The Physician Assistant Curriculum

The physician assistant curriculum consists of 24 consecutive months of training, divided into a didactic year and a clinical year. Potential candidates who wish to read the entire policies and procedures governing the didactic and clinical years may access the Didactic Year Student Manual and the Clinical Year Student Manual.

Note: Advanced standing or credit for experimental learning is not available for any course required as part of the professional curriculum.

The Didactic Year

The didactic year begins on campus in August of each calendar year, and consists of three consecutive semesters of full-time course work and other academic activities encompassing 42 semester hours of academic credit.

Students begin and continue through the Program as a cohort, taking courses and completing other academic activities in the order scheduled by the Program. All courses and other academic activities are required. There are no elective courses. Advanced placement and transfer of academic credit are not permitted. No part-time participation in the Program is permitted.

The nature of physician assistant education is such that students must consider themselves as full-time professional students engaged in academic activities which require their full attention. Exceptions to the requirements of the program for non-emergent family needs, childcare, employment, transportation issues and travel, and other personal considerations cannot be made.

The Red Rocks Community College Physician Assistant Program requires many more classroom and clinical contact hours per semester hour than do most other curricula within the College.

Required courses for the didactic year include:

In addition to the above-described required courses, students are required to learn and demonstrate satisfactory competency in the following required skills-based learning activities, which may be presented as freestanding activities or included in one or more courses:

1. The performance of complete history and physical examinations
2. The written presentation of complete history and physical examinations
3. The oral presentation of history and physical findings, laboratory results, differential diagnosis, diagnostic impression and therapeutic plan or proposal
4. The oral and written presentation of brief subjective, objective, assessment and plan (SOAP) notes
5. The preparation of hospital notes
6. Venipuncture
7. The collection of specimens or samples for diagnostic testing, including the proper preparation and handling of such specimens and samples.
8. The establishment of intravenous access
9. Suturing
10. Casting and splinting
11. Operating room orientation and assisting
12. Sterile technique
13. Advanced Cardiac Life Support
14. Pediatric Advanced Life Support
15. Oral case presentations

In addition to the above-described required courses and skills-based activities, students participate in required service learning activities. Service learning activities may include appropriate participation in annual health fairs and in regularly scheduled community health screening for underserved communities and patient populations, participation in activities related to the group screening of children for sports participation, school admission or routine growth and development, or participation in activities related to the group screening of long-term care facility residents.

The Student’s School Day During Didactic Training

The PA curriculum requires so many contact hours per credit hour that PA students must expect to be at the College all day, Monday through Friday, throughout the didactic year. Students are expected to be present in every class, unless unusual circumstances require an excused absence. On rare occasions, students are required to participate in educational activities during evening hours or during weekend days.

Experience has shown that students are not capable of acquiring the level of knowledge needed to perform adequately if they engage in outside employment during the two-year RRCCPA curricula.  The Program Director will give absolutely no consideration to the needs of any individual student to be excused from academic activities and related responsibilities for the sake of employment.  All RRCCPA students should refrain from all outside employment during the full twenty-four months of the PA curricula.

The PA curriculum is sufficiently intense to require the full attention of all students, regardless of academic or experiential background. Therefore, the Program does not make exceptions in class attendance or other requirements for students’ employment schedules, routine childcare needs, transportation or other non-emergent personal considerations.

The Clinical Year

Students whose successfully complete the didactic year in accordance with the Didactic Year Student Manual are eligible for admission to clinical year training. The clinical year is devoted to a combination of required and elective clinical rotations in a variety of medical and surgical specialties. These clinical experiences are supplemented by end-of-rotation seminars, meetings with faculty advisors for the presentation of patient care logs, prepared history and physical examination reports and oral case presentations, and required end-of-rotation examinations.

Clinical rotations are five weeks in length. The required rotations include:

1. Family Medicine
2. Internal Medicine
3. Pediatrics
4. Women's Health
5. Surgery
6. Emergency Medicine

In addition to these required rotations, students will be asked to select one rotation from the following three areas:

1. Geriatrics
2. Behavioral Medicine
3. Orthopedics

Students may be required to take entire rotations in Behavioral Medicine, Geriatrics or Orthopedics if their experiences in these areas are insufficient during such other rotations as family medicine, emergency medicine, internal medicine and women's health.

Students should anticipate that they may be assigned to at least some of their clinical rotations at training sites outside of the metropolitan Denver area. Students should expect at least two rotations in medically underserved areas. Students are required to accept rotation assignments as determined by the faculty.
In addition to the previously-described rotations, and if their experiences in other required rotations are considered sufficient, students are authorized to select one elective rotation. The elective rotation may be in an area of interest of the student with substantial patient contact in a clinical setting. Elective rotations must be approved by the Program clinical coordinator in advance in the same manner as all other rotations.

Students may also select an internship for the last cycle of clinical rotation training. The dual purpose of the internship is to continue to develop professional competencies, as reflected in the curriculum and course objectives, and to explore the possibility of employment in a particular practice setting. Internship proposals must be approved by the Program clinical coordinator.

Candidates who wish to view the entire clinical year curriculum description may click on the Clinical Year Student Manual.

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