The didactic fall semester is a full 17 credit hours and keeps the students very busy. The Clinical Problem-Solving Seminar course hones the students’ medical decision-making skills as small groups explored patient cases. At the end of that course, the students had the opportunity to practice clinical examination skills at the MU Simulation Center with standardized patients. Laboratory and Procedures is an active course where the students enjoy learning technical and clinical skills such as suturing, intubation, central line placement, casting/splinting, and a FAST exam with point-of-care ultrasound. Pharmacology and Clinical Medicine extended through the fall semester and challenged the students to expand their knowledge from the summer. The fall semester culminated in the PAEA PACKRAT (Physician Assistant Clinical Knowledge Rating and Assessment Tool) exam. This is an objective, comprehensive exam for student and curricular evaluation to help guide our learners as they prepare for the second phase of the program. Lastly, on December 10th, thirty-one students from the Class of 2023 were donned with white coats and celebrated their first-year accomplishments. We are excited to see what 2023 brings to this great group of PA students!
A shout out to Jenna Glodowski (Class of 2023) who was one of 18 students from across the country selected to attend University of Alabama at Birmingham PA Program first annual Advanced Surgical PA Training Program. This program was a weeklong training session for both first- and second-year PA students. Jenna commented, “I had such a great experience and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in surgery and/or invasive procedures. We got to be in an operating room setting three times and took turns playing the role of first assist, scrub tech, and operating the cameras in lap ports. We got to put in wound vacs and had lots of practice suturing which is very different on real tissue compared to what I had been practicing on.” We are very proud of Jenna’s accomplishment as a representative of herself, the MSU PA program and the PA profession.
Class of 2023 links:
- Class of 2023-Didactic Year In Review
- Student Procedures Lab
- Student Scoops
- Cohort Events