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Take action if you oppose Yale's online PA program...


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Hello everyone, 

 

I just want to encourage all practicing PA's and PA students to email both Robert Alpern, MD (Yale SOM dean): robert.alpern@yale.edu and John McCarty (ARC-PA executive director): johnmccarty@arc-pa.org if you oppose Yale's proposal for an online PA program. I have emailed both and received a prompt response. ARC-PA is meeting before the end of the month and we will know soon if the program was approved. 

 

The reasons I oppose the proposal: 

1. It will tarnish our reputation as one of the most rigorous programs in the health sciences

2. It will jeopardize clinical site availability for other programs

3. The concept will very likely be followed by less capable degree mills

4. Yale's collaboration with a for-profit entity for clinical placements will increase cost

 

Please share your thoughts and make your voices heard! Thank you.

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RURALMED, I'm happy to see your post!  I am a recent graduate of the Yale PA Program.  The vast majority of current students and recent alumni of the program are opposed to the online plan for the following reasons:

 

·  The Yale PA Program is in the process of undergoing several major curriculum changes, which should have a period of testing and feedback before expanding class size and shifting to an online teaching modality.

·       Medical training involves substantial patient interaction, tactile experiences, and motor skill development. These clinical care skills are developed in concert with coursework, not separately from.  While online students will complete clinical rotations at sites near their homes, they will not have the same amount of clinical experience outside of rotations.  Adequate preparation for clinical rotations cannot be acquired separately in two weeks of crash courses on campus as is planned for the online students.  These two weeks on campus will replace all of the anatomy dissection, procedure workshops, history and physical exam workshops, patient simulations, etc. that students currently receive over the course of two and a half years.

·       The existence of an online PA degree could damage the credibility of the profession because online medical education is not well-accepted by the public.

·       Because online degrees to practice medicine are new and unproven, it could ultimately compromise patient care quality.

·       Unfortunately, online students would miss out on many opportunities and experiences unique to being located on campus at Yale that helped shape us as medical providers. These include volunteering at places like the student-run free clinic, taking supplemental classes like Global Health and Medical Spanish, participating in medical school clubs and organizations, holding leadership positions (e.g. Connecticut Academy of PAs Student Board Members, AAPA Student Representatives, Graduate and Professional Student Senate Representatives, class officers, club leaders), attending special events at Yale (e.g. guest speakers, Yale Medical Education Day), attending grand rounds lectures for any specialty, building professional relationships with others on campus (e.g. PA classmates, professors, MD students), accessing libraries and other campus resources, etc.  

·       The plan is to match the size of the current program in its first year (12 students starting three times per year) and eventually expand to about 350 students per year graduating from the online program.  This will not only flood the market with PAs, but will flood it with PAs educated online. 

·       No PA Program faculty members have spoken in favor of the online program. The only known supporter within the PA Program administration is the director.

 

The online program is currently under review by the ARC-PA as a class size expansion.  If it passes, the online students will receive the exact same degree as on-campus PA students with no distinction.  This is misleading and dishonest to patients and employers.  When asked why the online program is being accredited as a class size expansion instead of a separate program, Director Jim Van Rhee stated, "Because we would have to wait 5 years instead of 6 months."  This alludes to the fact that the school wants to get the online degree program running as fast as possible, without first confirming the success of the recent major changes to the on-campus program.

 

While we fully agree with the missions to educate more healthcare providers to meet growing demand and finding ways for an Ivy League education to reach more people, we do not think this is an effective or responsible method to achieve those goals.  It is also important to note that the School of Medicine appears to be interested in the revenue as it will be cheaper to educate each student, they plan to charge the same tuition per student as the current on-campus program, and they plan to exponentially increase the class size. 

 

This is the first fully "distance" PA Program in the nation.  This is also Yale’s first fully online degree and first time working with online education company, 2U.  Yale chose a degree in medicine, of all things, to experiment with.  The PA Program Director and School of Medicine are rushing into this without the proper scrutiny for such a substantial move.  

 

The students launched a letter-writing campaign two weeks ago and are encouraging PAs, potentional future employers, other medical providers, and the general public to write to the Dean of the Yale School of Medicine and the Yale University President: 

 

Robert.alpern@yale.edu 

Office of the Dean

PO Box 208055

333 Cedar Street

New Haven, CT 06520-8055

 

Yale University President, Peter Salovey:

http://president.yale.edu/send-message-president-salovey

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Every letter should be copied to the ARC-PA.   They deserve information from every stakeholder before making a decision.   Equivalency will be key.  If it were to go for accreditation as a separate program, they would not have to be equivalent, but just meet the Standards.  

 

The accreditation agency cannot act as a restraint of trade agent and if a new program meets the standards it must be accredited,  no matter how much you may dislike what the program is doing.  However,  the accreditation of a satellite program is very specific in requiring equivalency.  Equivalency to a program with the full resources of the Yale Medical School campus is, as you discuss, hard to achieve.  Just keep your arguments specific to equivalency and leave out flooding the nation with PAs, public perception, Ivy League, etc.  Focus on the precise issue that will determine accreditation: equivalency to the present onsite program.  Proving it is a high bar to meet, and if they achieve it, it is what it is.     

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Whenever you hear a program talk about "remote distant clinical rotation sites spread around the country" you should read that as "we don't have enough good clinical training spots on our home campus so we are going to force people to rotate in podunk rural Ohio"

 

This is a huge problem with PA and MD/DO education across the board.  Many of the newer MD/DO programs dont even have an established medical center and the only clinical training they offer is with Billy Joe Bob's podunk family practice clinic in a town with 1000 residents.

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Whenever you hear a program talk about "remote distant clinical rotation sites spread around the country" you should read that as "we don't have enough good clinical training spots on our home campus so we are going to force people to rotate in podunk rural Ohio"

 

This is a huge problem with PA and MD/DO education across the board. Many of the newer MD/DO programs dont even have an established medical center and the only clinical training they offer is with Billy Joe Bob's podunk family practice clinic in a town with 1000 residents.

I learned 10x more in a 6 week rotation at Podunk IM inpatient/outpatient in a town of 7k than I did in 6 months of various rotations at the big city medical center. No competing with residents, lots of autonomy, little specialist referral so you have to manage everything. Not always the case, but I wouldn't generalize Podunk clinics.

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  • Moderator

Whenever you hear a program talk about "remote distant clinical rotation sites spread around the country" you should read that as "we don't have enough good clinical training spots on our home campus so we are going to force people to rotate in podunk rural Ohio"

 

This is a huge problem with PA and MD/DO education across the board. Many of the newer MD/DO programs dont even have an established medical center and the only clinical training they offer is with Billy Joe Bob's podunk family practice clinic in a town with 1000 residents.

of course I agree Podunk isn't the only thing you should get. But I don't think you should get medical center only either.
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