Curriculum and Plan of Study

The Physician Assistant Studies program at Johnson & Wales University is a 24-month, 104-credit, full-time course of study.

Didactic Year

During the first 12 months of the program, you will follow a curriculum of preclinical studies in preparation for your upcoming year of clinical experiences.

The summer semester provides a foundation upon which future body system courses will be constructed. Your summer experiences will include dissecting real cadavers in Applied Anatomy, learning how to perform and document a comprehensive medical history and complete physical exam in Patient Care I, and learning basic medical sciences in Foundations of Medicine.

Three semesters of Professional and Health Policy Issues commence in the summer, allowing you to explore the history of the PA profession, types of healthcare settings, and healthcare and public health policy to the expectations of a medical workplace relative to ethical and professional behavior. You’ll examine the diet’s role on health and wellness across the lifespan in the Food is Medicine course series, including practical application of the principles in culinary labs.

Fall and spring courses in Clinical Medicine are body-system-based, encompassing all aspects of clinical medicine, diagnostic skills and pharmacotherapeutics for the particular body-system. You will work sequentially through each body-system course, one at a time, learning the physiology, pathophysiology, clinical medicine, evidence-based medicine, diagnostic skills and treatment specific to that system. In Patient Care, MSPAS students learn the history and physical examination skills specific to the body-system being studied in that course; this knowledge is applied to case scenarios in Problem-Based Learning.

Clinical Year

Your second year consists of clinical studies in 9 clinical rotations, including 7 required rotations in outpatient family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, women’s health, behavioral and mental health, emergency medicine and surgery. The remaining two rotations are electives that allow you to further develop skills in an area of medicine that interests you.

Clinical rotations I-IX are assigned by the program.

Rotations (5 weeks/4.5 credits)

Family Medicine
Internal Medicine
Pediatric Medicine
Women’s Health
Emergency Medicine
Behavioral & Mental Health    
Surgery
Clinical Elective I
Clinical Elective II