MSPA 5070 - Clinical Medicine Practicum I

1 credit hour

The Clinical Medicine Practicum series is a year-long course sequence which places students in supervised clinical patient care settings throughout their didactic education. Students will learn the art of medicine from PAs, physicians, and other health care providers in a variety of care environments and specialties. Through a partnership with local rehabilitation centers, students will have the opportunity to complete comprehensive history and physical exams on patients with complex acute and chronic disease profiles, applying their didactic education as they learn. Students will provide readmission prevention patient education for cardiac patients and falls prevention for at-risk adults through ATSU’s Heart Failure Project and Matter of Balance Falls Prevention Project.

Matter of Balance Falls Prevention: This award-winning national program is coordinated by the A.T. Still University (ATSU) Aging Studies Project. Students will participate in a full day training program and then be assigned to Interprofessional Experience (IPE) teams (where possible). Student teams will be placed throughout the greater Phoenix area to conduct the program.
The Heart Failure Project: This program is conducted in association with Banner Health and East Valley Adult Resources, Inc. to supply patient education post hospital discharge focused upon patient self-management and quality of life improvement with the goal of reducing readmission to the hospital for cardiac patients. Following completion of an online training modules, students are assigned in pairs (IPE where able to deliver the program to an assigned specific patient and follow an approved written education script. It is expected that PA students will participate in the heart failure project two times in the course of the didactic year.