriptions that was very important to me. In Peru we don't have PAs and a lot of people actually still don't understand what the what the role of a PA is so when I came here I was trying to figure out what to do since I already had five years of education in medical school back in Peru. I was very undecisive. I didn't know if it if I should keep going with the MDDO route or if I should try something else. I remember one day being at my primary care physician and having an appointment for an annual physical and he basically was never there. I will always see the PA until one day I had the courage to go and start asking her about the PA profession. I can be very curious sometimes and I started making quite asking questions and then when I saw her I saw myself being part of this profession too. For me I wanted to enter the healthcare field and go into a role in profession that I knew that I was going to make a big difference and have a good amount of authority. I personally didn't want to be stuck into one specialty so I looked into the PA role and I loved it you know there's a lot of autonomy and a lot of collaboration with physicians but you also have the flexibility of being able to move laterally into different specialties and not necessarily be burnt out and stuck in one specialty for the rest of your life. It is super important to have a racially diverse group of PAs because your patient population is going to be diverse with different cultures different beliefs. To have the understanding and to know where your patients are coming from that's that's a key thing to have as a PA. I feel like it's very important um with my mom's side of the family they're from South Louisiana so medicine down there isn't diverse at all and my family members don't go to the doctors at all and it's because they're like oh I don't trust the doctors whatever you know and I don't I think it stems more so that the doctors down there and the PAs down they don't look like them at all and even with me being a PA student and like the short like the small amount of patients I have seen the minority patients respond to me way differently and better than to do the preceptor they've opened up to me a lot more and I get a lot more information out of them than a pre preceptor does and I think it's because it's not because they trust me more because I'm a student so I don't really know much but they know that I'm not judging them and they see somebody that looks just like them and they can trust them more and I feel like if there was more diversity throughout the PA profession we could have this you know bond between patient and PAs. I think it's really important to have a diverse group of PA students in your class it definitely gives you more unique perspectives and different backgrounds that students do bring to the table and it helps students see things in a different manner and especially if you grew up in a predominantly Caucasian population it's nice to have different ethnicities and different types of people come together to provide healthcare especially down here in Miami with our Spanish speaking population and also the French and Creole and Chinese Mandarin it is very important to have a diverse culture diverse people are it's a reality in our all of our 50 states so yeah I think it's very important diversity is always welcome at least in my mind I don't see how any profession can thrive without it we all think differently as human beings we all think differently as minorities in order to succeed we have to be able to tap into those different mindsets those different experiences that each individual brings to the table and come up with one production I think any profession especially the PA profession and the nature of our job that lacks diversity is failing I think getting into PA school in general is difficult but being a minority I would say does play a little role in that majority of PA students are Caucasian and I think being a minority does somewhat play a role they do want diversity so being a minority can help you maybe get into PA school a little easier not that getting into PA school is easy at all I think it's just as difficult on Casper it doesn't require you to provide your race you only have to put your GPA GRE the classes you took in undergrad or post-bac and your letter recommendations in your healthcare hours and personal sake so they don't see your race they don't know if you're black white red green they just know your name is this and you have these dots and then you know they decided they want to give you an interview even at the interview I feel like it's just a sphere because when I interviewed I was the only minority there and I got it so I just go to show you that it's fair and I think there's not a lot of minorities in the PA profession because simply there's this lack of education in my class there are 60 students I'm one of one black male there is no one individual that looks like me thinks like me maybe grew up the same way I did and I honestly don't know why that is I often thinking that's myself if I'm one of one black male in my class does that mean I was the smartest black male applicant in that cycle or that there were no other black male applicants in that cycle I refuse to believe either of the two I believe there are inherent obstacles that minorities must face especially when applying to professional programs or graduate programs when you think of the financial burden that it requires to apply to some of these programs the level of education that some of these programs require the time commitment I do feel that on some degree it is harder to get into PA school or any professional degree program as a minority I honestly think that it's a little bit easier a little bit easier getting into PA school as a minority because as statistics show a lot of Caucasian people get into PA school maybe after all your CASFA and your personal essay and your interview is scored many programs want a more diverse class so maybe they'll take your ethnicity into account and get you in um some hard things that I found throughout the my path was that some people can make fun of the way you talk because um sometimes when I I remember they're like we would spend maybe like 10 hours at school trying to like listen to classes and like pay attention and at some point I wouldn't even function anymore and I wouldn't even like be able to communicate which sounds silly but like I remember people making fun of me because of the way I was talking or because of my accent that was a tough one for me then some professors want like because they don't understand you they might not even like take credit onto the stuff that you do I don't know I mean I it was a little bit hard for me to communicate with them in that sense but overall it was easy for me because it's being different it's always it should be always an advantage I think um the fact that I have that I know an extra language and I'm very fluent in it um makes me have an advantage over other people we are at all if you go into these inner cities and stuff their focus isn't on going to college their focus is on graduating high school so and a lot of times in these inner cities a lot of times the kids are dropping out in an early age and they're not even graduating high school even the high school I went to I went to a really good high school went to the top schools in Georgia and there was lack of I don't think there was lack of education about anything other than becoming a nurse physical therapist doctor pharmacist and business stuff you know any other options in the medical field we weren't giving with that we weren't giving that so when I was got to undergrad I still didn't know what a PA was I still didn't know what other options were I didn't even know what a respiratory therapist was until undergrad and the only reason I knew that because we had respiratory therapy school for minority high schools um I don't think there's enough exposure to the PA profession um it was either nursing or just being a doctor so I feel like there should be more traction there but in undergrad I felt like there was enough information about PAs and what they do I don't feel that minority students are properly educated on a lot of the professions prior to graduation personally I didn't find out about the PA profession until about a year or two after I had already graduated from college it wasn't until I was exposed to the profession through working at the hospital that I was able to finally see what the PA profession was about who we are as minorities in this country honestly is a multi factorial issue when you think about the lack of exposure to well-paying professions our housing the lack of resources that we have as a community it's no wonder why we tend to be second to last or last in finding out about certain things especially the PA profession when you think about the minority students who actually have to work and bring home you know a certain amount of money for the lights to stay on those kids aren't necessarily concerned with graduating or postgraduate professions they're they're mostly concerned about survival their main issue is okay how can I make it till tomorrow not next year I think the more the more exposed you are onto technology the more aware you are of what's out there you know like now kids are like they always have social media and and by being in college they always get smashed by pre-PA clubs and career fairs and if they're into medicine they start like googling what they could be doing so yeah I think they're getting more more and more informed about it however the parents which are usually a little bit of a struggle for them I think it's a little bit of a struggle for them to understand fully what the PA profession entitles to you know and sometimes you won't like I personally didn't have that much support from my parents because they didn't understand what the PA profession was and the fact that I was telling them that I wasn't gonna follow the MD DO route kind of freak them out a little bit that was kind of hard for me to make them understand that I was gonna give the same quality of care to my patients just by a different route you know I personally don't think anyone is getting educated enough about the PA profession it's still a growing field and there's still so many undergrads high school students not just minorities but just in general that don't know about the PA profession and it's really up to the pre-PA students PA students and working physician assistants to educate those that don't know what a physician assistant is and can do I think the simplest thing anyone can do is to just be more socially aware be cognizant of those around you and their experience as minorities living in America this country has a deep rid of history of marginalizing the experience of minorities the best thing any non-minority can do is to simply acknowledge minorities for who they are that's what makes us great that's what makes us different I mean I personally haven't had a problem with non-minorities um I just remember them some people making fun of me because of the way I talk that's it um but I guess for some other people who might be having struggle I wish non-minorities knew that we're here from for the same reason they are here you know we're here to help especially in our communities you know we're not here to take anybody's spot we're not here to take anybody's sparkle um and we are not trying to make them look bad because we know an extra language you know or because we we are more sensitive to other cultures because we're part of it you know we have I don't know you make your own experience and everyone has a different story so there's not one thing that I wish they knew about my experience everything is different everyone has their own story so that's my take on it I want them to know that we worked hard just as hard as you guys to get here and I think a lot of times and this sucks I'm saying it's I hate that I'm saying this I think a lot of times non-minorities they look at us and they somewhat pity us because oh they let her in because they need to seem like they're diverse to other to other to the nation so that way that they know oh we let minorities in as well so of course let's let let's let this girl in because she's such in such rays and whatever no that's not it I mean as I said Caswell doesn't look at rays when you're applying and when we get in like we work just as hard as you guys it's not harder and my mom at a very young age told me like Amber like you have to work harder because you are black you have to work you have to prove yourself to them and let them know that you deserve to be here so since when I was a young little girl I think and I think she started telling me this in like elementary school I've worked my butt off to get where I'm at and I've spent my whole life proving myself that I deserve to be here just like everybody else that I think minority pre-PAs might have is that they might not get it and I don't blame them because if you look at the statistics more Caucasians get into PA school than any other race or ethnicity um so don't feel like there's no chance for you because each class coming through is more and more diverse my class of 98 we are so diverse we have so many cultures so many backgrounds ages gender it's it's so different so don't lose hope one misconception is that we isolate like this isolation like this divide that's in my in my PA class that's not the case um we are one big happy family I've met some of the most amazing people I have ever met my classmates are great the faculty is so great so yeah like you know there's not a lot minorities but at the same time like we don't separate ourselves from everybody else like we're a one big happy family like I have my classmates are awesome so I just want them to know that there is the support is there you're not by yourself like you can reach up to your classmates and they're not going to judge you that we're all going through a struggle we're all going through this PA struggle like it's a struggle so and they can relate to that you know as well so don't be afraid to reach out to somebody you know that doesn't look like you that comes from different backgrounds like you know like try to be their friends because you you might look miss out on an amazing person I think as minorities a lot of times we sell ourselves short we don't give ourselves enough credit we always feel that because of where we came from that we're not good enough the truth is you are good enough it's not better your experience is what allows you to excel in PA school the minority experience is often depicted as one of great struggle and shame but honestly it's what makes us resilient I think a lot of people think that because we're minorities we're in disadvantage and that's absolutely false the fact that you're culturally aware of exposed to other to other people makes you be in an advantage and I mean it might not seem like not in advantage but like it might be easier for you to understand what your patients are coming where your patients are coming from it's gonna be it's gonna make way more sense when you're your rotations you know like when doctors don't speak a language and they ask you to translate and you can get more into a more personal communication with your patients that helps you a lot and no I'm explaining the yes so when big controversy when big things come up that affects us as a whole we bond together like there's no idealist business and I feel like it's beautiful like it's so awesome to see everything that's you know all the like troubles and stuff we've gone through and how we like you know unite together and help each other out and like my friends I can always rely on them and they have my back and I can always like if I need anything like I would go to them and they won't say like they won't even hesitate to say no the no part is so if there's not nothing controversial going on expecting a little as a whole a lot of times we're hearing each other down and I hate it so much because I'm such a positive person and I hate when people like are going out of with each other and bring each other down so it breaks my heart to see you know when we have minorities bring each other down and not banding together because I look at a lot of other races and not minorities and stuff and consistently they're helping each other out just because you helped somebody else does not dim your light you know what God wants you to do will happen if it's in God's purpose it will happen so based on my personal experience I haven't had a situation where I didn't feel like we weren't helping each other even with non minority people like in this profession we're here to help we're here to help anybody it doesn't matter who they are yes some people get very focused on their on their own success but I think that overall the majority of people in general either non minority or minority do help a lot I feel in general minorities do help each other out but my personal take on it is that help anyone out that's struggling don't just help out your minority brothers and sisters I mean that's great everyone's going to succeed everyone's going to do well but there shouldn't be that divide and just help whoever is struggling honestly it's a very difficult question you know as minorities we've been oppressed and we've been put into a situation where we're still having to battle some of those past ideologies a lot of what minorities have to overcome today is due to what they had to overcome in the past with this country's history a lot of minority groups have been systematically oppressed to the point where they're just starting to realize they're in a potential and just starting to realize okay we have so much further to go there is a detrimental mentality that some minorities have where they feel they have to outshine the next minority or they have to feel like they're better than the next minority but honestly you know one success means nothing if they're unable to help the next person coming after them it is so different like it's not even funny we I had an idea I don't know what I was thinking to be honest I was like I told you guys I was in medical school before I was on on the set on the seven-year program I finished five years and I remember the pace that we will go through medical school and the classes it was like nicely paced you know like we had enough time to grasp all the concepts in here it's just like that meme that they always show you that the fire hose starts like throwing all this water onto your onto your mouth and you're like getting like overwhelmed by all this information that's completely completely completely true everyone says PA school is like drinking from a fire hydrant with the amount of information you have to learn in a short period of time and that is honestly the most accurate way to describe it and for me I was expecting that but even then the amount of information we had to learn in a short period of time still overwhelm me to some degree but it's definitely doable it's hard it's difficult you're gonna have long nights of studying but it's definitely something that you can complete so I feel like they did PA school at this justice this junk is hard it's a lot of work like I'm in class eight to five Monday through Friday and I'll come home get home around like 5 30 and study until like 11 11 30 and most weekends I have a lot more free time on the weekend but it's a lot of work um I will say that it does fly by I can't believe that I'm 10 months in and I start rotations in five months so I will say that it's still so surreal that I'm almost done like in 17 months I'll be graduating thank god but yes it's everything that they say not if anything they you know they kind of like flip it down prior to being accepted here I was in my early 20s still very young in the mind and I didn't realize how much of my time my effort and just my personal sacrifice would actually be expected of me there were a semester where I was studying eight to ten to even 12 hours a day weeks where I wouldn't even go to the gym because I didn't have enough time each day passes each week passes each month passes and every time it's a different sacrifice that is kind of expected than you to make the truth of the matter is your time is limited what we're studying here today is not just so we can pass an exam on Friday is to save somebody's life one day now that I am in PA school um it's a little different than what I expected it to be because getting into a class of 98 students it's a little overwhelming um it's one of the biggest classes here in southern California and I thought I was gonna be overwhelmed but it's such a huge family people coming from different cultures and beliefs like I said earlier in this video um that really helps with dealing with school issues and life outside of school um so I love the familial support and my whole class it's it's amazing I did not feel like I was gonna be as successful that I as I was you know I was just kind of just like now let me try this out you know I need to share my journey with others because when I was applying to PA school I didn't have a mentor and I feel like if I would have a mentor I wouldn't have not made as many mistakes as I did and I just love hearing people's stories and so unique you know hearing how everybody got here and I just love like having people come to me asking questions about PA school like I enjoyed that more a lot more than studying like I would rather if I could sit around and answer you guys questions all day I would I absolutely embrace being someone that you guys can look up to and can reach out to I'm pretty much an open resource for you guys you guys can reach me through Instagram YouTube anything like that even Facebook I don't feel it as a burden at all I love doing what I do and I love helping you guys and my goal is to help you guys get into whatever program you guys do choose to apply to I personally feel honored that people are looking up to me um I never thought I was gonna be able to to lead by example um although I've also like to talk about my experience and help other people out I never thought it was gonna get this um this good and this big I don't care if a lot of people are are looking up to me I just want if one person can actually change their lives because of the way I live mine and help them out to succeed I'll be happy I love the fact that I started the IG account and my blog initially I thought it might be a little too much because I should be studying I should be focusing on passing exams um all that but honestly it's a stress reliever and kind of like a great mental break for me every time I do something like this um so I embrace it and I love that people are reaching out to me and seeing um seeing what they're doing with their lives and how I'm able to inspire them that that makes me so happy and yeah I embrace it so much honestly in the beginning it was pretty hard to conceptualize that I have people who are looking to me for guidance or looking to me as an example I'm the youngest of four boys and I've never had to be an example to anyone else I've always had the examples to look up to and now that I'm in this position you know I'm starting to embrace it more and more and I'm starting to realize the impact that I truly have being in PA school and being in my position I believe that who we idolize or who we respect is who we attempt to emulate it's who we become for me I would say maybe just having more diversity especially because majority of the PA population is Caucasian but even just diversity within the minority PA students just seeing different backgrounds and different cultures come together is something that I wish will continue continue to happen and continue to grow in this profession I say I would say in here it's not so hard because although we might seem like we are the minority I don't think anybody in here is not Spanish speaking person you know like I mean I'm I'm being a little bit dramatic but I think like a lot of people do know how to I mean there's a huge Latin community here there's a huge Creole speaking community here and but I guess for other states where minorities are really minorities I will I will wish for understanding from non-minority people you know understand what we're coming from understand that we're not from here it's hard to adjust to a new culture and a new system it has never been it has never been easier for us to adapt to other cultures but we were able to thrive and do it as best as we can and I will I will wish for people to understand that mine would be to go into the inner cities and what you know areas that's heavily populated with minorities and to just spread awareness about the profession in general I feel like if we did this you know them the world end up closing the gap between whites and non my and my whites and minorities in my in me using me as a personal example I didn't I went I lived in like the suburbs of Atlanta you know the area it's a pretty like the area I lived in what's a pretty affluent area and I didn't know what a PA was and that's been coming from a pretty like from really good background and here you have these inner cities kids they don't have the same opportunities that I grew up having and a lot of other you know the non-mortem minorities did and a lot of times for like minorities they sometimes think being a coming a doctor and going to be um is not attainable and it's I mean it's kind of intimidating seeing you know four years of medical school four years of um or four plus years of residency and a lot of them think they can't do it and that's all they know they don't know there's other options you know a lot of inner city kids like their goal isn't even to go to college in high school or go to college while they're in high school is to graduate because the graduation rate is so low and I feel like if we start young you know educating them encouraging them to you know do better things like hey you can do this simply more diversity the patient population that we treat on a daily basis is as diverse as it comes and I think we fail them and fall short when we don't match that with our class population if a black male comes into my clinic and I diagnose him with hypertension he's more likely to follow my recommendation as far as what anti-hypertensive medications he needs to take this is why diversity is important this is why having minority pa students is important those minority pa students are going to be able to connect on a level with their minority patients that most other races can if I was granted one wish about the minority pa experience I would just abolish the divide of minority versus non-minority because it shouldn't be like that like everyone love each other everyone push each other encourage each other and succeed together my final message goes out to anybody on their path to success who's currently struggling focus on your journey the obstacles you overcome today are only going to contribute to your strength tomorrow never compare your journey to others you are in your own time zone just because it's 12 o'clock in the state of florida and nine o'clock in the state of california doesn't mean that any one time zone is wrong the journey that you're currently on today is going to be the blueprint for somebody tomorrow it's really hard to get into peace well despite your ethnicity your nationality your culture all that it's it's what you make of your experience and it took me three times to get in but I think it all happened for a reason so keep pushing surround yourself with positive people and just help each other out it's going to be okay and we're all going to be successful so just keep that positive in your life as minorities we need to stop tearing each other down I hate to see us you know say negative things about each other and whatnot and because you know when my own minority see us tearing each other down you know publicly it lets them know that hey it's okay to do it because they're doing it themselves and it's not okay well nobody should be tearing anybody down whether we're white black red green we need to sit there and you know spread love because in the day and age you're living in so much hate going on there's so much hate going on and sad to see sad to see that as minorities we're not banding together like we should like we support each other on big controversial things but when it comes to when that's over we're back to bashing each other and saying negative things and saying hurtful things to each other and you know that's not how god wants us to act that's not how it's not godly so we just need to stop it and I encourage everybody to you know compliment somebody just compliment one person a day and not only are you making some ideals full of better but you're making yourself feel better my goal is to help you guys get into whatever program you guys do choose to apply to and whether you guys choose pa or medical school or ot or pt school I want to be there to help you guys reaffirm your decision in what you guys want so whether I help you guys get into pa school or a different type of grad school or just help you figure out what you want in life that's definitely my ultimate purpose and I absolutely love doing it things are gonna happen you're gonna fall you're gonna fail um they're gonna be so there's gonna be so many rocks thrown into you but just let that be the motivation for you to keep pushing for and fighting for your dreams don't ever give up on your dreams um it's never hard also I would like to leave you guys with a quote that I love I I've been very into it lately and it's it says everything you need your courage your strength your compassion and your love everything you need it's already within you so this marks 50 years of the pa profession being in existence and I wanted to make this documentary to have it serve as an introduction to not only the profession but to minorities in the profession ultimately it's something that I did not see when I was applying to med schools because initially I wanted to be a physician so I didn't know about the pa profession when I was looking at different healthcare routes it was either go to med school or become a nurse really and truly but there is more out there and I want minority students to understand and know that hey there's a huge landscape in healthcare and the pa profession is one of them that needs more of them in it so do your research and hopefully it's a profession that you will love and you can add to and you can thrive in because you can do it I want experiences all of these individuals experiences to serve as motivation to you all that there's other people that look like me that are going through the same thing maybe in a different situation but they have some similar experiences to me so if they can do it I can absolutely do it because you absolutely can that's really and truly what this documentary is all about understanding the minority experience in pa school but just also the minority experience in healthcare because with all of the different health disparities it's essential that we're able to relate to our patients so lastly but definitely not least I want to give a special thank you to all of my participants that gave their experiences in this documentary if you guys want to just follow them or support them on their journey you can do so at their different social media handles that were provided in this documentary thank you guys so much for watching and I will see you guys later bye so I want to thank adana the pa for giving me the opportunity to talk a little bit about my experience and also what it's to be a minority on pa school and I am so honored to be featured today on adana's youtube channel I just want to give a huge shout out and thank you to adana for featuring me on this video I'm really excited for how it's going to turn out don't forget to subscribe to our channel and follow her on instagram as well at adana the pa yeah