WHAT:  Ten Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) physician assistant (PA) students will attend orientation in Abilene. PA students will begin clinical rotations in family medicine, internal medicine, OB-GYN, pediatrics, emergency medicine, general surgery and psychiatry, in the Abilene region this August.

WHEN: 1 p.m. Tuesday, July 8

WHERE: TTUHSC School of Nursing at Abilene, 1674 Pine St., Room 2500

EVENT: The PA profession was recently named the No. 1 job for master’s degree by Forbes. The TTUHSC PA program’s Regional Clinical Coordinator of Abilene, Tina Butler, MPAS, PA-C, has been working closely with Pearl Merritt Ed.D., MS, MSN, FAAN, Regional Dean of the School of Nursing in Abilene, to expand the PA program’s clinical training.

Clinical training prepares PA students to integrate knowledge learned during the didactic training with real patients. Students complete seven six-week clinical rotations in core medicine fields and one selective rotation. In the Abilene region, students are able to choose from the following clinical specialty disciplines: urology, orthopedic surgery, interventional cardiology, neurological surgery, hematology/oncology, gynecologic oncology, or the option of repeating any core clinical rotations.

The PA program has established and increased the number of training sites with community physicians with Abilene Regional Medical Center and Hendrick Medical Center. Through this collaboration, the PA program has more than doubled the number of students trained in the Abilene region.

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