By Sarah Mulnick ’17
Students from the charter class of the Physician Assistant Studies graduate program have reported success in their job placements, according to data from a post-graduation survey and alumni reports provided to Elon University’s School of Health Sciences.
Of the 37 graduates, all are employed as physician assistants in a variety of medical and surgical specialties. Approximately 60 percent of the graduates (22) reside in North Carolina.
The graduates shared their areas of practice:
- Emergency Medicine – 6
- Internal Medicine/Hospitalist/Critical Care – 5
- Family Medicine – 7
- Surgery (including orthopedics, general, vascular, cardiothoracic) – 10
- Trauma Surgery/ICU – 2
- Hematology/Oncology – 2
- Psychiatry/Neuropsychiatry – 2
- Cardiology – 2
- Pediatrics – 1
Several of the respondents came to the program from different professional backgrounds, from prior nursing careers to initial plans to work with animals. Three of the charter class were undergraduates at Elon University. Now, one is in a multispecialty program in Maryland, another chose a cardiovascular program in Florida, and the third is working in trauma surgery/ICU.
The Physician Assistant Studies program is a full-time, 27-month program that enrolls each January. Students immerse themselves in a curriculum structured around active learning strategies through collaborative work with Elon’s faculty, scholars and practitioners in the field.
The inaugural class graduated in March 2015.