UMES highlights Physician Assistant program as first round of graduates begin to enter workforce

PRINCESS ANNE, MD-  UMES is highlighting the success of its new Physician Assistant program that graduated its first cohort of students in 2022.

The program aims to bring an HBCU focus to education, teaching the student career readiness and how their backgrounds can be an asset and strength when dealing with patients from similar backgrounds.

“Having people with the same dialect, same culture, and same background and be able to relate to the patients is incredible and that’s what this program brings to the local community,” said Program Director and PA Department Chair Dr. Tiffany Maxwell.

Physician Assistants are able to examine patients. make diagnoses, recommend, and prescribe treatments.

47ABC Spoke with Megan Barnes, one of the first 16 program graduates, who is pursuing a career in Critical Care. She tells 47ABC the program gave her the knowledge base, and the confidence in her skillset to proceed while being located in her own community.

“The rotation for me I was able to do hands-on things that probably others wouldn’t be able to do,” Barnes said.

Dr. Tiffany Maxwell says it’s the program’s mission to connect students like her to local providers that need their expertise to help fill staffing shortages while helping to break down barriers and increase diversity in the medical field.

“Being able to stand up a program in an area that is undeserved and has a health care provider shortage and has a shortage of diversity in providers it was very important to do so,” Dr.Maxwell said adding that the workload is as close as possible to going out into the field in a healthcare setting.

“The program is designed for them to be primary care ready as soon as they get out so what they do here is training to be entry-level primary care physician assistants, what they do here what they model and a didactic and clinic year and on rotations is very similar to what they do as PAs,” Dr. Maxwell said. 

The program also offers students an understanding of the environment where patients in the area are coming from, including a Clinical Problem Solving class that sees students study systemic issues such as lack of transport as the reason why patients can have issues with compliance or might be presenting for the first time with more severe health problems.

PA student Samantha Bernard says it’s a class and a program that she is glad to have within driving distance of her residence in Salisbury.

“It opens our eyes to asking why and how and we can advocate for our patients and not just socially or clinically but together,” Bernard said adding that a mandatory 40 hours of volunteer work as part of her courses help her feel entrenched in the community she wishes to serve.

For Dr.Maxwell, the students that will graduate through the program have an even more important role to fill than just healthcare providers; acting as an alumni network and advocates for other students coming out of UMES and other HBCUs.

“HBCUs are forefront in that push to diversify this profession, we want to make sure more HBCUs are in the pipeline so that we can continue to have that impact diversifying the profession,” she said. 

Dr. Maxwell tells 47ABC that PAs can be an especially effective role, as they can act as jack-0f-all-trades in a healthcare setting and can help pick up the slack of multiple fields in an under-staffed setting.

“The program is designed for them to be primary care ready as soon as they get out so what they do here is training to be entry-level primary care physician assistants,” she said adding that 50 percent of admitted students are local to the area, which she hopes can make them strong candidates for local hospital systems.

“My pitch to them is, especially since we have a large number of folks retiring from the profession, that you are training your colleagues and your replacements, in this field you need,” Dr. Maxwell said.

The program is expanding to more students, with the second cohort growing to 19 students, and the third to 26, with a maximum of 30 students.