Clinical Site Development Policy
The Clinical Coordinator will be responsible to ensure that a potential site will meet all program and ARC-PA requirements before scheduling an initial consultation, which consists of questions on the SCPE Development form to ensure that the site will meet the educational needs of a PA Medicine student (ie: care across the lifespan, variety of diagnoses, patient volume, preceptor qualifications).
Initial and Ongoing Review
The initial review of sites consists of completion of the Clinical SPCE Development form. As part of the initial site and preceptor development and ongoing review, all proposed supervised clinical experience instructors will be vetted using the MSUCOM PA Medicine Preceptor Criteria. This comprehensive form gathers information about preceptor demographics and credentials, patient demographics, settings, and volume, and student expectations. The initial review will be completed by the Clinical Coordinator or Co-clinical coordinator in the Exxat system. Sites that do not meet the program expectations will not enter into an affiliation agreement with the MSU Department of PA Medicine. Preceptors found to be in non-compliance with the MSU PA Medicine Preceptor Criteria will not be utilized.
SPCE sites are reviewed and verified on an annual basis as specified in the Clinical Year Assessment Calendar to ensure ongoing compliance and this is documented through the ongoing CSDF and preceptors are reviewed on a monthly basis to ensure compliance with the MSU PA Medicine Preceptor Criteria is maintained. Sites that do not meet the program expectations will not be utilized by the MSU Department of PA Medicine. Preceptors found to be in non-compliance with the MSU PA Medicine Preceptor Criteria will not be utilized.
MSU PA Medicine Responsibility
It is the responsibility of the Program Director and Clinical Coordinator to ensure that the clinical sites and preceptors are meeting the student educational needs by allocating yearly budgetary funds toward SCPE's and monitoring clinical site experiences through student patient encounter logging on Exxat student evaluation of sites, and student evaluation of preceptors.
Each student will be required to complete both a student evaluation of the preceptor and the site at the conclusion of each rotation. These evaluations will be analyzed monthly by the clinical coordinator and presented to the program director in an annual report. Should an urgent issue arise at a clinical site, the Clinical Coordinator will report on such issues immediately to the Program Director and again during the semester review to the Curriculum Committee. Preceptors that are not meeting program expectations will undergo review, which may include a site visit, review of program/rotation expectations, or termination of the affiliation agreement.
The program will use Exxat and the ARC-PA portal to log and review clinical training sites. The Clinical Coordinator will ensure that course learning objectives are achieved and reviewed on an annual basis. This data will be forwarded to the Program Director and included in the program annual report. All preceptor licenses and board certifications will be verified and updated Exxat annually prior to the next cohort beginning clinical rotations.
The Program Director, Medical Director, and Clinical Coordinator with the Program Director will annually monitor the adequacy of the number of rotations, quality of the clinical sites, and institutional support of these clinical experiences.
The Department PA Medicine faculty approved this student handbook and policies on March 16, 2020.
Revised and approved by the Faculty of the Department of PA Medicine on 3/19/2021, 3/15/2022, 4/18/2023, 12/17/24.