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2023-2024 Undergraduate Catalog

Dual Degree BS-MSPAS

Pre-Physician Assistant Studies preparation is a four-year course of study leading to a baccalaureate degree and the completion of required Sacred Heart University Physician Assistant (PA) Studies prerequisite courses. Pre-Physician Assistant in itself is not an undergraduate major at Sacred Heart University. Students will choose to earn a baccalaureate degree in either Biology, Health Sciences, Exercise Science or Neuroscience.  Qualified applicants for full-time freshman admission may be admitted into the dual degree program leading to a BS and an MSPAS degree in 4 + 27 months.  Students will progress to the Master of Physician Assistant Studies program upon completion of the bachelor's degree provided they continue to meet the program criteria as they progress through their undergraduate studies.

 

Criteria to Progress to MSPAS Program:

Successful completion of a criminal background check during the freshman year. The background check is required by most sites at which students will complete patient contact hours, as well as for matriculation into the MSPAS program and, ultimately, to obtain licensure.

Maintaining a minimum semester and cumulative (overall) GPA of 3.3

Maintaining a minimum semester and cumulative science GPA of 3.3

Successful completion of all prerequisite courses for the MSPAS program by the end of the junior year with a minimum GPA of 3.3

Students who fail to meet the criteria to progress into the MSPAS program from the undergraduate program may apply to the program via the Centralized Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA) after completing all required prerequisites. See MSPAS admission requirements.

The Sacred Heart University (SHU) Master of Science Physician Assistant Studies (MSPAS) program is a 27-month program that includes required summer course attendance, graduate-level coursework, supervised clinical experiences, and a Master’s Capstone Project. Applicants must have a conferred baccalaureate degree in the discipline of their choice, but a Health Science or Biology degree is preferred as it offers students a solid science foundation. Additional prerequisites includes a minimum of 1,000 hours of paid, direct patient care experience. All required prerequisites must be completed by the September 1, application deadline to determine admission status and eligibility for enrollment in the SHU MSPAS program. For additional details regarding SHU’s MSPAS program, please refer to the Sacred Heart University Graduate Catalog or contact the Office of Graduate Admissions.

Faculty & Staff

Program Overview

Sacred Heart University Graduate Program in Physician Assistant Studies is for candidates with an earned Bachelor’s Degree. The program will prepare our graduates for generalist practice as a physician assistant (PA). Graduates will draw from program didactic and experiential learning to provide quality, evidence-based, patient-centered healthcare to persons of various ages and in varied settings within interprofessional teams.

The SHU Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies Program is a 27-month program offering a 12-consecutive month didactic phase, a 15-month clinical phase that includes a Master’s Capstone Project. Clinical rotations are ten 5-week clinical rotations that will provide each student with 2,000 hours of supervised direct patient care experiences.

The MSPAS program prepares individuals to practice medicine with the supervision of a licensed physician, in compliance with the PA Profession Competencies described and accepted by the profession. Students are educated to provide compassionate, respectful, high-quality healthcare, and have proficiency in the competencies as described by the profession PA Competencies. Graduates of the program are eligible to sit for the Physician Assistant National Certification Examination (PANCE). After successfully passing the PA National Certification Exam, graduates of the SHU MSPAS Program will qualify to work in any of the 50 states as a certified PA (PA-C). The PA-C must then apply for and obtain state licensure in the state they wish to work.

Program Accreditation

The Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant, Inc. (ARC-PA) has granted Accreditation-Continued status to the Sacred Heart University Physician Assistant Program sponsored by Sacred Heart University. Accreditation-Continued is an accreditation status granted when a currently accredited program is in compliance with the ARC-PA Standards.

Accreditation remains in effect until the program closes or withdraws from the accreditation process or until accreditation is withdrawn for failure to comply with the Standards. The approximate date for the next validation review of the program by the ARC-PA will be March 2031. The review date is contingent upon continued compliance with the Accreditation Standards and ARC-PA policy.

The program’s accreditation history can be viewed at the www.arc-pa.org

Program Mission

Our mission is to provide students with engaging experiences that facilitate lifelong learning, enhance diverse perspectives, emphasize primary care and collaborative practice, and foster a spirit of service with a commitment to continuously improve the health of our communities.

To achieve our mission, we are committed to the following core values:

Excellence

Our program is dedicated to promoting critical thinking, evidence-based practice, integrity, and professionalism as hallmarks of the PA profession.  We foster in our students a desire to contribute to the growth of medical knowledge and continuous advancement of PA practice, integrating quality improvement and patient safety, and to become leaders in our profession and communities.

Diversity

Our program is committed to diversity and global awareness.  We are dedicated to advocating inclusion and to appreciating and embracing the diversity of the human community.

Compassion

We value the dignity of those we teach, work with, and the communities we serve.  We recognize that caring must be the foundation of our professional and personal interactions, and believe that each person deserves health, wellness, equity and respect.

Program Goals and Objectives

To work toward achieving our mission, our program goals are to:

  • Graduate PA students to work in Primary Care Medicine, with a benchmark of 20% of each cohort employed in a primary care setting after graduation
  • Emphasize the responsibility of service to the community through completion of service-learning experiences by ensuring 100% of students are compliant with required volunteer hours
  • Encourage professional involvement, leadership and service with a target of 15% of students serving in leadership roles in local, state and national PA organizations
  • Expand recruitment efforts to target qualified applicants from diverse backgrounds
  • Maintain first-time PANCE pass rate at or above the national average

Immunization Requirements

The SHU PA Program requires COVID-19 vaccinations and annual influenza vaccination. Additional vaccination requirements can be found in the MSPAS Policy and Procedure Manual. Students must upload their proof of vaccination to their SHU health portal. Any student applying for an exemption must submit their requests into the SHU health portal by published deadlines.

Background Check

Successful completion of the MSPAS program includes satisfactory completion of the clinical education component of the curriculum. The majority of clinical sites now require students to complete a criminal background check prior to participating in clinical education placements. Some facilities may also require fingerprinting and/or drug screening. State licensure laws may also restrict or prohibit those with criminal convictions from obtaining a professional license to practice following graduation. Thus, students with criminal convictions or backgrounds may not be able to obtain required clinical education experience(s) thereby failing to meet the academic standards of the Program.

It is therefore the policy of PA Program that all admitted students enrolled in the MPAS Program must consent, submit to, and satisfactorily complete a criminal background check and drug screen as a condition of matriculation. Matriculation will not be final until the completion of the criminal background check with results deemed acceptable to the Program Director or MSPAS Director of Clinical Education.

All expenses associated with the criminal background check and drug screen are the responsibility of the student. Students who do not consent to the required background check, refuse to provide information necessary to conduct the background check, or provide false or misleading information in regards to the background check will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including refusal of matriculation or dismissal from the program.

Criminal background information is strictly confidential, for use only by authorized MSPAS Program faculty and/or administrative staff, and shall be retained only until the student graduates or is dismissed from the program.

Graduate Admissions Requirements

Sacred Heart University (SHU) Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies seeks students who are mature, possess excellent communication skills, are team-oriented, and demonstrate intellectual capacity and integrity.

The SHU Physician Assistant (PA) Program uses a holistic admissions process. This is a process by which applicant’s cognitive skills, such as GPA, are balanced with non-cognitive variables including but not limited to commitment to service, cultural sensitivity, empathy, capacity for growth, emotional resilience, strength of character, and interpersonal skills. This approach encourages diversity and the equitable evaluation of well-rounded applicants. Witzburg, R. A., & Sondheimer, H. M. (2013). Holistic review: Shaping the medical profession one applicant at a time. New England Journal of Medicine, 368, 1565-1567.

Applicants must use the Central Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA). All prerequisites and requirements must be completed by the SHU admissions deadline of September 1.

All applicants, including graduates from foreign institutions, must hold either U.S. Citizenship or Permanent Residence status at the time of application. Applicants with pending citizenship or temporary residency will not be considered.

Degree Prerequisites

An earned baccalaureate degree from a regionally accredited college or university, or an equivalent institution as determined by Sacred Heart University, is required to be conferred by the SHU admissions deadline (September 1).

Applicants educated outside the U.S. must utilize a transcript evaluation service to verify their degree and coursework. The academic record must show credits and grades equivalent to those given by U.S. institutions of higher learning.

Coursework Prerequisites

The following courses must be completed at a regionally accredited institution in the United States, with a grade of “C” or better by the Oct. 1 deadline and are the minimum requirements for all applicants.

16 semester units of Biological Science courses*, which must include:

  • Microbiology w/lab
  • Human Anatomy w/lab
  • Human Physiology w/lab
  • Upper Division College-Level Biological Science w/lab
    • Examples of acceptable coursework: Cell Biology, Human Genetics, Immunology, Molecular Biology, Neurobiology and Pathology
    • General Biology/Biology I is not an acceptable course for the Upper Division College-Level Biological Science requirement

    One course of EACH of the following:

    • Organic Chemistry I and Organic Chemistry II with labs or Biochemistry with lab (Biochemistry preferred)
    • Statistics (Biostatistics preferred)
    • General Psychology

    Advanced Placement (AP) credits will be accepted for Psychology and Statistics.

    Highly recommended courses, but not required:

    • Human Genetics
    • Abnormal Psychology
    • Biostatistics
    • Biochemistry

    *SHU PA Studies accepts prerequisite lecture courses completed online but does not accept labs completed online. SHU PA Studies requires that all labs be completed in a classroom setting. Virtual labs are not considered an acceptable format. Some online courses offer an online lecture with labs completed in a classroom setting; this is an acceptable format.

    SHU PA Studies does not accept transfer credits from other PA Programs, and does not accept applications for challenge examinations. We do not accept previous experience or medical training for advanced placement in the PA Studies program. All students are expected to complete all didactic and clinical elements of the PA Studies program.

    Minimum Requirements

    • Overall GPA of 3.0 
    • All prerequisite courses: Cumulative GPA of 3.0
    • A minimum of 1,000 hours of verifiable, paid, direct patient care experience in the U.S. healthcare system. Healthcare experience will be evaluated based on the type of work and level of patient interaction

    Examples of paid, direct patient experience includes but is not limited to:

    • Back Office Medical Assistant (MA)
    • Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) or Patient Care Assistant (PCA)
    • Emergency Department Technician
    • Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)
    • Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN/LVN)
    • Medical Scribe
    • Military medic or corpsman
    • Paramedic
    • Physical Therapy Aide
    • Radiological Technician
    • Respiratory Therapist

    Highly competitive applicants will also possess the following:

    • Participation in community service or volunteer work
    • Greater than 1,000 hours of paid, direct patient care experience completed in the U.S healthcare system
    • Prerequisite GPA of 3.30 or greater
    • Completed college-level science course credit hours of 80 hours or more

    Additional consideration will be given to applicants with current Connecticut resident status, or applicants with verifiable military service. SHU participates in the Yellow Ribbon Program: http://www.sacredheart.edu/officesservices/registrar/vabenefits/yellowribbonprogram/

    Applicants with an earned bachelor’s or master’s degree from Sacred Heart University or a current Stamford Hospital employee, or a current Stamford Health Medical Group employee who meet all minimum requirements and Technical Standards will be granted an in-person interview.

    Additional Requirements

    • Application through the Central Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA)
    • Three letters of reference: must include at least one letter from a work supervisor
    • Personal statement (on CASPA)
    • Official college transcripts (sent to CASPA)
    • Supplemental SHU Essay Questions completion (on CASPA)
    • Successful interview, by invitation only
    • Must meet all Technical Standards (see Graduate Catalog for Technical Standards, or visit http://www.sacredheart.edu/academics/collegeofhealthprofessions/academicprograms/physicianassistant/technicalstandards/)
    • Completion of criminal background check is required prior to starting the PA program and clinical phase
    • If selected to join SHU's PA Program, a candidate is required to provide proof of patient care hours
    • Completion of required SHU MSPAS Health and Immunization clearance

    Test Scores

    • Scores from the Graduate Records Examination (GRE) are NOT required for admission to the SHU PA Program.
    • Applicants who have not earned a baccalaureate degree from a regionally-accredited institution in the U.S. must also submit official scores from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) regardless of the official language of the country in which the education took place, or the predominant language of the degree-granting institution. Minimum TOEFL scores accepted are:
      • Reading 22/30
      • Listening 22/30
      • Speaking 26/30
      • Writing 24/30

    For updated program information, please visit http://www.sacredheart.edu/academics/collegeofhealthprofessions/academicprograms/physicianassistant/