{"id":3726,"date":"2016-10-14T12:58:26","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T17:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/for-wisconsin\/?post_type=campus_story&p=3726"},"modified":"2016-10-14T12:58:26","modified_gmt":"2016-10-14T17:58:26","slug":"the-importance-of-pas-uw-la-crosse-physician-assistant-program-continues-to-fill-health-care-shortage","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/the-importance-of-pas-uw-la-crosse-physician-assistant-program-continues-to-fill-health-care-shortage\/","title":{"rendered":"The importance of PAs: UW-La Crosse physician assistant program continues to fill health care shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sandra<\/a>
Sandra Sieck, UW-La Crosse\u2019s PA program director, demonstrates during a class in the Physician Assistant Studies program.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When UW-La Crosse graduate Jessica DeBruyne decided to continue her education to become a physician assistant, she looked no further than her alma mater.<\/p>\n

Factors like a 100 percent pass rate on the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam among graduates, small class sizes and a partnership with two leading healthcare institutions, made UWL\u2019s program particularly attractive, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite looking into other PA programs across the Midwest, I knew that that UWL\u2019s PA program would be the best fit for me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Today, DeBruyne is working toward her graduate degree in UWL\u2019s Physician Assistant Studies program, a program offered in partnership with two area healthcare systems. She doesn\u2019t regret the decision. In fact, she\u2019s eager to promote the program and the profession she\u2019s planning to pursue after graduation.<\/p>\n

\"Students<\/a>
Students studying to become physician assistants learn skills that allow them to to fill many duties previously completed by doctors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Oct. 6-12 is National PA week, a time to celebrate the profession that has helped fill primary care doctor shortages nationwide since the first graduating class of PAs from Duke University in 1967. A 2016 report from the Association of American Medical Colleges projects a shortage of physicians ranging between 61,700 and 94,700 over the next decade.<\/p>\n

The career has consistently been considered one of the fastest growing professions. PAs were ranked the most promising job of 2015 by Forbes.com. All UWL graduates who seek employment after graduation are employed as PAs, and more than 90 percent of program graduates stay within the tri-state area to practice medicine, which includes Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, says Sandra Sieck, UWL\u2019s PA program director.<\/p>\n

Sieck says UWL is extremely fortunate to have program partners \u2014 Gundersen Medical Foundation and Mayo Clinic School of Health Science of Rochester. UWL PA Program instructors include renowned clinicians and scientists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program faculty have a sincere commitment to quality education and work hard to promote the PA profession in all they do,\u201d says DeBruyne. \u201cI\u2019ve never regretted choosing this program!\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more about the Physician Assistant Studies program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Graduates\u00a0of the\u00a0program, now working in the region, explain how the program prepared them.<\/strong><\/h5>\n

[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=g20VeXgJy_k&w=560&h=315]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When UW-La Crosse graduate Jessica DeBruyne decided to continue her education to become a physician assistant, she looked no further than her alma mater. Factors like a 100 percent pass rate on the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam among graduates, small class sizes and a partnership with two leading healthcare institutions, made UWL\u2019s program particularly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[104],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-3726","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-la-crosse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/3726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=3726"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=3726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}