PA Clinical Experience
The primary goal of the clinical year is to provide students with supervised hands-on clinical training in a variety of settings. Prior to the start of the clinical year, students will complete one week of orientation activities followed by ten months of clinical training.
Preceptorships
During their clinical year, students in the Physician Assistant (PA) program will rotate through four required six-week rotations and one elective six-week rotation. Required rotations include these curricular areas:
- Emergency medicine
- Family medicine
- Internal medicine
- Surgery
All students are required to complete one rotation at a rural site or with an underserved population. The order of rotations will vary by student during the clinical year. Students also have the opportunity to take part in an international rotation.
Each six-week rotation will be paired with a two-week immersive experience in one of these areas:
- Inpatient — occurs in Madison directly following clinical year orientation and before first six-week rotation
- Behavioral medicine
- Pediatrics
- OB-GYN
As their fifth and final clinical rotation, students are required to complete a six-week elective rotation. This can be a repeat of one of the core rotations or in a specialty of interest to the student. Clinical rotations are located primarily in Wisconsin; however, some sites are in Minnesota, Illinois and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Very few sites are located in the city of Madison.
At the end of each rotation, students are required to return to the Madison campus and successfully complete end-of-rotation activities, which include Physician Assistant Education Association end-of-rotation exams, history and physical examinations on standardized patients, clinical skills workshops and lectures/workshops as part of the professional seminar and capstone course.