Goals
Physician Assistant Studies aims to recruit non-traditional students with special attention to North Carolina residents and veterans, provide inter-professional learning experiences as a cornerstone for future practice, create a diverse educational environment that fosters inter-professionalism as a cornerstone of learning and practice, educate lifelong medical learners in a generalist curriculum which promotes practice in rural and urban medically underserved populations of North Carolina and beyond, and graduate medical learners who possess the knowledge and skills required to practice as physician assistants in a wide range of clinical practice settings.
Physician Assistant Studies aims to recruit non-traditional students with special attention to North Carolina residents and veterans, provide inter-professional learning experiences as a cornerstone for future practice, create a diverse educational environment that fosters inter-professionalism as a cornerstone of learning and practice, educate lifelong medical learners in a generalist curriculum which promotes practice in rural and urban medically underserved populations of North Carolina and beyond, and graduate medical learners who possess the knowledge and skills required to practice as physician assistants in a wide range of clinical practice settings.
| Measures of Success | Outcomes |
| Recruitment events for non-traditional and veteran applicants | Informational sessions are held throughout the year to broadly advise prospective applicants. UNC has participated in the Special Operations Medical Association Scientific Assembly (SOMSA) and held military applicant specific informational sessions. New initiatives are currently under development to focus on non-traditional and military applicants |
| Percentage of non-traditional and veteran applicants | From 2015 – 2020, applicant populations have included:
18.79% Non-Traditional Classification |
| Percentage of non-traditional, veteran, NC matriculants | From 2015 – 2020, admitted students included:
52.5% Non-Traditional Classification |
| Measures of Success | Outcomes |
| Number of IPE course sessions | 21-22 Sessions – Course (# of IPE Sessions): Surgery (2), Clinical Medicine (2), History & Physical (2), Patient Assessment (2-3), Professional Practice (13) |
| Number of IPE student group interactions | Students interact with prehealth students from the following 10 disciplines: Nursing, Dentistry, Medicine, Pharmacy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Audiology, Clinical Lab Science, Clinical Rehab and Public Health.
All students on their supervised clinical practice experiences function in inter-professional teams consisting of nurses and nursing students, medical students, pharmacists and pharmacy students, medical residents and fellows, attending physicians and staff, and faculty advanced practice practitioners. |
| Number of UNC Schools & School of Medicine departments represented by instructional faculty | 4 UNC Schools: Pharmacy, Nursing, Public Health, Social Work19 School of Medicine Departments: Surgery, Anesthesiology, Pharmacology, Medicine, Pyschiatry, Family Medicine, Emergency Medicine, OB/GYN, Neurology, Otolayngology/Head & Neck Surgery, Pediatrics, Urology, Genetics, Microbiology & Immunology, Cell Biology & Physiology, Orthopedics, Physical Medicine & Rehabiliation, Radiology, Allied Health Sciences (Radiologic Sciences, Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Audiology, Speech & Hearing, Physical Therapy) |
| Number of professions represented by instructional faculty | 11 (PA, MD, DO, NP, PhD, RN, DPT, LCSW, MSW, RT, and CGC) |
| Measures of Success | Outcomes |
| 5 year first-time test taker PANCE performance | 94% |
| Graduate & alumni surveys | Graduates strongly agreed (4.35/5) they were well prepared to practice in interprofessional patient-centered teams. |
| All-Time PANCE performance | 100% All-Time PANCE Pass Rate |
| Measures of Success | Outcomes |
| Graduate & alumni surveys | Graduates agreed (3.7/5) they were prepared for community based or rural practice. They also agreed (3.8/5) they received a strong foundation for primary care practice. |
| Clinical site placements | ~16% of clinical placements occurred in a rural and/or medically underserved populace from Jan 2020 – June 2021 |
1 UNC-CH classifies non-traditional status to applicants with two or more years of an alternative career trajectory prior to preparation for PA school, and/or greater than 29 years of age. (Non-Traditional classification is typically defined by greater than 24 years of age by most institutions.)
2 UNC specifically recruits veterans who served in a medical capacity.
3 Likert Scale 1 – Strongly Disagree to 5 – Strongly Agree
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