My PCP course is officially underway, our CS200 course opened up about 2 weeks ago and we had our program orientation.
“Good bye social life for 4 months! Say hello to 7 day a week students. Make sure you develop good habits now, if you wait till the classroom starts it’ll be too late!”
They warned us and I’m inclined to believe them! But man am I excited!
To sum up everything I have heard and learnt about the program prestart is this:
Prepare yourself for a tough and challenging journey, and be prepare to have an absolute blast!
The PCP bootcamp was fantastic, it was great meeting some of my classmates, touring the campus, meeting some of the key players in the JIBC hierachy. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire day and highly recommend any future students to attend.
Our day looked like this:
- talk from the dean, the program co-ordinator
- workshops on time management, financial aid and budgeting, study habits
- Q&A and presentation with current PCP students
- Workshop on Library resources
- Free lunch!
It was like a full school day, 8:30-4:00 and lots of information was there for the taking.
We had some speeches from the program bigwigs welcoming us to the program, then off to various workshops to help prepare us for the coming 6 months. Effective time management, effective studying, stress management; these were all very helpful using proven techniques for your learning style (an overwhelming majority of the students were kinesthetic ~70%).
Techniques like rewording the headings into questions (Why is the musculoskeletal system important?) skimming through the first read-through, using different ways to study (watch a video on it, practice quizzes, draw pictures, write and re-write, use flashcards).
Information on financial aid and how to properly budget not only your money but also your time. How to cut out distractions and focus on what is crucial is going to be a big challenge!
We had a good presentation and Q&A with some of the current PCP students and their list of things we wish we had known/ done better. Was very interesting and made the course seem much more real to speak with people who have just gone through what you are just about to begin.
The day ended with a rousing speech by the Program Director that had some very inspiring words that I took to heart.
But the best part of the day was how it freaked me the hell out! it made me shift into the next gear in terms of studying and preparing for the course. Hearing all this information and advice really made one thing hit home: This is really happening
I continue to take my small bites of the CS200 material and soon I will have a complete meal in me. I feel like I’m a baby just learning how to crawl and soon I’ll be needing to know how to run.
On your marks, get set…
Emerging Medical Responder 