Program

The ARC-PA has granted Accreditation-Provisional status to the Meharry Medical College Physician Assistant Program sponsored by Meharry Medical College.

Accreditation-Provisional is an accreditation status granted when the plans and resource allocation, if fully implemented as planned, of a proposed program that has not yet enrolled students appear to demonstrate the program’s ability to meet the ARC-PA Standards or when a program holding Accreditation-Provisional status appears to demonstrate continued progress in complying with the Standards as it prepares for the graduation of the first class (cohort) of students.

Accreditation-Provisional does not ensure any subsequent accreditation status. It is limited to no more than five years from matriculation of the first class.

The program’s accreditation history can be viewed on the ARC-PA website.

Institutional

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC)

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges is the regional accrediting body for Meharry Medical College.

Our student learning outcomes are considered entry-level competencies and were adapted from the Competencies for the Physician Assistant Profession document (Adopted 2005; revised 2012 and 2020). The purpose of the document is to communicate to the PA profession and the public, a set of competencies that all PAs, regardless of specialty or setting, are expected to acquire and maintain throughout their careers. The competencies provide a road map for the individual PA, the physician-PA team, and the PA-related professional organizations. These competencies are in similar alignment with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) competencies for the medical resident.

Graduate physician assistant students will demonstrate:

1. Knowledge for Practice
   • Demonstrate knowledge about established and evolving biomedical and clinical sciences and the application of this knowledge to patient care.
   • Access and interpret current and credible sources of medical information.
   • Discern among acute, chronic, and emergent disease states.
   • Adhere to standards of care, and to relevant laws, policies, and regulations that govern the delivery of care in the United States.
   • Participate in surveillance of community resources to determine if they are adequate to sustain and improve health

2. Interpersonal and Communication Skills
   • Demonstrate interpersonal and communication skills that result in the effective exchange of information and collaboration with patients, their families, and other health professionals.
   • Communicate effectively to elicit and provide information.
   • Demonstrate sensitivity, honesty, and compassion in all conversations, including challenging discussions about death, end of life, adverse events, bad news, disclosure of errors and other sensitive topics.
   • Recognize communication barriers and provide solutions.

3. Person-centered Care
   • Provide person-centered care that includes patient-and setting-specific assessment, evaluation, and management.
   • Provide health care that is evidence-based, supports patient safety, and advances health equity.
   • Counsel, educate, and empower patients and their families to participate in their care and enable shared decision-making.

4. Interprofessional Collaboration
   • Demonstrate the ability to engage with a variety of other health care professionals in a manner that optimizes safe, effective, patient-and population-centered care.
   • Communicate effectively with colleagues and other professionals to establish and enhance interprofessional teams.
   • Recognize when to refer patients to other disciplines to ensure that patients receive optimal care at the right time and appropriate level.

5. Professionalism and Ethics
   • Demonstrate a commitment to practicing medicine in ethically and legally appropriate ways.
   • Emphasize professional maturity and accountability to ensure safe and quality care to patients and various populations.
   • Demonstrate cultural humility and responsiveness to a diverse patient population, including diversity in sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, culture, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religion, and abilities.
   • Exercise good judgment and fiscal responsibility when utilizing resources.

6. Practice-based Learning and Quality Improvement
   • Exhibit self-awareness to identify strengths, address deficiencies, and recognize limits in knowledge and expertise.
   • Demonstrate the ability to learn and implement quality improvement practices by engaging in critical analysis of one’s own practice experience, the medical literature, and other resources.
   • Utilize resources for self-evaluation, lifelong learning, and practice improvement
   • Identify improvement goals and perform learning activities that address gaps in knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
   • Analyze the use and allocation of resources to ensure the practice of cost-effective health care while maintaining quality of care.

7. Society and Population Health
   • Recognize and understand the influences of the ecosystem of person, family, population, environment, and policy on the health of patients.
   • Integrate knowledge of the determinants of health into patient care decisions.
   • Demonstrate accountability, responsibility, and leadership for removing barriers to health.

The Meharry Medical College PA Program requires that all students demonstrate the technical skills needed to complete both the didactic and clinical phases of the program. The following skills are necessary to effectively evaluate and treat patients: critical thinking, effective communication, using computerized information technology and visual, auditory and motor skills.

Students who are unable to demonstrate the required technical standards needed to complete the PA curriculum may be dismissed from the program. As required by the Federal Disabilities Act, the PA program will make every attempt to provide students necessary accommodations.

Minimum Technical Standards

Critical Thinking: Students must possess the intellectual capabilities required to complete both the didactic and clinical curriculum and achieve competency. Critical thinking requires the intellectual ability to measure, calculate, synthesize, and analyze a large and complex volume of medical and surgical information. Students in the program must also be able to perform applicable demonstrations and experiments in the medical sciences.

Computer Technology Skills: Students must be able to utilize computerized information technology to access and manage on-line medical information, participate in computerized testing as required by the curriculum, conduct research, prepare multimedia presentations, and participate in the management of computerized patient records and assessments.

Communication Skills: Students must be able to speak clearly and effectively in order to elicit and relay medical information. They must also be able to communicate effectively and legibly in writing.

Visual Ability: Students must have the visual acuity needed to evaluate a patient during a physical exam and perform a wide range of technical procedures involved in the practice of medicine and surgery.

Hearing and Tactile Ability: Students must have the motor and sensory functions needed to elicit information from patients by palpation, auscultation and percussion, as well as perform a wide range of technical procedures involved in the practice of medicine and surgery.

Motor and Fine Skills: Students must be able to execute the physical movements required to maneuver in small places, calibrate and use equipment, position and move patients, and perform the technical procedures involved in the practice of medicine and surgery.

Interpersonal Ability: Students must possess a wide range of interpersonal skills, including but not limited to: the emotional health required for management of high stress situations while maintaining their full intellectual abilities; the ability to exercise good judgment; the ability to complete all assigned patient care responsibilities; the ability to manage time (show up on time, begin and complete tasks on time); the ability to develop a mature, sensitive and effective relationship with medical colleagues, clinical and administrative staff, patients and families; the ability to identify, use, understand, and manage emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and diffuse conflict; and the ability to recognize your own emotional state and the emotional states of others, and engage with people in a way that draws them to you.