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The Department of Physician Assistant Studies (DPAS) embraces Elon University’s guiding mission and supports fulfillment of The Elon Commitment through implementation of the departmental “Learning. Caring. Serving. Leading.” vision. The themes of The Elon Commitment serve as the structure for presenting our goals through the 2012-2013 Academic Year. Each theme is expanded upon by key strategies that will lead to attaining our overall goal of creating a nationally recognized department.
Goal 1: Attract and educate academically-talented, compassionate, mature students from diverse backgrounds and experiences who are committed to the mission of Elon University and the department.
Outcome: The Class Profile for the Class of 2015 is available here.
Goal 2: Support student interest in service and leadership through structured co-curricular activities and a curriculum model that adapts to allow exceptional students the opportunity to pursue service and leadership opportunities.
Outcome: Development and implementation of the Masters Project courses series and a PA student society will support Goal 2 and are in progress.
Goal 3: Prepare our faculty to excel in utilizing “engaged learning” strategies that effectively educate students to deliver patient-centered, evidence-based care to all patients.
Outcome A: Two faculty members with nationally recognized expertise in evidence-based medicine have been recruited to lead development and implementation of our evidence-based medicine curriculum. Both faculty members have received additional faculty development in teaching evidence-based medicine.
Outcome B: Facilities and staffing to support the development and implementation of a patient-centered communication skills curriculum have been secured.
Goal 4: Prepare and support our faculty to obtain national recognition for their teaching, scholarship, service and leadership.
Outcome: One hundred percent of principal faculty employed for the 2011-2012 academic year have successfully submitted peer-reviewed articles and held multiple national level service and/or leadership positions. We are excited to continue this success through teaching our charter class that began on January 7, 2013.
Goal 5: Develop innovative teaching and curriculum methods that prepare PA graduates to meet the unknown future needs of the health care delivery system.
Outcome: The 27-month Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies curriculum has been developed andbegan implementation in January 2013. To learn more, visit the curriculum section of the website.
Discussions related to the development of two strategic and innovative pathways are underway and will be shared only after the program proposals and/or curriculum proposals have been vetted and approved by the university faculty governance process.
Goal 6: Award a greater percentage of merit based scholarships to our top applicants than our peer and aspirant institutions thus making an Elon PA education a better value.
Outcome: Ninety-five percent of available scholarship funds were successfully awarded to the Charter Class of 2015. Scholarship recipients possess an average overall GPA of 3.64, science GPA of 3.60 and combined GRE scores of 1270 (revised scale 316).
Goal 7: Achieve annual giving goals of 100 percent participation of the DPAS faculty and staff to encourage alumni giving by the department’s first alumni who graduate in March of 2015.
Outcome: One hundred percent of the department’s faculty and staff donated to the annual faculty-staff campaign.
Significantly enhancing Elon’s campus with premier new academic and residential facilities and a commitment to protecting our environment
Goal 8: Renovate the Gerald L. Francis Center as a premier academic facility through the use of sustainable building practices.
Outcome: The renovated academic facilities are complete and support engaged learning through the inclusion of: state-of-the-art human anatomy lab, fresh (animal) tissue dissection lab, clinical skills lab, five outpatient exam rooms, cardiopulmonary auscultation lab and small group study rooms have been built.
