PA Students Shadow Healthcare Professionals

In their first semester at the Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences, students in the Master of Science in Physician Assistant (MSPA) program have been gaining hands-on experience and patient exposure thanks to time spent with local and regional chiropractors, trauma surgeons, and other healthcare practitioners.

The MSPA program built its curriculum around producing more holistic, patient-centered clinicians that will support an interprofessional team, and to achieve this, one of the goals of the program is to provide hands-on experience and patient exposure as frequently as possible, beginning in the first semester of education.

These experiences have opened the students’ eyes to new disciplines of medicine, communication nuances between professions, and practical application of the skills they are learning in their first semester.  Each week the students return from their shadowing experiences reenergized and excited about becoming a PA and with new information to share.

“It has given me more motivation to work hard now so that I can apply as much knowledge as possible to help my future patients,” said PA student Stephanie Bruton.