Brenau President Ed Schrader signed with Matthew Schure, president of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, to create the five-year PA study program.
Schrader said the program is aimed at locating the graduates trained in Gainesville and Philadelphia to meet growing local health care needs.
"This is a step in keeping health care professionals in Georgia by having them do their clinicals in our own town," Schrader said.
Brenau's new medical program starts next month with 15 students.
The program prepares health care professionals to perform many of the patient-related tasks doctors perform.
It involves three years of specialized studies on the Brenau campus two courses at GA-PCOM between their third and their fourth years; 14 months of professional studies on PCOM's main campus in Pennsylvania; and a final year of focused clinical studies in Gainesville under the supervision of both PCOM faculty and doctors affiliated with The Longstreet Clinic and Northeast Georgia Medical Center.
"Although the physician assistant profession is relatively new, thousands of dedicated people in that profession have become essential primary health care providers for hundreds of thousands of families," Schrader said.
"This agreement is the perfect response to our mutual goal of training health professionals to serve in the South," Schure said. "This innovative partnership takes advantage of the strengths of both institutions to assure undergraduates a path to a career in the health professions and to prepare highly qualified physician assistants for Georgia."
The physician assistant profession is relatively new, tracing its roots to Duke University in the 1960s when many highly trained military medics returned from the Vietnam War with vital skills that could be put to use helping the civilian population.
According to the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA), more than 68,000 licensed professionals currently work in clinical settings under the supervision of physicians.
They're empowered to undertake myriad tasks, including conducting physical exams, diagnosing and treating illnesses, ordering and interpreting tests, counseling patients on preventive health care, assisting in surgery, and writing prescriptions. About 12,000 students are enrolled in PA programs and the 124 accredited institutions that train them turned out about 4,600 graduates in 2007.
The growth in the profession creates some well-paying jobs. According to AAPA research, the mean income for PAs who work at least 32 hours a week for doctors, clinics or hospitals is about $86,214 annually. The average salary is $73,013 for those who have been in a clinical practice for less than a year.
Ed Schrader, Matthew Schure sign agreement
http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/7/211622