CMU’s Physician Assistant Program Wins Award

CMU PA Student Society honored for their commitment to advocacy, public service, DEI practices and professional involvement

Colorado Mesa University’s Physician Assistant Studies Program is only four years old, but in that short time students have worked hard to ensure our community is healthy and resilient, which they were recently recognized nationally for these efforts.

A physician assistant (PA) is a medical provider who works as part of a collaborative medical team. 他们毕业时获得国家认证，如果获得州执照，可以在任何州工作.

CMU临床教育主任兼医师助理研究助理临床教授A'lanne Conrad, DMSc, PA-C, 在她的四年任期内帮助塑造了这个项目，并为这个项目的毕业生已经产生的影响感到自豪.

“PAs can work in any medical field. 他们毕业后成为通才，可以用来帮助缩小全国所有地区获得医疗保健的差距. 目前，我们有13名毕业生在大峡谷工作，其中4名毕业生服务于沿I-70走廊和蒙特罗斯的农村社区,” said Conrad.

PA项目的毕业生要经过27个月的严格训练，包括15个月的医学教学教育和12个月的临床轮岗. Like many of CMU’s programs, the diverse curriculum is rooted in experiential learning and in addition to clinical rotations, 作为毕业项目的一部分，通过PA学生协会(PASS)， PA学生积极地在社区做志愿者。.

In recognition of their outstanding community engagement, the PASS at CMU received their first award this year. Each year, 来自全国各地的学生社团申请美国医师协会(AAPA)杰出学生社团奖. Each application is then judged based on how that school’s student society engaged in the areas of public education and advocacy; public service and outreach; diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices and professional involvement.

Because CMU’s program is so new, winning this award is a testament to the university’s high-quality programming, 该项目的教师建立了强大的社区联系，学生们从导师那里得到了巨大的支持, administrators and staff in the local medical community.

During her time as the Director of Clinical Education for the program, Conrad has seen the PASS flourish with guidance from faculty.

“This class was able to put into words what the 2021, 2022 and 2023 cohorts put into action. While the students of the class of 2024 received the award, they stand on the backs of the CMU PA students that came before them. They are continuing and establishing a proud legacy for CMU and for all Colorado PAs,” said Conrad, DMSc.

As demographics in the United States continues to change and become more diverse, 医疗提供者还必须使其提供护理的方法多样化，以确保所有患者都得到有尊严的治疗. The PA program faculty at CMU has worked meet this challenge by providing diversity, 在课程中引入公平和包容(DEI)的指导，并鼓励学生在工作中成为创新者和变革的推动者. 这些努力的目标是减少服务不足人群在医疗质量上的差距，特别是在科罗拉多西坡地区，通过让毕业生准备好与病人见面，并找到增加所有病人获得医疗服务的方法.

PASS已经接受了这一挑战，通过几个服务项目和顶点项目进行创新和制定变革. At a recent Special Olympics event held at CMU, PA学生自愿为数百名智障运动员提供健康检查和健康教育演讲. Participants received mental health screenings along with tools to help manage anxiety and depression, podiatrist evaluations for issues affecting their feet, vision screenings and vision prescription assistance, 双x线骨密度仪(DEXA)扫描和运动员也接受营养和防晒教育.

To help people in the community manage health issues through improved dietary choices, CMU PA students teamed up with the Western Colorado Community College Culinary Arts Program to offer free cooking classes. 每节课都旨在为参与者提供准备美味食物所需的工具，这些食物也被证明有助于预防包括糖尿病在内的慢性疾病, hypertension and obesity.

私人学院的学生还协助科罗拉多慈善会的免费牙科诊所，在那里他们帮助筛查病人, 为排除健康问题进行初步评估，并为那些在诊所寻求治疗的患者提供支持. 诊所为社区中没有保险或无法支付必要的牙科工作费用的人提供牙科护理.

In another capstone, PA学生为从业人员开发了教育材料，以帮助他们识别各种肤色的皮疹，以确保无论患者的肤色如何, every patient would still receive top-notch care. 这个顶点来自于PASS的多元化和包容性委员会，这是一个由学生领导的委员会，得到了所有教师的支持. The committee is focused on expanding their own knowledge of diversity, 医疗从业人员需要意识到的公平和包容问题，并努力教育他们的同行和该领域的其他专业人员. 该小组通过每月的时事通讯和每年的一系列活动向同学和教师提供演示和互动活动，以确保每个人都能跟上最佳实践.

Yet another capstone project partnered with the Colorado Health Network to create the Harm Reduction Program. 这些学生每周自愿领导捡针活动，设计并向当地组织和医疗团体介绍社区中可用的减少伤害的做法和减少伤害的资源. A study published in the journal Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy 2020年发现，在佛罗里达州，三年时间里，药物滥用并发症患者的医疗费用超过60亿美元. 减少伤害的努力旨在通过为这些患者提供安全的空间和安全的材料来降低与药物使用作斗争的患者的感染率，它使医疗保健提供者有机会讨论安全使用和治疗方案，以减少药物使用，从而降低总体医疗保健费用. 参与减少伤害计划顶点的PASS学生通过示范和教育他人如何提供非评判性的服务，为这些努力做出了贡献, patient-centered care without condoning drug use.

Upon receiving the AAPA Outstanding Student Society Award for these combined efforts, faculty and students have received other recognition including on the AAPA’s website, in The Daily Sentinel, and both a faculty interview and student interviews on KKCO 11 News.

For more information about CMU’s PA program and to learn about upcoming events organized by the PASS, visit the program page.