Behavioral and Mental Health Clinical Course

Catalog description

This five-week required clinical rotation for second-year PA students focuses on the role of the physician assistant in the behavioral/mental health setting. Students gain knowledge and experience toward the refinement of skills needed for the unique medical, physiological, behavioral and psychosocial components and issues common to the practice of psychiatry, behavioral and mental health. Students actively engage in applying the medical knowledge and clinical skills gained during the didactic year, along with continuing to develop clinical reasoning through evidence-based approaches to the evaluation and management of common problems in patients with psychiatric, emotional and behavioral disturbances. Students work under the supervision of a program-determined licensed healthcare professional or the professional’s designee(s) and adapt the standard medical history, physical examination, diagnostic and treatment plans to the psychiatric patient. Students also work to incorporate a collaborative patient-centered, humanistic approach to the care of patients.