The advanced didactic phase is completed in the final semester (September through December of the third year) and includes course work in professional development issues, clinical ethics, community leadership and assessment, health promotion and disease prevention with an emphasis on patient education, and research-oriented-courses that provide the skills necessary to interpret the medical literature. Students are mentored through a required research project that emphasizes a mastery of critical-thinking skills and fosters a lifelong interest in professional medical writing and contributing to the medical literature. Many students choose topics based on their clinical training experience.

Fall. Credit, one hours. Continuation of discussion and seminars on professional development topics pertinent to employment and practice as a PA such as licensing and credentialing, medical coding and billing, healthcare financing and delivery systems, and career and leadership opportunities.

Fall. Credit, one hour. Available for elective study by arrangement and approval.

Fall. Credit, two hours. An introduction to the theories of prevention of disease and its complications, as well as health promotion with a special emphasis on the educational and psychological theories of learning and behavior change. Students present a patient education intervention.

Fall. Credit, four hours. Basic concepts of descriptive, analytic, and experimental epidemiology. Topics covered include measures of disease frequency, measures of data quality, overview of study designs, and bias in epidemiologic studies, with an emphasis on flaws and fallacies in medical literature.  Biostatistics, with applications to the biological and health sciences, are discussed.

Fall. Credit, three hours. An introduction to the skills needed to critically review the medical literature and write a technically sophisticated journal article. The student chooses a topic pertinent to primary care medicine, authors and presents a researched scholarly paper. The paper justifies the value and importance of the topic, provides a comprehensive and critical review of the current medical literature, provides suggestions for patient care implications, and makes recommendations for future research. The student is required to submit the paper to a peer-reviewed journal.

624. Introduction to Community Health Leadership

Fall. Credit, one hour. This course will enable students to obtain the knowledge, comprehension, skills and behaviors necessary for the student to become a positive change agent within one’s profession and community. This course includes an overview of the population-based public health prospective, cultural competency and development of leadership skills.

Fall. Credit, two hours. Study of ethical rules, principles, and theories relating to health care delivery issues.

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