Patient Care Hours
The PA profession values service and dedication to patient care. As such, students may work long hours, night shifts, holidays, and weekends during SCPEs. Every opportunity for a patient encounter advances each student’s academic and professional growth. Students are expected to complete approximately forty (40) hours of patient care activities (e.g., patient encounters, documentation of patient encounters, performing procedures, etc.) each week. The program has set this number of expected contact hours to provide students with sufficient opportunity to develop CPLOs through exposure to specific patent populations, performance of specific physical examination components, and observation of, participation in, or performance of specific clinical procedures. Hours vary depending on the SCPE discipline and the clinical affiliate’s practice patterns; however, students are expected to work the same hours as the clinical preceptor(s). This includes seeing patients in all settings in which the clinical preceptor provides care, covered by the Clinical Affiliation Agreement, such as the office, hospital, long-term care/skill nursing facility, and prison. Students may need to work with more than one clinical preceptor at the clinical site to obtain sufficient patient encounters to achieve CPLOs. Students are expected to arrive at the clinical site each day at least 15 minutes prior to the expected time.