Best PA programs for EM?

[papham]

Hello,

 

Is there a directory of schools available that I could look up to see which PA programs are worth looking into if I know with great conviction that I already want to practice in EM?

 

If anyone has anecdotal advice about which PA programs have extensive and/or interesting EM rotations, I'd appreciate that too.

 

Thanks and be well,

papham

[HJK]

Don't think the school defer by specialty. There was or still is some schools specialized in surgical PA. I would recommend looking into post grad residency programs.

[LoRezSkyline]

Agreed w/ above - focus of PA school is to make you a well-rounded clinician and expose you to a little bit of various aspects of medicine.  A program that focuses on EM would short-change you in other areas - they're not designed like that.  That's what your first job and/or residency is for.  There are numerous EM residencies out there, or you can seek out a first job at a teaching/academic hospital or any other environment conducive to teaching/learning.  

 

With that said, I would do your best to get a quality EM rotation and potentially do a rotation relevant to EM as one of your electives if you have them?  Try to do a 2nd EM rotation, or if not available something in Urgent Care, Peds-specific EM, Trauma Surg, ICU, etc...

[EMEDPA]

look for places with lots of electives and selectives.

when I was at Drexel 20+ years ago we had lots of flexibility with rotations. I wanted em and did the following:

trauma surgery for surgery

peds em for peds ( I have never done a well baby check but have cardioverted 2 yr olds and sutured multiple lacs using ketamine as procedural sedation)

required em

selective em ( we had to do fp or em for 12 weeks, tough choice)

required FP 12 weeks

also did inner city ob

lock down psych ward

hospitalist IM

 

so all told 27 of 54 weeks were peds em, em, or trauma surgery. That's more em than a med student gets. That's more em than an fp resident gets. I felt very prepared to step into em jobs upon graduation (of course 10 prior years as an er tech and paramedic didn't hurt either).

[gbrothers98]

An interesting concept that I have heard being kicked about is to offer interested students an ability to concentrate on a specialty after meeting the requirements of ARC-PA. This would follow the form of instead of a few electives to instead focus 10-12 weeks in a broad specialty such as FP, IM, Peds, Surgery or EM. Do it at one rotation site and essentially the student walks away with a 'minor' in that clerkship to use as a launchpad to obtain employment in that area. Or could turn into an extended job interview at a potential employer. 

G Brothers PA-C

[ohiovolffemtp]

I work in the ED in a fairly busy level III trauma center (~60K visits/year) in a city of ~65K people, formerly heavily industrialized, now economically disadvantaged.  Besides true emergency medicine we do lots of the acute care portion of family practice.  There are many families with no PCP and some pretty much think of me as their's.  Given this, I find that I routinely use things I've learned from all of my clinical rotations: peds, psyche, IM, FP, surgery, etc.  So, I concur with those who've said get a well rounded didactic and clinical background in everything if you want to to EM.  I didn't do a residency but certainly see the value in them.  The residency and/or targeted CME after you get licensed is the way to specialize.

[EMEDPA]

An interesting concept that I have heard being kicked about is to offer interested students an ability to concentrate on a specialty after meeting the requirements of ARC-PA. This would follow the form of instead of a few electives to instead focus 10-12 weeks in a broad specialty such as FP, IM, Peds, Surgery or EM. Do it at one rotation site and essentially the student walks away with a 'minor' in that clerkship to use as a launchpad to obtain employment in that area. Or could turn into an extended job interview at a potential employer. 

G Brothers PA-C

this is essentially what I was able to do by focusing all my selectives on em and trauma. folks who wanted primary care could do 24 weeks of fp. Drexel has enough sites that even within FP they have those with more adult, more peds, or more women's health exposure. That is one of the benefits of attending a program that has been around for 25+ years, lots of great rotation sites...we had folks who wanted to do gyn surgery who were able to focus on that and still meet all the requirements of ARC-PA.

[treejay]

An interesting concept that I have heard being kicked about is to offer interested students an ability to concentrate on a specialty after meeting the requirements of ARC-PA. This would follow the form of instead of a few electives to instead focus 10-12 weeks in a broad specialty such as FP, IM, Peds, Surgery or EM. Do it at one rotation site and essentially the student walks away with a 'minor' in that clerkship to use as a launchpad to obtain employment in that area. Or could turn into an extended job interview at a potential employer. 

G Brothers PA-C

Rush University has a program like this