Physician Assistant Entry Level Masters Program: Curriculum

Effective September 2008, the PA Program’s curriculum is academic-quarter-based to synchronize with the general Drexel University calendar.

Overview:
The intensive curriculum consists of 117 quarter credit hours of professionally related coursework over a continuous, 27-month period (the part-time option requires an additional calendar year). Students gain an understanding of both the health care system within which they will work and the functions appropriate to the role of the physician assistant. The curriculum is divided into 12 months of didactic courses followed by 15 months of supervised clinical practice.

Commitment:
The program is intensely challenging, both intellectually and physically; it requires stamina as well as personal and financial sacrifice on the part of the students. The program demands a high degree of integrity, self-sufficiency, motivation, self-discipline, and highly developed study skills.

Clinical Skills:
Among the most important of all practitioner skills is the ability to effectively gather cogent information from patients, primarily through medical history taking and physical examination. Physical examination skill are taught early in the curriculum in laboratory sections where students learn those examination skills first by practicing on each other as partners prior to attempting examinations on actual patients. Students have long appreciated the advantages of reducing “student-actual patient anxiety,” practicing these new, psychomotor skills under close supervision of experienced, professional instructors, and the ability to both give and receive immediate feedback from the student-partner team afforded by this controlled, private, and “safe” practice setting.

Scheduling:
During the didactic (primarily classroom) phase of the curriculum, most classes will be scheduled during the daytime hours; however, it may be necessary to schedule some classes during evening hours. All students are required to attend all classes as scheduled and to subordinate any personal commitments (i.e. employment of family responsibilities) to the training schedule.

In the clinical-phase of training, students will be learning in diverse clinical settings with varying daily and weekly schedules that may involve daytime, evening, or weekend hours. Students must give priority commitment to assigned schedules at clinical sites.

Classroom Instruction:
Training begins with four quarters of didactic education, which integrates patient interaction beginning with the first quarter.

Clinical Training:
The clinical training phase consists of six (6), five-credit, five-week clinical rotations in medicine, surgery, women’s health, pediatrics, emergency medicine, and behavioral health, assigned in varying order in locations across the United States.  The final portion of the clinical training phase curriculum consists of two (2), 10-credit, quarter-long, primary care practica (preceptorships). During these practica, each student is assigned to primary care sites for individualized clinical training with physician preceptors.

These sites are located in a variety of locations, from rural to urban areas and private clinical practices to large hospital settings.  Students may expect to gain exposures in each of these settings in order to obtain the best clinical medicine experience and training.

Training sites during the clinical year are provided by the program and are located throughout Pennsylvania and the United States.  Students are welcome to identify and assist in the development of up to two clinical rotation sites and/or one 10-week primary care practicum site. (These sites must have PA Program approval)

Students are required to relocate during the clinical phase and are responsible for all associated financial costs, including transportation and living expenses.

Quarterly Curriculum (Inaugurating fall quarter 2008)

Full-Time

Part-Time
The part-time option requires thirty-nine months overall and requires two years to complete the didactic year. The clinical year curriculum is completed on a full time basis.