Physician Assistant students gain experience throughout Maine

BANGOR, Maine (WABI) - Four students working to become physician assistants through the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia are finishing up a clerkship here in Maine.

“I’ve enjoyed interacting with the people up here in Maine. Everyone’s very, very sweet, the patients, the nurses I’ve interacted with, the doctors, the PAs, even the hotel staff at the at the hotel when I was living there. Everyone has just been very pleasant.” said Detavius Veal, a PA Student at Morehouse School of Medicine.

“So last week, they got to spend the whole shift with me. And they’ve been inquisitive, curious, just such a pleasure to work with.” stated Dr. Navneet Marwaha, Senior VP and Chief Quality Officer at Northern Light Health.

The students from Morehouse spent time at places including AR Gould Hospital in Presque Isle, Cutler Health Center at The University of Maine, as well some time working alongside physicians at Eastern Maine Medical Center.

“It was really cool to interact with college students because most of the time the patients coming in, it’s their first time being sick and not having their parents to take care of them. So, I got to learn a lot about how to talk to those kinds of patients and how to educate them and make sure that they feel like they are taken care of.” said Maddie Dinet, a PA Student at Morehouse School of Medicine.

The experience from this clerkship provided them with hands-on experience, a critical foundation for further education and eventually a career.

“My ultimate goal is to really just be the best provider. I want to be a provider that patients feel seen. They feel heard. They feel connected.” said Veal.

Through this new partnership with Northern Light Health and Morehouse College, more students from the school are likely to spend some time in Maine.

These four are likely just the first.

“This is where they find their niche and I think it’s an interaction of multiple things. It’s the patients they see. It’s the setting that they’re in. It’s who their mentors are and they start identifying those characteristics within themselves.” said Marwaha.

“I really enjoy doing emergency medicine or also maybe doing some internal medicine like admissions and things like that. Still trying to figure out what specific specialty, but I do have an idea of how and what type of provider I want to be.” stated Veal.

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