MSU-Meridian marks milestone with physician assistant program
Published 12:15 pm Friday, October 30, 2020
- Submitted photo Shey Washburn, left, and Tara Milligan, assistant clinical professors with MSU-Meridian’s Master of Physician Assistant Studies program, demonstrate patient simulation equipment that will be used as part of the rigorous 29-month curriculum. The program’s launch at the Riley Campus in downtown Meridian is moving forward with the official announcement of Accreditation-Provisional status by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant, or ARC-PA. Accreditation-Provisional status is the initial phase of accreditation for all new programs
After years of planning, Mississippi State University Meridian will soon welcome its first class of students into its new physician assistant program.
The program recently received provisional accreditation status, which cleared the path for it to accept students. The graduate program, which is the first offered at a public university in the state, will welcome its first cohort on Jan. 6, 2021.
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Physician assistants are nationally certified and state-licensed professionals who perform a broad range of diagnostic, therapeutic, preventative and health maintenance services.
The program in Meridian will fill a much-needed demand for healthcare professionals, said MSU-Meridian Associate Vice President and Head of Campus Terry Dale Cruse.
“If you look at the patient-to-physician ratios, there just aren’t enough medical professionals to meet all the needs for the state of Mississippi,” Cruse said. “We need more practitioners.”
Cruse said 258 people applied to the program, faculty chose 54 to interview, and 20 were offered seats in the class, with 15 being from Mississippi.
Students will be in the program for 29 months and will train in seven specialized areas. Cohorts will start each January and new cohort applications will be taken in April.
Cruse said the goal is to increase the number of students in each cohort from 20 to 30 each year until 2023.
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The program was placed in Meridian because of the two hospitals located downtown, Cruse said, noting that the university has made a considerable investment in the program.
“To develop a program to train PAs to work, live and come from Mississippi, is a achievement for the process and Mississippi State,” said Debra Munsell, MSU associate professor and program director.
Musell hopes the program will improve access to people in underserved communities and areas.
“I think it’s going to open up some great avenues for peoples’ health,” she said.
Munsell joined the university in 2017 to lead the program implementation after the Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning approved MSU-Meridian’s proposal to plan the new degree program.
She previously led the launch of the physician assistant program at LSU Health Sciences Center-New Orleans, and her efforts as LSU’s inaugural program director resulted in full accreditation, as well as a 100 % pass rate on the exit exam for the first three cohorts of graduates.
Dr. J. Lee Valentine, D.O., is the program’s medical director, having served the citizens of east Mississippi as a family physician since 1992. The founding director of the East Central HealthNet Rural Family Medicine Residency Program in Meridian, he also has served as chair of the Department of Family Practice at the William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Those interested in applying for the program can visit www.meridian.msstate.edu/academics/physician-assistant/or email pa@meridian.msstate.edu.
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