Dr. Mike Nelson was recently appointed Director of the Master of Physician Assistant (MPAS) Program at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions (RMUoHP), after serving four and a half years as one of the founding faculty and as Associate Program Director for the PA Program. His extensive experience as a clinician in Primary Care, Urgent Care, Orthopedics and Spinal Surgery enable him to oversee a 27 -month program with a wide-ranging curriculum and to guide students with a broad set of clinical interests and goals.
Dr. Nelson was initially drawn to RMUoHP as a small, private graduate level university because it offered the opportunity to be involved at the ground level to affect changes in education and students’ lives. Today he especially values the opportunity to be innovative and develop new approaches to PA education, all with the ultimate goal of achieving better care for patients.
”As Program Director I get to help professionals become successful. I get to help remove barriers and troubleshoot complications that stand in the way of great results and accomplishments for the faculty, students, and the University.”
Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions’ Master of Physician Assistant Program was established in 2014 and to this day, only has one-semester start per year which occurs each May. Every cohort has fifty students whom all share the same class schedule and go through their didactic studies as well as their clinical studies at the same time. Currently, the MPAS program prides its self for having a one-hundred percent board passage rate and is expected to be receiving a five-year accreditation evaluation this November with active status beginning this coming March 2019.
The MPAS Program and faculty are truly focused on the success of each student and offer the flexibility to adapt to the needs of each student. “ We teach professionalism and other skills beyond medicine so that students can succeed in a career and leave with the tools that make them dependable, confident, and worthy of being a PA. “
Dr. Nelson believes the most successful students are those that have humility and a willingness to learn. In applicants, he looks for “a student with a good work ethic and problem-solving skills, one who knows their limitation and makes a plan to be better. One who is not afraid of failure and recognizes it as merely the First Attempt At Learning.”
His advice to students? “… mentally prepare for one of the toughest and most rewarding things you will ever do in your life. Be prepared to make life-long friends, and be prepared to be someone different by the time you finish PA school. Be OK with the responsibility of the job. You will be invited into a person’s life at some of the worst times that person has ever had; be humble, kind, and help them.”
