Our mission: To improve universal access to health care by graduating highly competent and confident physician assistants prepared to provide exceptional quality, ethical patient-centered health care in a collaborative environment.

Overview

Exceptional medical education demands exceptional hands-on training. In our Physician Assistant Studies program, you'll work with patients in an unprecedented 12 clinical specialty rotations. During the clinical phase, you will be paired with and learn alongside preeminent doctors, PAs, and other clinicians affiliated with our clinical site partners, including many local and regional hospital systems and private practices.

You have the benefit of high-tech classrooms and laboratories – the very best places to learn. Our wing includes two physician assistant classrooms, a high-fidelity medical simulation center, and a physical examination laboratory that mimics the most modern facilities. You'll also study human gross anatomy at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in its award-winning medical education building in downtown Providence. Anatomy will be reviewed on our own digital cadaver Anatomage.

And because health care is big business, our program introduces you to the eight management principles of medical practice – from quality management to organizational governance. This unique focus on business fundamentals, so critical in today’s health care reform environment, is your competitive advantage.

Program Goals

• Prepare our physician assistant students to excel in all of the competencies required for PA practice by providing a rigorous and supportive program in which to develop the knowledge, interpersonal, clinical and technical skills, professional behaviors, and clinical reasoning and problem solving abilities necessary to clinical care
• Prepare our physician assistant students to meet the needs of our health care system by providing a strong primary care experience caring for under-served populations and by developing an understanding of the health care delivery and payment systems that affect health care access, outcomes and potential disparities
• Develop and support our physician assistant students’ commitment and ability to serve in leadership roles as advocates for patients and the PA profession
• Develop and strengthen our physician assistant students’ skills and habits critical for life-long learning and continuous practice-based self-improvement
• Facilitate achieving our program’s mission, vision and goals by integrating and supporting diverse perspectives throughout the curriculum, including global and inter-professional perspectives, in order to best serve the needs of our diverse patients and communities.