Well, it’s that time to look back on the year and see how I made progress on my goals for 2023.

• It was a mixed bag. For one thing, I was looking to up my patient contact hours to hit the minimum required to apply to my programs. I hit 1000+ hours by the end of April. I’m now at over 2500 hours and closing in on 3000 hours. (For those doing the math, yes, that’s over 2200 hours this year alone. That’s on top of my IT work and taking classes!) The nice thing about these numbers is they put me above the average for all the programs I’m applying for.
• And yes, I said applying for. While a goal for 2023 was to get accepted into a PA program, it didn’t happen. I will admit it’s been discouraging. It became even more discouraging to learn, via email, that one of the programs I had the most hope for, despite not having an official minimum GPA, hasn’t accepted anyone below a 3.2 GPA in the last 5 years. I’m not irked so much about that number, but as much about how they market the fact that they don’t have a minimum when effectively they do. Oh well. Now the good news is, I did get wait-listed at one program. We’ll see how that progresses. I’m undecided on if I’ll actually attend if I move from wait-list to accepted. And there’s at least one long-shot of a program I have yet to hear from. So we’ll see.
• But, I will be applying to a number of the programs again this year. I’ll have a stronger resume in a number of ways, so I’m more hopeful. But I’ll be honest, if I don’t get accepted this year, I may explore other options in my life. If I were 5 or 10 years younger I might consider a lot more rounds and work more on my GPA, but the truth is, I’m not as young as I might like to be.
• That said, I did get a lot of classes in over the year, including the microbiology class I needed. This was sort of a freebie. My employer, Albany Medical Center, offers this free to its employees over the summer, so I took it then. It was actually a lot of fun and I have to admit, I was a bit surprised to learn how much had changed since I took it 30+ years ago. Science really has marched on.
• In addition, this fall I took Genetics. Not many programs required it, but one or two did and I figured I’d add it to my transcript. I’m glad I did. While the mechanics of the class was a bit frustrating at times (all virtual, some lectures had no videos, only PowerPoints), it was really interesting and I learned a LOT.
• For my NCRC work, we will be hosting the 2024 National Weeklong here in NYS and I’m the site coordinator, so I’ll be getting busier and busier as June approaches. Interest has been great. We filled all the available class slots in 25 hours and as of today have 13 waitlisted for Level 1 and several each for Level 2 and Level 3. And as for TOTS, our medical focused class, I think we have a curriculum and will be asking for approval to do a trial teaching of it this year. So that’s all coming together!
• I mentioned continuing to blog, but the truth is, I didn’t blog as much as I used to. Between needing sleep (see above about working, school, and more) and not having much to say, I just didn’t blog much this year. Oh well.
• Reading: Honestly, I dropped the ball on this. I expect to continue to do so. I did reread Echo Heron’s book, Intensive Care: The Story of a Nurse. I recommend picking up a copy.
• My goal of speaking once this year didn’t come to fruition. I was hoping to be picked to speak at Pass Summit about how to do a career change, but wasn’t accepted. Oh well.
• I can’t say I saw more of my friends, but I did see a number. I also worked on schedule changes, twice now, so that should free up more time. So time won’t be a huge issue, but money will as I’ll be being frugal to save up money for PA School. But hey, let’s get together!
• Septic System: well we got the design approved (that only cost around $10K!) but didn’t get it in this year. We’re hoping to get the quotes and get it started as soon as Spring comes.
• Hiking, Biking, Caving – I did far less than I’d have liked. That’s all I’ll say for now. I will add though that I’m feeling a bit older and my body reminds me of it.

One thing that was NOT on my list of things to do, but happened anyway, was serving on a Grand Jury. On top of serving, I was also the jury foreperson. This was quite an experience. I saw a lot about how the justice system works and as foreperson I got to swear folks in (which I’ll admit, is kind of cool) and also review the final paperwork before it was sent to the judge.

So, that’s my year in review. Stick around until tomorrow and I’ll see what my goals for 2024 are. Hint, a few of them are listed above already!

And thanks for everyone who was with my on this journey through this crazy thing we call life.