PA Technical Standards

The technical standards (standards of conduct) were reviewed and adopted by our physician assistant (PA) program, faculty, and administration to ensure students in the PA program were prepared for the study and practice of medicine. As such, the approved standards require students to demonstrate capacity/ability in five broad areas:

  1. Perception/observation.
  2. Communication.
  3. Motor/tactile function.
  4. Cognition.
  5. Professionalism (mature and ethical conduct).

Perception/observation

Students must be able to accurately perceive, by the use of senses and mental abilities, the presentation of information through:

  • Small group discussions and presentations.
  • Large-group lectures.
  • One-on-one interactions.
  • Demonstrations.
  • Laboratory experiments/exercises.
  • Patient encounters (at a distance and close at hand).
  • Diagnostic findings.
  • Procedures.
  • Written material.
  • Audiovisual material.

Communication

Students must be able to communicate skillfully (in English), both written and verbally, with faculty members, other members of the health care team, patients, families, and other students, in order to:

  • Elicit information.
  • Convey information.
  • Clarify information.
  • Create rapport.
  • Develop therapeutic relationships.
  • Demonstrate competencies.

Motor/tactile function

Students must have sufficient motor function and tactile ability to:

  • Attend (and participate in) all classes, groups and activities which are part of the curriculum.
  • Read and write.
  • Examine patients.
  • Do basic laboratory procedures and tests.
  • Perform diagnostic procedures.
  • Provide general and emergency patient care.
  • Function in outpatient, inpatient and surgical venues.
  • Perform in a reasonably independent and competent way in sometimes chaotic clinical environments.
  • Demonstrate competencies:
    • Medical knowledge (MK).
    • Clinical and technical skills (CTS).
    • Clinical reasoning and problem solving (CRPS).
    • Interpersonal skills (IS).
    • Professional behaviors (PB).

Cognition

Students must be able to demonstrate higher-level cognitive abilities, which include:

  • Rational thought.
  • Measurement.
  • Calculation.
  • Visual-spatial comprehension.
  • Conceptualization.
  • Analysis.
  • Synthesis.
  • Organization.
  • Representation (oral, written, diagrammatic, three dimensional).
  • Memory.
  • Application.
  • Clinical reasoning.
  • Ethical reasoning.
  • Sound judgment.

Professionalism (mature and ethical conduct)

Students must be able to:

  • Consistently display integrity, honesty, empathy, caring, fairness, respect for self and others, diligence and dedication.
  • Promptly complete all assignments and responsibilities attendant to the diagnosis and care of patients.
  • Communicate with, examine and provide care for all patients – including those whose gender, culture, sexual orientation or spiritual beliefs are different from students’ own.
  • Develop mature, sensitive and effective relationships, not only with patients but with all members of the PA Program community and health care teams.
  • Maintain sobriety in all academic and clinical environments, and refrain from the illegal use of substances at all times.
  • Abide by all state, federal and local laws, as well as all CMU codes of conduct and PA Program Policy.
  • Tolerate physically, emotionally and mentally demanding workloads.
  • Function effectively under stress and proactively make use of available resources to help maintain both physical and mental health.
  • Adapt to changing environments, display flexibility and be able to learn in the face of uncertainty.
  • Take responsibility for themselves and their behaviors.

All candidates for graduation from our PA program must possess essential knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to complete the curriculum successfully in order to function in a variety of clinical settings and to provide a wide spectrum of patient care. Therefore, every PA student must master a common body of basic science knowledge and master the principles, knowledge, and procedures of the major required supervised clinical practical experience (SCPE) specialties in family medicine (FM), pediatrics (PEDS), women’s health (WH), internal medicine (IM), general surgery (SURG), emergency medicine (EM), and behavioral and mental health (B/MH).

Without the essential capacities, students cannot fulfill the requirements of all the courses and clerkships in the PA program. Meeting the technical standards is, therefore, required for matriculation (insomuch as the abilities can reasonably be determined before matriculation), subsequent promotion from term to term, and finally graduation from the PA Program.