Recertification Exam

Last week, I had to retake my PA board exam.  Since graduating in 2003, I have taken it every 6 years (so this was round 3).  The PA boards are primary care focused.  This time you could pick to have a concentration in primary care, internal medicine, or surgery.  Since I have spent most of my career in GI (a subspeciality of Internal Medicine), I picked internal medicine.

No matter what area you pick, 60% of the exam is the same for everyone.  Which means, I needed to be up to date on neurology, cardiology, infectious disease, orthopedics, dermatology, respiratory, pediatrics, etc.  Yikes!!

For the first time ever, I decided to take a board review course.  In the past I had always just studied on my own, but with four kids, a husband, and working close to 20 hours a week, finding time to study at home wasn't going to happen. 

5 of my classmates decided to do the same thing, so we met in Chicago for a 3 day board review course.  This was Friday-Sunday and consisted of 11 hours of lecture a day, followed by a 2 hour exam. 

Monday, I flew back to DC.  Tuesday I took my exam.  Thankfully, I found out today I passed.  Yahoo!  I wasn't overly worried as I've never been close to failing, but it seems like they make the board exams tough enough that no one leaves feeling overly confident. 

They are now also switching to 10 year cycles, so my next board exam will be in 2025. 
I still have to get 100 hours of CME every two years (1 hour a week basically) but that is no big deal! 

I do love my career and am proud to be part of a profession that values staying board certified and up to date.

We had such a wonderful class and getting together is 

a lot of fun!

Pictured is Laurie, Amy, Robyn, Jaime, Adam, Me