WFUSM PA Program In the News
from Advance for Physician Assistants
Vol. 14 •Issue 9 • Page 11
Program Notes
Problem-Based Learning at N.C. Program
Basics: Wake Forest University has graduated 1,374 students since its first class entered the program in 1969. The program lasts 24 months, and time is evenly spent on the didactic and clinical portions. Students have earned a master of medical science degree since 2004, for the class that entered in 2002. Each class has 48 students, and about 50% stay in the area after graduation, according to Wake Forest PA department chair and program director James A. Van Rhee, MS, PA-C.
Focus on PBL: Students are taught during their didactic year through problem-based learning. "We use PBL cases as the centerpiece of our curriculum, and then we supplement those cases with lectures, labs, hands-on experiences, workshops, things like that," Van Rhee says. Faculty members present the cases through PowerPoint, with students researching parts of the case that they do not immediately understand. The students work in rotating groups of six to eight, with one faculty member as a facilitator. "Part of the process is to learn how to work in groups, because they're going to work in teams the rest of the careers," Van Rhee says.
A Variety of Rotations: Van Rhee says that Wake Forest has 1,100 active clinical site locations, 500 of which have been used over the last three to four years. "While we're affiliated with one of the major teaching hospitals in the country, and we do utilize that resource, our students also have access to a lot of rural sites and clinical sites through the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers program," he says. "We can give students a nice mix (of rotations)."
Faculty: James A. Van Rhee, MS, PA-C (chair/program director); K. Patrick Ober, MD (medical director); Suzanne Reich, PA-C, MPAS (clinical coordinator); M. Jane McDaniel, MT(ASCP)SC, CLS(NCA); Erich Grant, MMS, PA-C; Catherine N. Shull, PA-C, MPAS.
Terri Schaefer
Close-Up on Wake Forest University
Location: Winston-Salem, N.C.
Degree conferred: Master of medical science
No. of graduates to date: 1,374
Web site: www.wfubmc.edu/PAProgram