Program Mission
The mission of the Physician Assistant program at The University of Findlay is to provide our students with the medical knowledge, technical skills, and experience in a variety of didactic and clinical settings necessary for them to become ethical, competent, and compassionate health care providers as part of the health care team. This mission complements the University of Findlay's mission which is to equip our students for meaningful lives and productive careers.
Program Goals
At the satisfactory completion of the requirements of the Master of Physician Assistant degree from The University of Findlay, the graduate will be able to:
- Evaluate diverse clinical situations by applying knowledge of anatomy, pathophysiology, clinical medicine, patient presentation, differential diagnosis, patient management, surgical principles and health promotion and disease prevention.
- Demonstrate interpersonal and communication skills that facilitate the effective exchange of information and collaboration with patients, families and other health professionals.
- Provide care that is effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient and equitable for the treatment of health problems and the promotion of wellness as a member of the health care team.
- Demonstrate professionalism by practicing in a competent, legal, and ethical manner as a physician assistant as a member of the health care team, serving a population of patients of all ages in diverse environments.
- Assess and improve delivery of patient care through appropriate use of learning resources, self-reflection and commitment to lifelong learning.
- Demonstrate an awareness of and responsiveness to the larger system of health care to provide patient care that is of optimal value, and demonstrate an understanding of needs and priorities for cost-effective health care, resources allocation and uncompromised quality of care.
ARC-PA Standard A3.12b requires that PA programs “define, publish, and make readily available to enrolled and prospective students general program information to include the success of the program in achieving its goals."
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Program Success
The University of Findlay PA program demonstrates success in achieving its goals through the success of our graduates. Broad, over-arching demonstration of this success is evidenced by the four most recently graduated cohorts of students who all successfully passed the Physician Assistant National Certification Examination (PANCE) on their first attempt. In the past 10 years, all graduates have successfully passed the PANCE and became employed as physician assistants with the exception of one graduate.
All students are surveyed at the completion of the program to determine their perception of whether or not they, as the “consumer," feel the program was successful in fulfilling numerous accreditation standards. Starting with the 2014 Cohort a new Student Exit Survey was created and has been disseminated to each subsequent cohort at the time of graduation. The questions pertain to the accreditation standards from the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) with the goal of determining whether or not the program and institution have fulfilled the standards set forth from the student's vantage point to aid in our program assessment. The overall average score using a standard Likert scale has consistently ranked students' evaluations of the program in the “strongly agree" category which aligns with our program mission and goals.
The UF PA program goals are listed below followed by the program's success in achieving each particular goal. In summary of the below, each one of the program goals is specifically covered and assessed by components of the program didactic curriculum with further application and assessment during the clinical year. The program demonstrates the success of achieving these goals by not only having successful graduates and 100% first-time pass rates on the PANCE for the past four cohorts, but also by only permitting those students who successfully meet the minimum level of competence in meeting our goals to graduate from the program. Students who fail to meet minimum levels of competence are not permitted to advance to the clinical phase of the program or to graduate from/complete the program (depending on when the deficiency becomes apparent).
Goal Success
At the satisfactory completion of the requirements of the Master of Physician Assistant degree from the University of Findlay, the graduate will be able to:
Evaluate diverse clinical situations by applying knowledge of anatomy, pathophysiology, clinical medicine, patient presentation, differential diagnosis, patient management, surgical principles and health promotion and disease prevention.
- Program success in achieving this goal: Students undergo rigorous written examination testing and competency testing over material covering the items above during the first phase (didactic) of the program. To matriculate into the clinical year and to graduate, students must successfully complete the program-set minimum passing goal for each exam and competency. Over the course of the clinical year, clinical preceptors evaluate each student using a comprehensive evaluation tool and rubric. At the completion of each Supervised Clinical Practice Experience (SCPE), each student must also successfully pass an end of rotation examination to demonstrate the competence of the material. For a student to graduate from the program, they will have met the minimum passing standard for applying each of the above areas by both didactic faculty and clinical preceptors.
Demonstrate interpersonal and communication skills that facilitate the effective exchange of information and collaboration with patients, families and other health professionals.
- Program success in achieving this goal: Students are provided education specifically regarding interpersonal and communication skills in the program. They undergo videotaped/recorded medical interviews which are self-critiqued and reviewed by program faculty. Students role-play as providers in various scenarios developed by faculty over the course of their didactic training and they must successfully complete these activities in order to advance to the clinical year. During the clinical year, students submit multiple assignments regarding patient education/communication as well as undergo an evaluation by the clinical preceptor for each rotation regarding their clinical communication, clinical documentation, and patient education and counseling. Clinical preceptors specifically evaluate whether or not our students work well in teams, accept and incorporate feedback, establish rapport with team members, relate well to fellow students/faculty/other healthcare professionals, and communicate/work well with patients. In order for a student to graduate from the program, they must not be deemed “at risk" in any of the above areas by the clinical preceptor. Since use of this clinical preceptor evaluation instrument began in 2010, all graduates have met and exceeded the minimum passing standard set by the program.
Provide care that is effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient and equitable for the treatment of health problems and the promotion of wellness as a member of the health care team.
- Program success in achieving this goal: Students receive training in multiple courses focused specifically on fulfilling this goal. In order to matriculate into the clinical year, students must demonstrate competence in this area by successfully passing written examinations and completing assigned projects. All students matriculating into the clinical year demonstrate the ability to do so.
Demonstrate professionalism by practicing in a competent, legal, and ethical manner as a physician assistant as a member of the health care team, serving a population of patients of all ages in diverse environments.
- Program success in achieving this goal: UF PA students demonstrate the success of the program in achieving this goal each day while in the program by their exam performance/meeting to exceeding the minimum level of competence over content covering this material, participating in multiple events/health fairs, earning the required number of community service hours, and meeting to exceeding the score needed on the “Professionalism Assessment Tool" (a component of the “Post-Supervised Clinical Practice Assessment of Students by Preceptors"). At the completion of each supervised clinical practice experience (SCPE, aka clinical rotation), student professionalism is evaluated by the clinical preceptor using a detailed rubric. All students must meet or exceed a minimum passing level to successfully complete the program.
Assess and improve the delivery of patient care through the appropriate use of learning resources, self-reflection, and commitment to lifelong learning.
- Program success in achieving this goal: Students must successfully complete components of the curriculum relating to the above goal at multiple times in the curriculum. Components of the curriculum contain areas of self-directed learning as well as student-led/presented topics that are reinforced by faculty in an effort to promote life-long learning. One example of this type occurs in Health Care Systems, Policy, and Practice – students are required to complete online self-directed learning modules for billing and coding. This content is then reinforced by faculty instruction and application.
Over the course of the clinical year, there are multiple assignments associated with each SCPE which necessitate students accessing information via various learning resources and appropriately applying and citing the material. Students complete several evidence-based medicine assignments and present material to their peers on end-of-rotation days. Students are also required to complete multiple self-reflection exercises/assignments/evaluations throughout both the didactic as well as the clinical phase of the program. These self-reflections can then be compared and contrasted to faculty and clinical preceptor evaluations for a well-rounded student assessment. In order to graduate from the program, each student must successfully complete the above assignments/tasks.
Demonstrate an awareness of and responsiveness to the larger system of health care to provide patient care that is of optimal value, and demonstrate an understanding of needs and priorities for cost-effective health care, resources allocation and uncompromised quality of care.
- Program success in achieving this goal: Several areas of the curriculum contain content relating to this goal – students must demonstrate competence in these areas prior to entering the clinical year. One example occurs in the Health Care Systems, Policy, and Practice course: case-based experiences occur within a simulated health care system. The principles acquired as a part of this course are then applied throughout clinical medicine, surgery, and emergency medicine courses. Over the course of the clinical phase of the program, students are applying the principles stated in this goal. Multiple assignments are submitted over the course of each SCPE that are assessed by program faculty members to determine if students are meeting the above goal. Students are also assessed by the clinical preceptor regarding patient care. In order for a student to successfully complete the program, they must meet a minimum passing score on assessments used to evaluate the components of this goal.