South University – Tampa Physician Assistant Program

Program Goals
The physician assistant curriculum is closely related to the purpose and goals of the institution as well as the degree. The South University - Tampa Physician Assistant Program offers a Master’s degree which promotes lifelong learning, critical thinking, and varied academic experiences to provide students with the expertise and work ethic required to achieve personal and professional fulfillment. The basic goals of the program are:

• Recruit, select, and educate a highly qualified diverse student population and provide fair and equitable admission criteria.

• Maintain a primary care-oriented didactic and clinical educational program which graduates competent physician assistants who reflect the highest standards of legal, ethical and moral conduct.

• Incorporate innovative approaches to interdisciplinary didactic and clinical education which prepare physician assistants to be integrated into the healthcare team.

• Prepare professional healthcare providers within the physician assistant profession who possess depth of knowledge, clinical reasoning, skill, and an investigative attitude toward research, education and leadership.

• Provide physician assistant practitioners with multi-disciplinary healthcare management skills and knowledge commensurate with the expanding need for healthcare services.

• Provide students with a variety of clinical educational settings, which includes hospitals, nursing home/long-term care facilities, rehabilitation facilities, outpatient clinics, private practices, and acute care facilities.

• Prepare physician assistant students to communicate effectively and promote self-directed learning.

• Encourage physician assistant students to recognize their own strengths, limitations and to interpret for others the scope and function of a physician assistant.