FSU MED Magazine Fall 2018, Vol. 14 | Page 9

PA program welcomes its second class was AMDA president in 2010 and is the T immediate past chair of the fundraising Practice is preparing to send its inaugural class clinical year, I’ve really started to see all the board. off to regional campuses for clinical rotations. efforts and hard work coming to fruition.” aligning with my interests because ever since I started my training, I was drawn to nursing home work,” said Katz, who A current problem atop the society’s he newest group of PA students experience, and I’m excited about being a have just arrived at the central resource for these students,” said Kelley Stem, campus, at the same time that the who will be going to the Tallahassee Regional School of Physician Assistant Campus. “As we’ve begun preparing for our It’s a busy period for the young program. The Class of 2019 has taken pride in setting agenda is the inconsistency of care in Both classes will be at the main campus until the standard for future PA students, says Jim nursing homes. Much of Katz’s research has students from the Class of 2019 begin their Zedaker, the program’s founding director. centered on finding a link between physician clinical rotations in January, learning under practice and quality of care. many of the same faculty physicians who teach role very seriously, and I think they’re going M.D. students. to continue doing that, and try to mentor “When I was president, I pushed to better define the role of attending No longer the lone PA class, the second-year “They’re the charter class. They’ve taken that the new guys to carry on a very short but physicians in nursing homes, which led students are eager to welcome the newcomers hopefully long-running tradition of professional to the development of competencies and provide guidance. students,” he said. “I think you’re going to see a for medical providers, as well as the development of a curriculum, which I’ve “Being given the opportunity to pave the very resilient, very qualified group of students way for future classes has been a really cool move on to clinicals, then graduate next year.” been involved in,” he said. Now he’s part of an international measures that can better reveal how the identified skills and competencies affect care. “These quality measures can be used to see which really perform the best, and from there we can come up with a project striving to develop a set of physician quality score and see if that relates to outcomes,” he said. As a result of this research, the society has a certification board exploring a possible specialty of post-acute and long- term care. “Defining the competencies, developing quality measures, proving a link to quality of care, then eventually attaining some sort of specialty status, that’s really my life’s work,” he said. “The Dodd Award recognizes my part, but many people are The inaugural class, seen here after their arrival in August 2017, will be heading off to regional campuses in January for the start of a year of clinical rotations. doing this.” 7