(ARC-PA A3.13e)

Purpose

The Accreditation Review Commission on Education for Physician Assistants (ARC-PA) requires the delineation of technical standards for the accreditation of U.S. physician assistant programs.  

 

Overview

Physician assistants (PAs) are academically and clinically prepared to practice medicine on collaborative medical teams. The collaborative medical team is fundamental to the physician assistant (PA) profession and enhances the delivery of high-quality health care.  PAs diagnose illness within the collaborative medical team, develop and manage treatment plans, prescribe medications, and may serve as a patient's principal healthcare provider. PA education requires thousands of hours of general medical training, emphasizing versatility and collaboration. PAs practice in every state, medical setting, and specialty, improving healthcare access and quality.  

Practicing medicine as a PA requires intelligence, sound judgment, intellectual honesty, appropriate interpersonal skills, and the capacity to respond to emergencies quickly and calmly. Essential attributes of the graduate PA include respect for self and others, adherence to privilege and confidentiality in communicating with patients, and a commitment to the patient's welfare. 

These technical standards' essential abilities and characteristics require 向日葵视频PA applicants and students to possess specific physical and cognitive capabilities and sufficient mental and emotional stability. Doing so ensures that candidates for admission, promotion, and graduation can complete the entire course of study and fully participate in all aspects of medical training. 向日葵视频 PA program intends for its graduates to become medically competent and compassionate PAs capable of entering clinical practice and meeting all medical licensure requirements.  

These technical standards are not meant to deter the application or participation of any student who might be able to complete the requirements of the PA curriculum with reasonable accommodation. Per 向日葵视频policies, which, in turn, embody applicable federal, state, and local laws, the 向日葵视频PA program does not discriminate in admissions or educational programs against any individual based on their disability. Otherwise, qualified individuals with disabilities will not be excluded from admission. However, using an intermediary that would, in effect, require a student to rely on another individual's power of observation and/or communication is not considered reasonable accommodation.  

 

ETHICAL AND LEGAL STANDARDS

Students must meet the highest standards of ethical and moral behavior. Applicants and current students must meet the legal standards to be licensed to practice medicine in the U.S., the State of Wisconsin, and the 向日葵视频 Physician Assistant Program's standards. Upon application to the Centralized Application System for Physician Assistant (CASPA), candidates for admission must disclose and provide a written explanation to the 向日葵视频 PA program of any felony offense(s), misdemeanor offense(s), and institutional action(s) taken against them before matriculation.  All charges and convictions require this disclosure, including expunged and diverted offenses. Institutional actions include, but are not limited to, Title IX or Title VII violations, and all disciplinary actions. Further, after matriculation, students enrolled in the 向日葵视频PA program must immediately notify the program director of any arrest, charge, conviction, or institutional investigation or action occurring thereafter. A felony conviction or failure to disclose prior or new offenses may lead to disciplinary action, including dismissal. 

 

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

COMMUNICATION

Students must effectively communicate in English in multiple formats, including verbal, written, reading, and electronic, to understand and complete the curriculum. Students must use effective verbal and nonverbal communication when interacting professionally and during patient care. Students must be able to receive, understand, express, and exchange information and ideas.  Relevant skills include promptly acquiring a medical history, interpreting non-verbal information, establishing a therapeutic rapport with patients, recording information accurately and clearly in medical records, and communicating effectively and efficiently with other healthcare professionals. 

 

BEHAVIORAL, EMOTIONAL, AND SOCIAL ATTRIBUTES

Students must possess specific emotional attributes such as compassion, empathy, integrity, interpersonal skills, and self-motivation / regulation.  These attributes are necessary qualities to develop into effective and caring physician assistants.  Students must also know how their beliefs and biases affect personal, professional, and patient relationships. Students must be willing to work towards cultural competency.  In addition, students must be self-aware of their limitations and desire to address them. Notably, students must demonstrate a commitment to lifelong learning through study and self-assessment as a core aspect of providing quality care during their career as a PA. Throughout the student process, from admission onward, students must display truthfulness, strong interpersonal skills, and respectful behaviors toward all individuals. The PA students must effectively tolerate physical and mentally taxing workloads, carry out responsibilities, and function under stress in academic and clinical environments.   

 

COGNITIVE, INTELLECTUAL-CONCEPTUAL, INTEGRATIVE, AND QUANTITATIVE ABILITIES

Students must demonstrate academic maturity and comprehend, interpret, synthesize, and apply technically detailed and complex medical knowledge from formal lectures, small group problem-based and active learning environments, and individual study of the medical literature. Students must also be able to measure, calculate, reason, analyze, synthesize, and apply information across modalities, appreciate three-dimensional spatial relationships, and think critically to learn to diagnose and treat patients effectively as an integral part of a health professional team. 

Students must meet the essential physical and mental abilities in observation and motor function.  

 

OBSERVATION

Observation requires the functional use of visual, auditory, and somatic sensations (i.e., touch, pressure, pain, motion, temperature).  

Students must be able to observe and actively participate in didactic and clinical environments, including demonstrations and experiments in the basic sciences, visual and oral presentations in lectures and labs, laboratory diagnostic and microbiologic testing, technical skills-based training, simulations, and patient encounters, both at a distance and close at hand. 

PA students must be able to perceive essential structures and signs of disease as presented in the introductory science / clinical courses and clinical rotations. They must also be able to assess and distinguish normal from abnormal physical examination findings.  

 

MOTOR FUNCTION AND COORDINATION

Students must demonstrate sufficient motor function and coordination that require both gross and fine motor movements, equilibrium, and functional use of tactile, visual, and auditory senses. Students must be able to obtain information from patients by palpation, percussion, auscultation, or other diagnostic maneuvers; document information elicited from patients in written histories and clinical notes; perform fundamental laboratory tests such as urinalysis, fecal occult blood testing, and other rapid diagnostic testing; execute motor movements required to provide general care and emergency treatment for patients including cardiopulmonary resuscitation, application of pressure to bleeding wounds, suturing, insertion of intravenous catheters, splinting of fractures, injections, urinary catheters, lumbar puncture, endotracheal intubation, removal of foreign bodies and abscess drainage; attend and participate in all classes, groups and activities requiring a motor component including anatomic dissections; read and write to record, interpret or complete lecture presentations, textbooks, ECGs, diagnostic imaging, case presentations, and Capstone papers; complete timed demonstrations of skills and competencies by Objective Structured Examination (OSCEs) or technical assessments; provide patient care within a reasonable time period appropriate to the patient care setting; competently function in outpatient, inpatient, surgical and other procedural venues with reasonable independence or as an assistant for surgeons, specialists and generalists as needed; participate in on-call responsibilities; and possess sufficient stamina to endure demanding physical and mental workloads. 

 

ACCOMMODATIONS

The faculty and administration of MU PA believe that a diverse student body enhances all students' educational opportunities and benefits the profession. Students with an existing or newly diagnosed disability who wish to establish accommodations must contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS) at ODS@marquette.edu.  Candidates may seek to document a disability and request reasonable accommodation at any point before or after matriculation.  Candidates must follow the procedures of the ODS to report on the existence and nature of the disability.  向日葵视频ODS, the PA Program Chair, and the student will interact to determine the necessity and reasonableness of the requested accommodation. Students may voluntarily share disability information with the program to best identify reasonable accommodation. Once the need for and availability of reasonable accommodation has been established, the ODS and the student will engage in an interactive process to determine the reasonableness of the requested accommodation. Some standard accommodations are communicated to faculty through an accommodation letter; non-standard or uniquely applied accommodations may require additional coordination and will be specified in written communication between ODS, the student, and appropriate program administrators. The PA student is responsible for requesting clarification or adjustments to their approved accommodation. 

Suppose a student in the 向日葵视频Physician Assistant Program is approved for using reasonable accommodations and declines to utilize them or has exhausted the exploration of reasonable accommodations and subsequently experiences academic difficulty. In that case, the candidate will be treated as any other candidate who experiences academic difficulty.  

In general, candidates should establish the existence of a disability before the onset of academic problems. The accommodations process is not retroactive. Suppose a candidate comes forward after failing a course(s) and maintains that the reason for the failure was a disability not previously claimed. In that case, 向日葵视频 may consider the information appropriate in making its decision regarding the remediation, if any must be made.  It is in the student's best interest to explore necessary accommodation promptly so that barriers to access may be addressed before the onset of academic difficulties. 

All the claims and proceedings under this provision will be kept confidential to the extent provided by law and University policies. The dissemination of information related to the existence of a disability will be restricted to 向日葵视频 administrators on a need-to-know basis.  Except as provided by law, no mention of the candidate's disability will appear in any 向日葵视频 correspondence with external agencies unless the candidate explicitly requests such disclosures in writing. Suppose a disability-related need for accommodation exists in the clinical environment. In that case, the student will need to approach the program faculty well before clinical rotations, allowing time for discussion with clinical partners to identify what reasonable accommodations can be applied and what limitations may exist. 

The 向日葵视频PA program is highly rigorous and fast-paced. Accommodations that may have been appropriate in an undergraduate program may no longer be relevant in this program or its clinical components. The type of accommodation that can be approved is limited, considering the program's essential elements, the reasonableness of the requested accommodation, and the fundamentals of clinical practice. Students who need accommodation to meet the technical and academic standards of the program are responsible for engaging in the interactive accommodations process.