- RIT's physician assistant program is a five year, dual degree program where you'll earn both your bachelor's and your master's degrees.
- Top five practice areas for RIT physician assistants: 1) surgical subspecialty, 2) emergency medicine, 3) internal medicine–general, 4) hospital medicine, and 5) general surgery.
- 92% overall first-time pass rate on the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination® (PANCE).
- Mandatory medical rotations in pediatrics, internal medicine, women's health, emergency medicine, surgery, orthopedics, behavioral health, and family medicine, and one elective rotation in an area of your choosing.
- Recent physician assistant graduates are employed by Comprehensive & Interventional Pain Management LLP, Danbury Hospital, Harborview Medical Center, Mayo Clinic, Rochester Regional Health, St. Peter's Health Partners, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Unity Hospital, and University of Rochester Medical Center, to name a few.
RIT's physician assistant program prepares you to elicit medical histories, conduct physical examinations, order laboratory and radiological testing, diagnose common illnesses, determine treatment, provide medical advice, counsel and educate patients, promote wellness and disease prevention, assist in surgery, and perform casting and suturing.
Physician assistant duties vary depending on the state and specialty in which they practice. In most states, including New York, physician assistants may prescribe medication. Examples of specialties include (but are not limited to): internal medicine, family medicine, emergency medicine, geriatrics, pediatrics, women's health, behavioral health, general surgery, orthopedics, neurosurgery, and neonatology. Clinical rotations (internships) during students' last year provide the opportunity to explore these varied disciplines.
Obtaining the skills and knowledge to practice as a physician assistant is a complex process. A carefully planned course of study has been developed to offer a balance of didactic and clinical knowledge. A significant component of the educational process is the socialization of the student to the character, performance, and role of a provider of medical care. The evaluation of the student's adaptation to this role depends on the experienced judgment of individual faculty members. It is important to recognize that these subjective judgments may transcend or be independent of traditional paper and pencil tests and other similar objective measures of academic performance. Physician assistant education involves instruction from practicing clinicians with unpredictable schedules.
Many opportunities, in the form of evaluations, are provided for the measurement of progress by both faculty and student. In addition to a fully staffed Academic Support Center, individual instruction and tutoring may be provided in certain instances. Every effort is made to provide a complete learning environment. Even though a variety of experiences, learning situations, and tools are provided by the Program, the single greatest factor, motivation, is essentially up to the student.
- Accreditation Update–November 6, 2019
- Physician Assistant Program Goals
- Physician Assistant Program Successes
- NCCPA Pass Rate Report
- Physician Assistant Student Attrition Table
Mission
RIT's physician assistant program provides a foundation of science and liberal arts; and prepares students to provide compassionate, patient-centered healthcare. The program is committed to developing the ethical values, medical knowledge, professionalism, and interpersonal communication skills essential for inter-professional, team-based, clinical practice.
Goals
Medical Knowledge: Graduates will demonstrate core medical knowledge of established and evolving biomedical and clinical sciences and apply this knowledge to patient care.
Interpersonal and Communication Skills: Graduates will demonstrate interpersonal and communication skills that result in effective information exchange with patients, families, physicians, and other members of the healthcare team.
Patient Care: Graduates will provide effective, safe, high-quality, and equitable patient care in diverse settings and across the life span.
Professionalism: Graduates will practice with integrity, ethical and legal responsibility, and sensitivity to diverse patient populations.
Practice-based Learning and Improvement: Graduates will critically analyze their practice experiences with Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) and quality assurance processes to improve patient care.
Systems-based Practice: Graduates will demonstrate awareness of and responsiveness to healthcare systems while keeping the patient at the center of cost-effective, safe care. (Adapted from the Competencies for the Physician Assistant Profession, written by the AAPA, ARC-PA, PAEA, and NCCPA, 2012)
Philosophy: The educational philosophy of the physician assistant program is to provide all students with the necessary liberal arts and basic science foundation necessary to build solid medical knowledge and humanistic skills by which to ultimately provide high-quality patient care to future patients. The faculty views the responsibilities of role modeling and mentoring as critical to the success of assimilating students to the realities and responsibilities of medicine today. The educational philosophy incorporates the attitudes of respect for individual patients into critical decision-making through the assimilation of appropriate interpersonal skills, compassion, and respect and reverence for the position of physician assistant.
Plan of Study
The physician assistant major is offered as a BS/MS degree program, which enables students to earn both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in five years. The curriculum is divided into a pre-professional phase (years 1 and 2), which includes course work in the basic sciences, mathematics, general education, and liberal arts; and a professional phase, (years 3, 4, and 5), which features didactic medical education and culminates in clinical rotations in which students apply their medical knowledge in a series of rotations through various disciplines of medicine.
Technical Standards
Students in the physician assistant program must possess certain capabilities and skills, with or without reasonable accommodation. These include the intellectual ability to learn, integrate, analyze, and synthesize data. They must have a functional use, with or without accommodation, of the senses of vision, hearing, and equilibrium. Learn more about the technical standards required of a successful physician assistant major.
Graduate Competencies
The physician assistant program has outlined functions and tasks for performing a range of skills you are expected to master as a graduate of the program. Learn more about graduate competencies required of a successful physician assistant major.
Program Progression
Students are matriculated into one of the first three years, upon their acceptance into the physician assistant major. Students must complete academic requirements to progress on to the next academic year. Students must meet all program academic requirements, policies, and standards to advance from the pre-professional phase to the professional phase of the program. Once matriculated into the pre-professional phase, students are permitted to take a limited number of courses at another institution during the summer, pending program approval. It is important, however, that students take core science courses at RIT to ensure a consistent educational experience. Students are not permitted to skip class years (i.e. first to third year) once matriculated in the major.
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