Perspectives Winter/Spring-2017

COLLEGE OF HEALTH CARE SCIENCES • 51 August 2015 Induction Ceremony” Pop tab collection box Staff Member Receives Employee Excellence Award Jo Ann Rogers, A.S., academic support coordinator for the Fort Myers Phys- ician Assistant Program, received the Distinguished Staff Employee Award of Excellence at the CHCS Awards ceremony held August 19, 2016. Rogers, who has been an invaluable program employee for 10 years, continually goes out of her way to make sure student and faculty needs are taken care of in a timely manner. She received her Associate of Science degree in Business Management from Indiana University and is a certified pharmacy technician who previously held positions as a trial secretary for the State Attorney’s Office, a fiscal specialist for Collier County govern- ment, and as a substitute teacher for the Collier County Public Schools. 12-month program conducted jointly by the surgical depart- ments at Norwalk Hospital and Yale School of Medicine in Norwalk, Connecticut. Oliver is completing her 12-month residency as a full-time employee of the Florida Emergency Physician Allied Health Training Program at Florida Hospital in Orlando. Class of 2015 alumna Danielle DePierro, M.M.S., PA-C, was accepted into a pediatrics urgent care training program sponsored by the Carolinas HealthCare System in Charlotte, North Carolina. DePierro currently sees patients of all ages at Allergy Asthma & Immunology Relief in Charlotte, North Carolina. Class of 2011 alumna Tatiana Marvin-Zucco, M.M.S., PA-C, was the inaugural graduate from the Fort Myers Physician Assistant Program to be accepted into a residency program. She works in a surgical practice in Plainfield, Illinois, and completed her surgical residency training in 2012 at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. The Johns Hop- kins surgical residency program has been accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant since March 2008. Competition for admission to accredited, postgraduate training programs is intense, but the rewards are substantial. Fellowship programs provide graduate physician assistants with an opportunity to see more patients and learn more quickly than they would as new employees. Residency programs are designed to provide experiences that expand upon skills not learned in PA school and improve clinical judgment skills. Physician assistants receive salaries while they are in training, although the salary may be lower than a PA working in the specialty area. However, employ- ment opportunities and salaries may be enhanced for individ- uals who have put in the extra effort to fine-tune their skills through formalized educational experiences rather than through on-the-job experience. n