Clinical Phase

The clinical phase of the program curriculum provides supervised clinical practice opportunities where students can apply the knowledge and skills learned in the classroom to patients in various health care settings. Under supervision of preceptors, students acquire the competencies needed for clinical PA practice. They are exposed to patients across the life span in the disciplines of primary care, internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics/gynecology, emergency medicine, long term care, and psychiatry.

Beginning with semester V, students participate in 10 rotation experiences over approximately 15 months. Two of the ten rotations are electives.

During each five-week rotation, physician assistant students obtain exposure to the practice of a medical or surgical discipline. As an integral part of the health-care delivery team, the PA student is assigned to and supervised by an attending physician or resident / intern / staff PA team. The PA student obtains complete medical histories, performs physical examinations, develops working differential diagnoses, orders and interprets appropriate laboratory and other diagnostic tests, performs therapeutic procedures, arrives at a final diagnosis and develops a comprehensive treatment plan.

Rotations take place in in-patient and out-patient settings such as hospitals, clinics, private practices, emergency departments, and long term care facilities. We have a wide variety of superb affiliation sites in the greater New York metropolitan area where students come into contact with diverse patient populations. Below is a partial list of our hospital affiliation sites for the 2013 clinical year.

Hospital Affiliation Sites