Program Goals

Goals of the Program

1. To provide a comprehensive, patient- and family-centered educational experience with emphasis on evidence-based medicine, clinical application of medical knowledge, effective communication skills, and life-long learning.
2. To promote an educational culture that values professionalism, diversity, inclusivity, and compassion.
3. To produce physician assistants who are prepared to practice in any discipline of medicine and in any health care environment.
4. To foster an atmosphere of interprofessional collaboration and engagement within the university, and communities across the state of AR.
5. To produce practicing physician assistants who will improve access to healthcare for the residents of Arkansas.

Success of UAMS in Accomplishing the Goals of the PA Program

1. To provide a comprehensive, patient- and family-centered educational experience with emphasis on evidence-based medicine, clinical application of medical knowledge, effective communication skills, and life-long learning.

Success of Achieving Goal:

1. Provide a curriculum in which courses are comprehensive and correlate together to foster learning.
2. Provide patient and family centered educational experiences across the curriculum, including 10 core clinical rotations and 2 elective rotations in the clinical phase.
3. Provide two courses and a Capstone Project that emphasize evidence-based medicine.
4. Provide early patient experience in the didactic curriculum and the case-based clinical reasoning courses to emphasize clinical application of medical knowledge.
5. Provide two courses that emphasize patient communication skills.

2. To promote an educational culture that values professionalism, diversity, inclusivity, and compassion.

Success of Achieving Goal:

1. Demonstrate professionalism, integrity, ethical behavior, cultural awareness, and compassion by students who are continuously evaluated for professionalism during the didactic and clinical phases of the program.
2. Faculty and staff serve as role models for students and exhibiting professionalism, integrity, ethical behavior, cultural awareness and compassion.
3. Provide two didactic courses that emphasize cultural competency.
4. Provide clinical experiences in underserved areas.
5. Provide service-learning experiences across the life span and work with diverse groups.
6. Strive for diversity of faculty, staff and students.

3. To produce physician assistants who are prepared to practice in any discipline of medicine and in any health care environment.

Success of Achieving Goal: 5-year average – 96% Graduation Rate and 89% 1st time PANCE Pass Rate

4. To foster an atmosphere of interprofessional collaboration and engagement within the university, and communities across the state of AR.

Success of Achieving Goal:

1. Provide inter-professional education experiences in the didactic and clinical phases of the program.
2. Provide Service-learning experiences in the didactic phase of the program.
3. Participate with the student-led, inter-professional 12th Street Health and Wellness Center.

5. To produce practicing physician assistants who will improve access to healthcare for the residents of Arkansas.

Success of Achieving Goal: 5-year average – 96% Graduation Rate