On Friday, February 2, 2018, our Master of Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS) students participated in a pediatric clinic hosted on the Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions campus. The MPAS program regularly hosts clinics and labs where students put their education into practice. At the recent pediatric clinic, students had the unique experience of bringing their own children in for classmates to practice pediatric exams.
At each clinic and lab, a MPAS faculty member is present, and an environment for hands-on learning is apparent. These types of learning experiences for students help them to gain a sense of how exams go in real life, outside of the classroom.
Jonathan Baird, MPAS, PA-C, ATC, and one of RMU’s PA faculty members, was the primary instructor and coordinator of the pediatric clinic. David Anderson, a student in the MPAS program, commented, “Jon put a lot of time and effort into preparing this pediatric clinic. He opened it up to the students to bring their own little volunteers. He prepared the paperwork and exam items for us to perform. I thought this clinic was a lot of fun. I was nervous at first because I don’t have kids of my own, but it was fun to interact with these kids.”
“This program is hard, but it’s worth it! They seem to really care about us and our learning.”
–David Anderson
Professor Baird reaffirms the student-centered nature of the program. “The purpose of these clinics and labs is to give the students an opportunity to apply, in a very hands-on way, lessons that were otherwise presented to them abstractly in the class. It’s kind of unique because this isn’t the kind of lab you can just pull off anywhere in the country—we have some unique demographics here that favor this type of lab. We have had faculty who have tried to set up labs and clinics like this at other institutions, and rounding up 20-30 children for a learning experience like this just doesn’t work like it does here. In addition, we get the chance to help our students learn more soft skills, how to approach the fussy child, the wild and crazy child, the nervous child.”
The MPAS program also works with two local clinics where students volunteer to see and help treat real patients. By getting as many opportunities to practice what they are learning in a positive hands-on environment, overseen by their mentors, it leaves the opportunity to impact their overall learning experiences here at RMU, as well as a chance to participate in community service and outreach.
Professor Baird’s hope for RMU’s MPAS students is that they begin to build confidence through these experiences for when they go out into their real-life rotations and pediatric practices. He states, “some of [the students] don’t have kids of their own, and this is the first time a few of them have interacted with kids, and this is a little intimidating for them. I hope that [these experiences] take away some of the nerves as they go out into their various rotations where they are dealing with situations like these. I look forward to continuing hosting these opportunities here in our Physician Assistant Department for the next waves of students.”
