 True Life Series. So this True Life Series is True Life, I am an OB-GYNPA. If you haven't seen any of my other True Life Series, please go ahead, hit up that playlist. I have a ton of videos on different True Life topics from being a minority student to actually being like a pre-PA, former collegiate student. So go ahead, hit up my playlist right now to see those videos. But this video is going to be talking about something that is near and dear to my heart. So I don't know if many of you know, but I originally wanted to be like original original like the OG really wanted to be a neonatologist when I was a lot younger. And then I kind of transitioned to just being an OB-GYN. And then when I realized, you know, I don't want to be a physician anymore. I want to be a PA, which I am very happy with the chosen path that I have kind of embarked on. And I just kind of shy, I guess, away from OB-GYN because it's not really something that you hear about a lot. You don't really hear about a lot of OB-GYNPAs. So I was ecstatic when I met Jaquetta, who is actually the PA that is going to be talking about being an OB-GYNPA in this particular True Life Series. I met her at the APA conference this year because she was talking to me about looking at some of my videos on YouTube, which I was super humble about. I was like, Oh my gosh, thanks. That's so cool. But she also told me that she was an OB-GYNPA. And I was like, I didn't know they had those. That is crazy. And I know that some of you have been asking me about OB-GYNPA. So this is for you. This is for us. And I'm sure that she's going to do a great job in talking about what it means to be an OB-GYNPA. So please, without further ado, just give your attention to Jaquetta. She will be talking about being an OB-GYNPA. And stay tuned till the end because I will give you my thoughts on the whole True Life. Hi, my name is Jaquetta Melvin. I'm an OB-GYNPA. And this is my True Life. So for me, the steps to becoming an OB-GYNPA started in undergrad. I attended Howard University. And while there, I was initially majoring in biology. Wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to work in medicine. I knew I wanted to work in women's health or in child health, pediatrics. But I wasn't completely sure. So when I found out about the PA program, I decided that's what I wanted to do. I researched the profession. It seemed rewarding. It seemed positive. Like I could really make a difference medically. And I could take care of patients. It was kind of the best of both worlds. So I applied to the PA program at Howard University. And then the program was a bachelor's program. So instead of finishing undergrad in four years, I finished undergrad in five years. And the last two and a half years were basically classes for PA school and then a year of clinicals. And during my clinicals, I definitely took more electives in OB-GYN. A lot of my electives were with one of my clinical instructors who was an OB-PA. She worked on labor and delivery. So lots of my exposure to OB-GYN was through OB and through labor and delivery. I've been an OB-GYNPA for, this is my ninth year, so nine years total. My first day on the job was intense. It was nerve-wracking. It was exciting. It was hard. But I genuinely remember leaving and feeling exhausted, but also feeling like I can't wait to come back the next day. I learned so much in that small amount of time. My supervisor and physician was awesome. The other nurse practitioners and PAs that I worked with were awesome. And everybody kind of took me under their wing and made a commitment to training me and making me the best that I could be. And so although the first day was difficult, it was definitely, it helps solidify when I left. Although I was tired, I was like, this is exactly what I want to do. Like there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to continue practicing in this specialty. So as far as my scope of practice, I see everything from well, woman exams or annual exams to patients coming in for cervical biopsies or we call them coposcopies. I work only in GYN for right now. My position is an outpatient GYN position, so I'm taking care of patients who are coming in for wellness checks, who are coming in for birth control refills, who are coming in to get their IUDs placed or to get their next venants placed or taken out. Patients who are coming in for pap smears, patients who are coming in for to have a polyp removed, an ultrasound, a coposcopy, all different types of procedures. So my scope is pretty broad. And these are things that I've learned over the years. So starting out as a GYNPA, my first couple years, it was very cut and dry. It was I was seeing birth control. I was seeing patients who were coming in with abnormal vaginal discharge or irregular bleeding, and then just slowly work my way up to doing procedures and to learning new things. I will say the physicians that I've worked with have been very, very hands-on and training, wanting me to learn more and wanting to teach me more. So over the time I've learned new things, I've picked them up and I've become competent in them. You'll find PAs who work in OBGYN, meaning they see OB patients, they may see some GYN patients mixed in, and you'll find PAs who work only in GYN and only in OB. So I know PAs like myself who work in GYN until we see a lot of the women who are coming in with different problems. And then I know PAs who literally work in L&D and they deliver and they first assist in C-sections and things like that. So it can be separate or you can possibly do both. So there's room for, there's room for it all. So a typical day on the job for me, I'm working outpatient care right now and we see patients during the normal business hours from 8 to 5. So when I arrive in the morning, I go over my schedule just to get an idea of what's on, what's on the schedule for the day to see if there's any patients who have messaged me because my system, we have a secure messaging system where patients can message me directly. So I look to see if anybody has messaged me during the overnight who needs anything. I check my labs to see if there are any patients who have any labs that I need to contact them about, anything urgent that I need to call them about. And then I kind of go through refill requests to see if patients need refills on anything and just kind of handle the administrative side of medicine at the first thing in the morning. I also like to check in with my nurse because she's literally my right hand and she kind of keeps me on track. So I like to check in with her to see if there's anything from the previous day that she needed me to complete or if there's anything on the schedule for the current day that she wants to go over with me or kind of prep me for. She's awesome at having rooms prepped and having things already kind of ready for me to do what I need to do. And so I will say that that partnership is big in making you a good PA and a good provider is having, you know, your staff that works with you, you know, being on board and being a team player. So I will say that my nurse keeps me on track and makes sure I'm where I'm supposed to be and doing what I'm supposed to do. So me and her always have a morning chat just to just kind of make sure we're on the same page and for me to check in with her to see if there's anything that she needs. And then we get the day going and patients range, you know, anything from coming in for an IUD coming in for a quadcoposcopy or simply coming in because she has vaginal discharge and wants to get it checked out. In the middle of the day we have lunch and the clinic shuts it down. During that time I may also go back and review labs or check messages from patients, do phone calls, and then we see patients at until five at the end of the day. Usually at the end of the day I wrap up what, you know, at the beginning of the end of the day maybe around 4.30 I start to wrap up and make sure that everybody's taken care of, make sure all my prescriptions have been sent down or sent to wherever they need to go, and then I leave. At this point in my job I do not take calls so I work in the outpatient setting so it's just from eight to five that we see patients during that time and do our procedures. I am transitioning to a job where I'll be doing inpatient gynecology and so I hope to come back and do another video and update you guys on how that's going and the responsibilities that's, you know, associated with that job because it's gonna be inpatient and outpatient are completely different so I'm excited to come back in a few months and let you guys know how that's going. For me I would have to say the most difficult part of my job is giving the bad news. So being a PA, an OB, GYN, we do test patients for STDs and things of that sort and so there have been times when I've had to break it to patients that they were positive for, you know, chlamydia, forgotten aria or even, you know, more scarier HIV and that's never, that's never a fun thing to do. It's never something that I would want anybody to have to do. It's always hard, it's always difficult but the best thing to do in that point in time is just to be a listening ear, to have compassion and just be there for those patients. So although it's never fun, it's never something that I really want to do. As a PA I know it's something that I have to do and so I don't take it lightly. I definitely take those visits seriously when I have patients who come in that I have to be the bearer of bad news and then I make sure I just spend that extra time with them to make sure that they're processing the news okay and then be a listening ear for them to call me or message me if they have questions or concerns afterwards. The most rewarding part of my job is the bonds that I make with my patients. So when patients come to their GYN visits, they're never running in barging down the doors, super excited about their visit. Usually they talk to a friend or they talk to a cousin who told them this is gonna be the worst pain of their life. They should never come to the GYN and so the most rewarding part of my job is when I'm able to do my job correctly and do it well enough where patients feel comfortable coming back. So when I have patients who call and they say I need an appointment but I only want to see jacquetta then that makes me that makes me feel good because I know that the first time when they came I did what I was supposed to do. So I would say the most rewarding part of my part of my job is the bonds that I make with the patients that lead to the continuity of care and then just the overall relationships that that are built the trust that's huge in a in a PA patient relationship trust is big so that's I would say that would be the most rewarding part for me. Some of the most important things that I've learned since becoming an OB-GYN PA is one networking. So being a PA in this specialty is hard because there are a very small percentage of us. I think the last time the AAPA released their huge document that talks about the different specialties there were only maybe five percent of PAs who work in OB-GYN. I may be wrong but I know it was a small number. So what I've learned that over the years you have to networking if you're interested in this specialty you have to find PAs who are doing what you want to do so they can help guide you and give you advice and kind of just be there to help you navigate to that point. So for any pre PAs any PA students any current PAs who are interested in the specialty definitely find a PA who's working in this specialty and link up with them so that they can kind of guide you to get where you want to go. Lots of people don't even know that PAs can work in OB-GYN and they see it as a specialty that's very hard for PAs to get into and although it is we're here and we're working and we're seeing patients and we're taking care of people and there are spaces for us it's just finding those spaces. So one of the things I learned is network network network especially if you want to get into this specialty for students if you're on your clinical rotations ask for an elective in OB-GYN getting that extra education it can only be helpful it can only help you in securing a possible job once you graduate. You can say I did an extra rotation on labor and delivery or I did an extra rotation in MFN, maternal fetal medicine. So one of the other important things that I've learned since being an OB-GYN PA is the value of a residency. So you know residencies are optional for PAs but for PAs who are looking to go into OB-GYN it is one of those specialties where you learn a lot on the job and you learn a lot of harder things on the job like delivering babies and those types of things and so I have seen more employer employers you know asking applicants have you done a residency or how much experience do you have. A lot of the students that I mentor a lot of the students that I speak to who asked my just personal opinion I say you know it could be helpful. I know that if there have been more residencies available back when I finished PA school or not even available but if I had just knew for sure that I wanted to do them and tell them because remember I mentioned earlier earlier that I had been considering Peds. If I had known that that that passion was certainly there for women's health I probably would have done a residency. Now I have the experience to kind of back up the things that I want to do and want to learn but for new graduates who are coming straight out of PA school who are interested in this specialty one of the things that I have learned in being an OBGYN PA is that experience really goes a long way so a residency may be beneficial in your instance if you know that you want to work in OBGYN and you're willing to put in that extra year to get that additional training. Overall I would say that OBGYN it's a passion of mine so it's one of those things where I knew once I started working in GYN that this is where I wanted to stay. I implore students pre-PAs current PAs who have an interest in OBGYN like I said before definitely find someone who is in this specialty that can help you or reach out to someone that may be able to help you navigate the intricacies of OBGYN. The association of PAs and OBGYN is also a really valuable resource there you can network with PAs who work in OBGYN as well as stay up-to-date on different guideline changes, different recommendations, different CMEs directed towards PAs who work in OBGYN as well as webinars and other type of networking experiences. So if you are a pre-PA, a PA student, a current PA, I definitely would encourage you to visit the website and consider becoming a member if you want to learn more about PAs in this specialty. I also would encourage you all to shadow a PA in OBGYN that way you can get an idea of what a PA does. Like I said some PAs work solely in OB, some PAs work solely in GYN and some do a mixture of both. So I would definitely encourage shadowing a PA in OBGYN so that you can get an idea of what they do day to day. Shadowing me as an OBGYN PA you would probably get a different experience than you would shadowing another PA who works in the specialty simply because we can work inpatient outpatient like I said before and do lots of different things. So if you really want to get a first-hand account of what we do then I encourage patients to, not patients, students, pre-PA students to shadow PAs in the specialty just to get an idea. That was amazing! Oh my gosh I'm super excited now. Do I want to be an OBGYN PA? I'm kind of leaning towards it a little bit more. Guys you know I already told you guys that I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. I kind of wanted to do something in women's health probably P's to get my foundation first and something more general so like the ED or primary care. But I'm thinking that I might just want to go straight into being an OBGYN PA especially if I can do both inpatient and outpatient because I want to be there there's this thing called a laborist where like I'm actually delivering babies. I want to be delivering babies you guys I think that's really cool. So I just want to thank you Jakwata for opening my eyes to the OBGYN PA profession. I really appreciate that and I really appreciate you taking your time out to answer these questions and to actually give information to some of my viewers that didn't know just like I didn't know about what it means to be an OBGYN PA so I really really appreciate that thank you. Please be sure to follow her on all her different social media handles and see what she's doing. Again guys this profession is growing like honestly on a day-to-day basis things are constantly changing so what we've been talking about for the past year yeah can you believe that we've been on here for a year now but what we've been talking about for the past year is going to quickly change in the years to come and it's only gonna get better so just continue to do your research even if there might not be a field that you're currently interested in if you still have time if you're like still in your undergraduate career you know do your research talk about it see what might be opening up because who knows by the time you're ready to become a PA your field of choice might be open and you can be the trendsetter for that particular field. Thank you guys leave your comments in the comment section below if you have any questions that wasn't answered in the particular True Life series or if you have any True Life series that you want to see leave that below. Don't forget to like this video and follow me on Instagram at AdanaThePA. I really appreciate each and every one of you and I wouldn't be here without any of you so thank you guys so much for continuing to follow me on this journey and continuing to look at these different True Life series. I will talk to you guys next time can't wait to see you. Bye! All the time I'm recording and my kids Play-Doh and Purse is on the floor. I thought I had a clean shot.