About the Program
The Master of Physician Assistant Practice (MPAP), offered by the USC Primary Care Physician Assistant Program, trains students in a range of medical, social and behavioral sciences required for competent clinical practice. Physician assistants are educated in basic medical sciences and clinical disciplines, including human anatomy, physiology, pharmacology and clinical laboratory medicine. Further, PA students are taught to hone the cognitive skills required for medical decision-making.
The 33-month graduate curriculum includes integrated course work in the basic sciences, medicine, clinical skills, public health and epidemiology, health care administration, and psychosocial and behavioral sciences. Students enter the Program having completed a Bachelor’s degree as well as a set of Program prerequisites. Our unique location within the Keck School of Medicine of USC provides students with a vast array of educational and clinical resources that contribute to the excellence in training. The physician assistant (PA) is a health care professional qualified by academic and clinical education and by formal certification to practice medicine with the supervision of a doctor of medicine or osteopathy. Physician assistants perform diagnostic, therapeutic, preventive and health maintenance services in any setting in which physicians provide care. Physician assistants are accountable for their own actions as well as being accountable to their supervising physician.
MISSION STATEMENT
The USC Primary Care Physician Assistant Program is dedicated to the advancement of physician assistant education and emphasizes service to the medically underserved. The Program is committed to preparing students from a wide variety of backgrounds to practice medicine with the supervision of a physician. Emphasis is placed upon understanding and appreciating diversity. The Program aims to prepare its graduates to practice and promote primary health care of the highest quality as part of a multidisciplinary team.
GOALS OF THE PROGRAM
Education: Provide excellent primary care educational instruction and professional development to PA students and promote the growth and development of PA education.
Diversity: Emphasize diversity in the selection of students and faculty, and in the curriculum.
Quality: Promote excellence in healthcare through carefully considered admissions policies, a well-prepared faculty, and primary care instruction.
Service: Encourage service to the medically underserved.
Leadership: Mentor, model, and teach leadership including advocacy, evidenced based practice, and team based practice.
INDICATORS OF SUCCESS IN ACHIEVING THESE GOALS
1) Education – The curriculum is designed with a primary care focus. Oversight of the development of this curriculum is provided by the Curriculum Committee, with feedback from the Program's Advisory Board as needed. The curriculum, under the oversight of the Curriculum Committee, is focused on primary care and embraces the Competencies for the PA Profession as designated by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants, utilizing their "blueprint" as a guideline in developing curriculum content. Professional development is offered throughout the curriculum and its success is measured by clerkship evaluations.
2) Diversity – Demographics of the 54 students in our incoming first-year class (class of 2016) are: African American (11%), Anglo-American (39%), Asian-American (7%), Hispanic (17%), Multi-Racial (17%), Other (9%) Gender: female (78%), male (22%). Diversity among appointed faculty include 9 women and 4 men, with African-American, Asian, Caucasian, and Hispanic ethnicities; instructional faculty are similarly diverse. Preparing our students to serve diverse populations is facilitated by including 3 semesters of medical conversational Spanish in the curriculum, promoting service learning projects in a wide breadth of populations, and securing clinical sites in areas that care for medically-underserved populations. The graduating class of 2013 collectively cared for 105,195 patients, 51% of whom were medically underserved.
3) Quality – Faculty are well-prepared as evidenced by 100% attainment of advanced degrees and well-over 250 years of collective clinical experience. Successful delivery of primary care education is evidenced by a 100% first-time PANCE pass rates in 2010 and collective success of graduates in clinical practice is observed on surveys of Program alumni.
4) Service – Our Program was awarded a Song-Brown training grant, funding by the State of California intended to increase the number of providers entering primary care in medically underserved areas. Approximately 25% of reporting graduates are currently practicing in medically underserved areas. Our Program is also a recipient of the new HRSA Expansion of PA Training (EPAT) grant that provides 2-year full-tuition scholarships to four new students per year who are committed to our mission to practice in primary care. Collectively among the classes of 2011-2015, 24 of our students were selected as National Health Service Corps Scholars and 1 student was selected as a Native Hawaiian Scholar.
5) Leadership – Our program is proud to highlight our success in leadership including having one of our graduates become the first PA elected to Congress. Representative Karen Bass, PA from the 33rd district is a 1982 graduate of the Keck School of Medicine of USC Primary Care Physician Assistant Program and a former faculty member of our program. Her leadership in Congress is a prime example of that success. Additionally, members of our faculty are involved in leadership for the profession including our director, Kevin Lohenry, PhD, PA-C who served as President of the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) in 2011, Anne Walsh, MMSc, PA-C who serves as Liaison to the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine for PAEA, Mitzi D'Aquila is a former board member for the California Academy of Physician Assistants, and John Mabee, PhD, PA-C and Janice Tramel, MS-HPE, PA-C are resources for the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants.
ACCREDITATION
The ARC-PA has granted continued accreditation to the Primary Care Physician Assistant Program sponsored by the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. Continued accreditation is an accreditation status granted when a currently accredited program is in compliance with the ARC-PA Standards.
Continued accreditation remains in effect until the program closes or withdraws from the accreditation process or until accreditation is withdrawn for failure to comply with the Standards. The approximate date for the next comprehensive review of the program by the ARC-PA will be September 2016.
Since the Program's inception in 1974, graduates of the Physician Assistant Program at USC have performed well on the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE). The USC PA Program's first-time test taker five-year average pass rate is 96%.
Official NCCPA 5 year summary report of National Board Pass Rates for first time test takers.