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.”
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