Connection to the PA Profession

As an aspiring Physician Assistant, I understand that a lot of my future patients will experience abdominal pain and come to me for help. I want to be able to give them a resource that informs them of the possible physical causes of their pain. For various GI disorders, this resource will educate patients on what signs/symptoms to look for along with their abdominal pain, how an accurate diagnosis can be made, the treatment options, and possible methods of prevention. My hope is that informed patients will reach out to their providers faster once abdominal pain presents and will be able to hold a more beneficial conversation leading to more accurate diagnoses and interventions. Individuals seeking information using this resource should also be able to take the necessary measures to prevent some of the aforementioned GI disorders, or at least catch them in their early stages.
As a PA, I aspire to be a part of an interdisciplinary healthcare team that works to help patients on an individual basis and, in a broader sense, at the community level. I want to mitigate the overall issue of gastrointestinal conditions throughout each community that we serve. This resource could be used to inform patients throughout different communities of abdominal pain and associated GI disorders and, therefore, increasing health literacy one important health topic at a time. As health literacy increases, I hope that the prevalence and negative impact of GI diseases will decrease overall. I envision my career as a PA to be centered around successfully helping people become healthy and happy day after day. I want to positively influence the lives of all of my patients with medical advice, education, and the best possible therapeutic interventions.