Pre-Clinical Coursework
Skills for clinical practice are presented in Quarters 1-4. These courses occur in sequence with the Core Medicine content of each quarter. The components of the skills for clinical practice are:
- Social and behavior sciences relevant to patient interview
- History-taking
- Physical exam techniques
- Critical thinking, problem solving, medical decision-making
- Technical procedures (such as phlebotomy, suturing, applying splints)
Professionalism is taught throughout the curriculum in dedicated courses, with the following emphasis by quarter:
- The history of the PA profession, professional practice issues, laws and regulations affecting the PA practice, components of professionalism, PA scope of practice, and medical ethics
- PA certification and licensure requirements
- Overview of health care delivery systems and health policy
- Preparation for practice topics include quality improvement, risk management, reimbursement, documentation, coding and billing
Cultural Medicine includes the following:
- Cross cultural issues in PA practice, culturally competent health care, health literacy, models of assessing provider and patient health beliefs, and working with interpreters
- Health disparities and their effect on health care delivery
