05/28/2024

PA Program Spotlight: Miami University

Miami University’s Physician Associate program finds its home in the brand new Clinical Health Science and Wellness building. The program boasts a nine-bed cadaver lab, a health science and innovation center with two Anatomage tables, a large wet-dry simulation lab, twelve standardized patient exam rooms, and an eighteen-bed diagnostic skills lab. The extensive SIM center includes adult and pediatric simulation models, one obstetrics and gynecology with neonatal response space, one inpatient medical surgical and critical care room, a temperature-controlled operating room that also serves as a trauma bay, and a home health/concierge health model.

The program emphasizes interdisciplinary relationships within the healthcare team with NP, SLP, audiology, and nursing students also having programs in the building. There is a heavy emphasis on producing clinicians with the knowledge, skill, and confidence to provide quality healthcare to rural populations and underserved areas. PA students complete 2 capstone projects by the end of the program including a poster presentation focused on a rural healthcare topic as well as a manuscript on a medical topic of their personal interest. Students are encouraged to get involved within the class and PA organizations such as Ohio Rural Health Association, OAPA, AAPA, and more.

Students in the program receive BLS, ACLS, and PALs certification through the program, and each receive their own personal handheld ultrasound device. 2 courses of POCUS training are completed throughout the program, and didactic units are completed in system-based modules. OSCE’s are started early on in the didactic phase of study (during the 1st semester) to encourage comfortability interacting with patients and give a strong foundation of H&P skills. The program matriculates a new class of students each May for 15 months of didactic classwork followed by 12 months of clinical rotations.

Miami University PA Program by the Numbers: