 Tia pet, the pottery that grows. Colorful pegs that grow with light, light bulb not included. My little pony! Book report using Scripps it on Radio Shack's Color Computer 3. It hooks up to his TV. And Jeff said his Radio Shack Color Computer 3 play in the newest football game. Juicy fruit, it's gone and moved ya. It chews a saw, it gets right to ya. Juicy fruit, the taste, the taste, the taste is gone and moved ya. It's Adana and some of you may know me as Adana the PA. But for those of you who don't know me as Adana the PA, I do make YouTube videos about my PA journey. And I am a non-traditional PA student. I am twa- I was about to say I was turning on y'all. I'm so confused. I am 31 years old and I started PA school at 31. I had just turned 31 when I started PA school. And I have a lot of people asking me how old is too old to start PA school? Or is 27 too old to go to PA school? And so I wanted to answer that question in this documentary. So that's why I made it. This is another part of our True Life series. But this one is the true life of the non-traditional PA student. And I have these wonderful amazing PA students and pre-PA students that are non-traditional students that are going to talk to you about their experience this far in their PA school attaining journey. So those pre-PA students that want to get into PA school that are your non-traditional students and then those that have already started their program. And they're just going to answer some of your questions and hopefully give you a better understanding of how old is too old to enter into PA school. Hi, my name is Heather Nations. I'm a second year PA student at University of Florida and I'm 45 years old. Hi, my name is Tangela Barr and I am a non-traditional pre-PA student and I'm 38 years old. Hey guys, my name is Daniel and I am a current Emory PA student in my first semester and I am 29 years old. Hey y'all, my name is Alexis Appleton and I am an aspiring PA student and I'm 43. My name is Jasmine. I am a second year PA student at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and I am about to be 41 in a couple of weeks. Hi, my name is Court Thompson. I'm a second year PA student with Marshall B. Ketchum University in Fullerton, California. I am 56 years old. So I love the level of care that PA's provide to their patient. I like that we have the time to spend with them and I love the idea of being a physician extender and being able to expand on really good care and follow through with patient care. I want to be a PA because I want to be able to practice medicine and this field would allow me to practice in the style, in the way that I currently treat patients. I want to become a PA because I want to be able to assess and treat and, you know, diagnose not in that order, assess, diagnose and treat patients. Well, I wanted to become a doctor when I was about 26 years old. I decided I used to be a phlebotomist and when I was out making patients rounds, I said, you know, I want to do this. I want to be able to actually be out there and talk to patients. I had been working in the lab and I said, you know what? I'm going to get a medical school and I want to do med-peeds so I can take care of people of all ages and the very next week we found out we were expecting our first baby. So put that on the back burner. Well, I thought that PAs only did bone marrow aspirations. That's the experience that I had with PAs when I worked in the lab and I did not want to do that. But as far as taking care of patients, yes, I would love to do that. When I found out what PAs did, I was on board and I decided that that was exactly what I wanted to do so I started looking into the prerequisites. I want to become a PA because my family had the good fortune to interact with an amazing PA when my mom was fighting ovarian cancer. She made a difficult time as easy as it could be for us and she was my inspiration to want to be that person for other families. The short answer is I want to do more. I recognize that our health care system is broken and if I can be a part of the solution, I should. Well, life before PA school seems like a long time ago but it was tough. It was a lot of juggling. I was a respiratory therapist at a hospital and I worked 12-hour shifts. On top of that I had to get my prerequisites for PA school. I went into my associate's degree for respiratory therapy and then after that I did some two years as a respiratory therapist working full-time or pretty in part-time and then full-time hours and then finally going back to school as a getting my bachelor's degree in respiratory therapy and that took another two years and then finally towards the end I started taking more or the science prerequisites that I needed to complete and then my GRE so it was a long process. Well, I got my undergraduate degree in clinical laboratory science. It's known as medical laboratory science now. I was a medical technologist in the laboratory for quite a while before I had kids. When I was 20 years old, 1920, I did not want to even think about being near a cadaver. That really freaked me out so that's why I did not pursue medical school. So before PA school, I have a bachelor's degree in occupational therapy from UF and I worked briefly as an occupational therapist. I also raised in homeschooled my four children. I worked as a doubola and I have some medical assisting experience as well. Worked retail and then over the last 13 years as a registered respiratory therapist in two different hospitals. Life for me before being on this PA journey, like I said, I'm an acupuncturist also was a rehab tech in undergrad and then while I was in acupuncture school. Not really because of my life experience and my years of medical experience working as a respiratory therapist. I thought I had a pretty good shot. Sometimes I do feel like I am at a disadvantage because I'm not fresh out of college and I feel like that is more my own insecurities. It's more of me just thinking, you know, do I know enough? Am I quick enough to remember certain things because for somebody who just came right out of of college, their, you know, study habits are different than mine. I had a lot of questions about how I would keep up with younger students, how I would adapt to technology or even how much help I would need as far as being so involved with my family. But on the flip side, I have all the advantages of maturity and I communicated well with the interviewers and I brought a lot of life experience into the interview and getting my health care hours wasn't a problem because I had a career beforehand. I feel like I was at a disadvantage but at the same time I was at a advantage with some of the schools that I applied to. It really comes down to which schools that you want to apply to. So make sure that you do your research. I don't feel that I was at a disadvantage in the PA school admissions process as a nontraditional student. Most PA programs require that you have some medical experience before you start. Emery requires at least 2,000 hours but I can say that most of the accepted students at Emery and many of the top programs have considerably more than that. I believe that being a nontraditional student puts you at a great advantage when it comes to medical experience. That is assuming that you had a career in medicine before you, in something medically related before you applied to PA school, some of my classmates actually had their first careers in nothing medically related and then went out, got an EMT certification, got a medical assistant certification and just worked a few years and applied to PA school that way. Well I had an interview last week and after thinking about it the most glaring thing to me was that when I went in there and interviewed with the people, they were my peers. These are people, you know, I had mutual friends with some of the interviewers. I mean I never met them before but I knew that we had mutual friends and so it was like going in and talking to my peers. I can't imagine what that would have been like as a 21 year old getting out of college or just being younger but they were truly my peers and I felt like we had a really good rapport and just was totally comfortable and not nervous at all. So that was definitely a very very good advantage of being as old as I am. For me since I'm not in PA school yet but some of the challenges that I possibly would foresee would be setting aside time for my family because I again would be hard on myself to make sure that I didn't fall behind because I do have a family. I will say that time management is the biggest one. As an older student I can't pull all-nighters like I could in the past. I can't study all night and then expect to go into an exam the next day and do well. With having a husband and kids that's going to be a challenge to keep up with all of that but I'm very thankful for supportive husband. He has always helped me do whatever. He helped me when I was getting a master's degree in education. He took care of me. He cooked. He did everything. So I know that that's going to be a challenge but I know that he is ready to step up to it. When you're younger memorization comes easier so definitely heavier memorization subjects. I think about anatomy and pharmacology. I had to work really hard so on the academic side but on the social side I'm also juggling a family and that's important to me. So the challenges were I still wanted to be a mom to my kids and a wife to my husband and a sister and a friend and all those roles and I didn't want to let any of those go just because I was doing this. The feeling that I didn't belong there that was like really really hard for me to get over with coming again from from my background and my life experience like that was my own insecurity like I had to go get over that and I felt like oh like like I don't belong here but I do and I do now and and after you know going through it and then and and and working through it like right now I feel like I belong and I can keep going. The biggest challenge for me has been financial. I have a family we own a home in northern California central central coast but it's still a four-hour drive away so we have our home we have a rental home and I had to quit my jobs and move down here to Fullerton to be able to go to school so that means I have to have not only financial aid for the program but I also had to take out loans to keep the roof over my family's head. Another hardship is the fact that I'm down here away from my family going to school. After being married for 36 years I have a college age roommate but that's actually worked out okay but actually being away from my family missing out on birthdays missing out on scouting activities with my youngest son who's 17 missing out on stuff with the grandkids but it that is a sacrifice that I have made to get to where I want to go. I do think that when you are older there may be a misconception that you are less flexible there is that old saying that old dogs cannot learn new tricks but I am here to say that that is not true. That non-traditional PA students are maybe not good with school because they took it took them forever to to get to where they are I don't that is a misconception big big misconception. I can't really think of any misconceptions other than just what a PA does you know I've heard the well when are you going to become a doctor or when are you going to be a nurse or whatever but I don't I don't see that as being so much of a you know a misconception is just a challenge. One of the biggest misconceptions I've run into I'm older than everybody else in my class I'm older than most of the faculty initially a lot of people mistook me for faculty. Another misconception about being a non-traditional student is they somehow couldn't do it if I can do it anybody can. I would say um is that you're old and that you know you just got tired of doing the career that you were doing and then now you decided that you wanted to change careers. People think well you've worked in healthcare before this is easy for you um no absolutely not I was an allied health versus traditional medicine so I've had to shift a lot of my mindset but another misconception would be that it's really really hard for me um in an interview actually an interviewer said to me quote you know that older students really struggle academically in this program that do well clinically and unquote and it really frustrated me because actually I do quite well academically and clinically and I feel really excited about it so you can't discount someone because of their age or experience. Definitely yes um it's a lot different but it's been fun it's been very rewarding a few months into this I felt like I I feel like I have learned a lot. No I think I was pretty well prepared I did a lot of homework I talked to PA students I talked to a lot of PA's so I think perhaps the academic year I wasn't quite ready for the intensity of work and it was a really steep learning curve that I was able to jump in and do well and clinical year as far as expectation goes I I can't even imagine that I would have loved it as much as what I'm doing um even on my worst days even in my most challenging rotations I can find something good about it and I know I'm doing exactly what I want to do. A little bit uh it's really intense I think I underestimated that a little bit I found that getting into regular habits as far as study habits sleep patterns getting good sleep eating properly getting exercise and sticking to those habits and schedules uh has helped tremendously. It's not different than I imagined it would be um I did my undergraduate degree was also medical and was also here at Emory University so I'm used to a rigorous curriculum I'm used to how difficult it is however during didactic year I struggled which was definitely a new thing for me um I've never really had to make an effort to study diligently before and always managed to get good grades I'm a good test taker um but in PA school that has not been the case if you do not learn the material if you don't put in the work if you don't do the reading if you don't learn the concepts if you don't understand them and integrate them you're not able to get the good grades. First school the class that just started this fall um after my being the first kind of older non-traditional student seated a class that has several older students um so I kind of uh set the trend for Marshall B. Ketchum broke the mold I guess. I love that there's so many older um adults applying to PA school uh for me it's an inspiration and I feel like and hoping that I am an inspiration to um someone else applying to PA school to let them know that you can do multiple things you can um like you're never to do anything. I embrace it I embrace that um that I'm older when I apply to PA school um I embrace that you know I come from a non-traditional background. I totally embrace it I'm just so thankful that um I'm at this point and my kids are older my husband's supportive and you know it's just go time and it felt really good and it's been some people inspiration to me too I had a friend who just up and went to law school she's almost graduated so really I don't think it's a burden at all I just hope that I can set a good example. If I can encourage you to to follow what you know is right and what you know is for you then that's a good thing and I'll embrace that and I'll coach I'll cheerlead I don't know that I need to inspire but I'm more than happy to come alongside people. No I don't regret it um I couldn't change it when I graduated from high school I thought that I wanted to go into marketing and advertising which is a soulless and soul crushing field and just did not work for me so I didn't come to medicine until much later in life. I wish I had I really wish I had I wish I'd known that PA was an option I wish I'd known that PA was an option as a primary care provider more so than somebody who is just doing procedures if I had known that I would have gone to PA school that you know I would have applied the minute I graduated. No not really I really don't have any regrets that way uh I suppose I might regret not having gotten into respiratory a little bit sooner um spending years in a career that I never really set out to do which has kind of fell into but at the same time it allowed me to raise my family uh buy our home um and raise our seven kids. Yes and no um I don't regret being home with my children one bit um I'm sorry that I missed out on some of the earlier days of the profession but no because every bit of experience I bring to the table now makes me a better practitioner and it makes me strong and I have a huge background in rehab and human development and allied health and all of those things make me a better provider and I'm glad to bring that background with me. I don't regret it I don't regret it at all because again like you know my life experiences and my clinical experiences really made me a better respiratory therapist and and therefore you know it will contribute to you know my education as a PA student. Nope I don't there are no regrets I have a wonderful husband I have two beautiful amazing kids and I wouldn't change it like you know there was some challenges along you know the way and who doesn't have challenges but again that feel like that is what makes me who I am and no I feel like it was the path that God has me on and that's exactly where I needed to be and where I was supposed to be and and it's leading me right to where I am um right now. On my second day of PA school when I was feeling completely overwhelmed and exhausted and in tears over having to memorize a ton of anatomy and wondering what I had gotten myself into I was sitting outside of the classroom at a table and I felt a hand on my shoulder and it was one of my favorite professors and um I looked at him and he looked at me and he said I want you to know that I started PA school at 50 and this man is a beloved teacher he's an amazing practitioner and I think that kind of sealed the deal right there you're only as old as you think you are and it's never too late to start over so go for it. Don't be intimidated by those people like if they're asking you that they are probably insecure about their own age. It's a nonsense um especially as being a part of some PA groups on uh Facebook and there's lots of stories of people it's been very inspiring that graduated when they were 45 I'll be about that age or started when they were 45 so I'll say hey you're never too old to do anything. Well I tell them all the time that they're not too old uh if I'm not too old which clearly I don't think I am they aren't either. That is a load of crap don't make excuses if you have a dream if you want to help people if you want to practice medicine if you want to make a difference don't let your age be the one thing that holds you back. Hey so thank you guys so much for watching before I end this documentary I just wanted to share with you all my experience of being a non-traditional PA student. So I applied to PA school three times um the first two times I did not get in and it was partially because I made a lot of mistakes just not doing my own research but I started later on in life because I already had a family um I got married pretty early on in my life at 23 and um I originally wanted to be a physician but then I changed my mind after I had a family because I'm super family oriented that I didn't want to go down that route because I didn't want to dedicate the time away from my family that many physicians and pre-med students do while they're trying to get their MD. So I decided that I wanted to be a PA and although I decided a little later on that was not going to stop me from entering to PA school I never ever thought how old is too old to start school that never even crossed my mind it was always how am I going to get into PA school what do I need to do to make myself even more better because I knew that this was the career that I wanted and I wouldn't be happier doing anything else so did my research I definitely spent a whole lot of time researching this career as if it was my job um to research the career and I bettered myself I went to school I had because I had been out of school for a few years I had to go and retake pretty much a year of college in a sense to me it seemed like um two semesters of course work because a lot of it was getting old as many of you know who are thinking about getting into PA school there are different caps on your pre-PA or prerequisite um coursework that you have to do for PA school so I had to go and retake a lot of those prerequisite courses because they were going to be on their five-year limit time limit or their seven-year time limit or the 12-year time limit for some schools but I did it and I spent the money to do it because I wanted to be a PA and I knew I wanted to be a PA so I settled down I talked to my husband about it and we made a plan and I did the courses and I passed all my courses because I knew that I had to show that I was ready sometimes I felt like okay if I'm now an older student or I'm a student with a family I have to prove that I am dedicated to this yes I love my family and I'm dedicated to my family but at the same time this is what I want to do with my life so I made sure that I got straight A's on all of those courses and it's not to say that you need to necessarily get straight A's but you need to show that hey you're ready for this so what is it that you need to do to make sure that you stand out among the masses and that's what I felt that I needed to do so I did that even with all of the naysayers and everybody who was like oh you're just settling for a PA school instead of going into med school why don't you just go and get your MD I'm like I don't want an MD I want to be a PA so I hushed all of those those naysayers and I by the grace of God got in I knew that this was an opportunity that I could not pass up I knew that this was an opportunity of a lifetime and this was the start of my career you're never too old to start your life you're never too old to go after your desires you're never too old to go after what is going to be a betterment of your life in your family's life and if that is PA school then do it don't let age stop you if it's MD school if you're trying to be a physician or MP school do it if you're trying to be an actor if you're trying to be a chef whatever your it thing is you're never too old to do it I hope you guys enjoyed the documentary again I just want to thank everybody that participated in this documentary if you want to follow them on their journey just go ahead and follow them on the different social media handles that was left in this documentary and show them your support you guys and again remember you're never too old thank you guys so much for watching and we will see you later bye do you like don't compare yourself to other people don't compare yourself to you know like a younger undergrad students that that wants to go into graduate school because you have a lot to offer I hope I get in this year and if not I'm going to keep applying I have plan B I'm going to take some more classes do some more shadowing get some more health care experience and I'll just keep at it and I'm so glad that my kids are going to get to see me do this your limitations are what you believe them to be age should not be one of those limitations at 56 years old I'm at a point in my life where from a worldly point of view I should be working as much as I possibly can stuffing my 401k to get ready to retire instead I quit my jobs I'm out of debt that I've taken on and the fact that I'm not contributing to my 401k right now from that worldly perspective might not be the best financial decision ever but I know that there are a lot of employers that have long forgiveness available there's the federal NHSC program and I will be looking to work in an underserved area to take advantage of that when I graduate because frankly that's why I'm getting into PA is to help the underserved so and to do more so the last thought is that there is more to life than money and that's why I'm here