PA Program Enters Period of Acceleration with New Leadership and Initiatives

With a permanent director now on board, the University of Wisconsin Physician Assistant (PA) program is moving toward its transition to a master's degree program, launching a federally-funded training grant, and implementing a thorough self-assessment in preparation for its upcoming accreditation site review.

With all of these initiatives taking place over the next year, the program, administratively linked with the Department of Family Medicine (DFM), is in the midst of a major period of acceleration. But it's looking forward to the benefits this will offer to students, communities, and the state.

Snyder Appointed Permanent Director

In July, following a national search, Virginia Snyder, PhD, PA-C, was appointed the program's permanent director. Because Snyder had already been serving as interim director for two years, "this puts the program in a fantastic place," she said. "I'm familiar with all of our current and ongoing initiatives, so we're well positioned to move forward without any lapses in progress."

Moving forward, according to Snyder, means building on numerous activities designed to strengthen and grow the program. "We have excellent faculty and staff, and our program has a strong reputation," she said. "Now our challenge is to take our program to the next level."

Transitioning to a Master's Program

One of the program's sizeable initiatives is to transition from a bachelor's to a master's degree program, a multi-phase approval process that began in earnest in 2006, shortly after Snyder became interim director.

The program completed the first phase of the transition process-gaining entitlement to plan from all levels of the institution-last summer. Since then, the program has been in the second phase of the transition-authorization for implementation-which entails redesigning its curriculum for the master's level. Key components of this include:

• Developing collaborative relationships and educational experiences with other PA programs in the UW system and the state;
• Building in longitudinal components in public health, population health, and rural health;
• Enhancing competency-based training, critical thinking, and lifelong learning; and
• Incorporating scholarly projects using evidence-based medicine methodologies.

According to Snyder, the new curriculum will prepare students not only for clinical practice, but also research, administration, and teaching. "We need to better train our students for the ever-evolving role of the physician assistant," she said. "This role includes broader opportunities and increasing levels of responsibility over time."

Snyder estimates that approximately 85 percent of PA programs nationwide offer master's degrees, which further demonstrates how the PA profession has evolved over the years.

The program is seeking the first level of institutional review on its implementation plan this month. If that and subsequent reviews go successfully, its first master's class would start in May 2010.

Building Community Ties Through HRSA Training Grant

The PA program's curricular expansion continues with the award of a three-year, $581,000 training grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

The grant is designed to build community partnerships, enhance the program's curriculum, and increase representation of PA students from underserved, rural, urban, and underrepresented populations.

Specifically, it will identify areas of Wisconsin with health care provider shortages, and build connections with community leaders and health care facilities there. Through these connections, the program will learn ways to tailor its curriculum to meet the needs of underserved communities. It will also work to identify potential PA students who, after graduation, are interested in practicing in these communities.

Through the grant project, the PA program also aims to create collaborative experiences with the Wisconsin Academy of Rural Medicine (WARM) and other institutional programs.

"Not only will this project expand the PA Program's diversity," Snyder said, "it will help us more effectively meet the health needs of Wisconsin. It's one way we can actively participate in the Wisconsin Idea."

Accreditation Review Leads to Deeper Reflection

Finally, the program is preparing for its accreditation site review next spring. The program is using the upcoming review as an opportunity to reflect on every aspect of the program and build its vision for the future. "We want to build self-assessment into our program in a systematic way," Snyder said. "The accreditation process pushes the process. It makes our program more reflective and accountable."

The program is taking a measured approach to this process. First, it's clarifying primary goals for every element of the program. Then, it's collecting data about those elements, comparing it to the goals, and using the resulting assessment to build program-wide benchmarks and a plan for meeting them. Finally, it will create a timeline for re-evaluating those benchmarks and progress made toward them.

These efforts will help the program not only solidify its own vision, but also better align with the DFM, the SMPH, the institution, and communities of Wisconsin and beyond. And according to Snyder, this is time well spent. "We get so caught up in day-to-day operations that we don't always take the time to reflect on what we can be and what it will take to get us there," she said.

"The beauty is that all of our initiatives complement one another, and are encouraging accelerated progress and advancement," she added. "The benefit, in the end, will be recognized at multiple levels, inclusive of the students, the program, the department and institution, communities, and the state."