CHCS - Perspectives Winter/Spring 2016

The doors opened to a group of approximately 15 students, all dressed in white coats or blue scrubs. As the wife calmed down, the paramedic students gave their patient report of the accident to the receiving teams, including the burn victim’s vital signs and the brief medical history that was obtained. As if on cue, the wife looked over to one of the paramedic students, grinned, winked, and said, “Was that a good acting job or what?” She was one of three staff members from the NSU Jacksonville PA Program who volunteered to assist in the simulated scenario. At this point, three groups, consisting of a five-member medical team, were ushered into three separate but identically equipped rooms that contained a high-fidelity simulator that was moulaged to look like the burn victim just delivered. The students had 20 minutes to work as a team to diagnose and recommend treatment of their patient. The students were then debriefed at the end of the scenario, focusing on their ability to communicate and work together as a health care team. The event’s main objective was for students from different professional programs to work and learn together in teams like they would if practicing in their respective professions after graduation. The event took place on the campus of St. Johns River State College with nursing, paramedic, and respiratory care students from St. John’s allied health care programs and students from the NSU Jacksonville Physician Assistant Program. The scenario was replayed six times to allow all students from both colleges the interprofessional education opportunity to work in teams as they would in the clinical setting. The coming together of these two colleges—a mix of both private and public—required quite a bit of hard work and collaboration to make it so successful. ■ October 6–12 marked the celebration of National Physician Assistant (PA) Week, which was established to bring recognition to how valuable PAs are in the medical field and spotlight the capabilities of PAs to the public. The class of 2017 showcased its PA pride by participat- ing in the annual American Academy of Physician Assistants photo competition, which included themes, such as My View/Where I Practice, My Health Care Colleagues, Throw- back Thursday, My PA Program, White Coat or Scrubs, and My PA Inspiration. Students Participate in Photo Competition From left: Physician assistant students Phillip Woessner, Karlie Lotz (as NSU mascot Razor the Shark), Anna Pfaff, Nicole Rehberg, Elizabeth Bettis, James Curnayn, and Kim-My Nguyen demonstrate key physical exam techniques for National Physician Assistant Week.