Cohort 2024 ended their didactic year with a wonderful celebration. We were proud to present all 33 students in the cohort with their white coats and recite with them the PA oath as they prepared to enter the clinical phase of their education.  These students completed a very rigorous didactic curriculum and finished the fall semester with a full 17 credit hours. Included in this fall semester is their Procedures course where they learned skills such as suturing, intubation, central line placement, casting/splinting, and a FAST exam with point-of-care ultrasound. We are so proud of their accomplishments over the course of their didactic education and are excited for the year ahead as they begin their clinical rotations!

 

Class of 2024 links

• Class of 2024 Student Spotlight: Harlee Kelley
• Spotlight: Hailey Martin
• PA Week Celebration
• Honoring our professors for PA week!
• Didactic Student Sendoff

Inside PA-S1 skills

• Didactic Skills Lab
• Pediatric Diseases Lecture
• Suture Lab
• Local Anesthesia and Derm Procedures Lab
• Didactic Bake Sale
• Joint Injections
• Venipunctures and IVs
• EKG rate and rhythm
• Didactic Halloween
• Casting
• Intubation
• Central Lines & Chest Tubes

Highlights from the Class of 2024 White Coat Ceremony

The 2023 Alumni Survey was sent out in December to 441 email addresses collected from classes 2001-2022. 115 responded in the time frame, equating to a 26% response rate. The largest responders belonged to the classes 2019-2022 (46% of respondents). All but three respondents were working as a PA at the time of the survey, with personal choice being the most cited reason for not continuing in practice. Most were working in clinical practice full-time (83%) in a hospital or office-based practice (66%). While most respondents were still practicing in Missouri, alumni report practicing in 23 other states. Many of the alumni are working in medically underserved areas, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and Health Provider Shortage Areas (44%).

Alumni are mainly working in internal medicine (18%) or surgical (20%), or emergency medicine (20%) specialties, followed closely by family practice (14%). A large majority (95%) of alumni are satisfied with their decision to become a PA, although 88% of respondents did admit to experiencing some level of career burnout. Over 97% of alumni felt prepared for their first 1-3 years of practice when reflecting on their didactic and their clinical education, and no one indicated that they would not recommend MSU PA Program to others. Many of the responses to “improving curriculum to better preparing MSU graduates for clinical practice” have been changes that the program has made in recent years as they are areas identified every alumni survey. These include pharmacology, billing/coding, and clinical site opportunities.  

 The average salary was $128,300, with the higher salaries being reported in surgical specialties. The majority of respondents received fringe benefits including health, life, and malpractice insurance as well as CME Reimbursement. All alumni reported they were NCCPA certified and 66% reported they were a member of a PA professional organization. Many of the alumni respondents are involved in community service (49%) and are involved in teaching activities (40%), Greater than 90% of respondents agreed that they work in a healthcare team and promote health-enhancing behaviors.  

The MSU PA Alumni Survey reports every two years and the next survey will go out in 2025. We look forward to hearing from our previous students and look for ways to update our program.  

We began fall 2023 with much to tackle. There was a new class to select, prepare for summative testing of clinical students as they neared graduation, and prepare to transition didactic students to the clinical year of training. How did we fare?  We selected the largest incoming class of 34 to begin their PA training January 2024. All 31 clinical students successfully completed the fall semester and are working on the next step of their PA careers, and we managed to successfully fill all 34 available seats for the Class of 2025.

While there were no faculty or staff changes to report this past fall semester, we did have an addition to the PAS program family. Andrea Applegate gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Drayden Applegate Butcher. Both mom and dad could not be prouder of him and love teaching and taking pictures of him.

On a more personal note. After 30 years in PA education, 22 of those at MSU, I announced my intent to retire at the end of August. However, before I retire, I will step down as the program director at the end of June. I am stepping down before retirement on purpose so that I can work with the new PD to help ensure a smooth transition for the program. The university will soon start a search so be on the lookout for updates about this on the program’s Facebook site.

Advisory Board Member & Preceptor Recognition:

Congratulations to MSU PA Advisory Board members and program preceptors Robyn Yost and Cindy Griessel for receiving Mercy’s APP (Advance Practice Provider) Teacher of the Year 2023!

 

Congratulations also goes out to Jeff Del Vechhio, PA-C, MSU PA Advisory Board member and program preceptor, for being recognized as a 2023 Health Care Champions Advanced Practice Provider by the Springfield Business Journal! Read the article here: 2023 Health Care Champions Advanced Practice Provider: Jeff Del Vecchio | Springfield Business Journal (sbj.net)

Catch up on additional PAS Department & Program news below:

• Assessment Update
• Bear Up to Give Back to MSU PA for Giving Day 2024
• Update Your Alumni Contact Information

If you missed the last PAS newsletter, you can view it here: Summer 2023