Fall has been a busy and exciting time for St. Kate’s MPAS Program. The Class of 2023 has now completed their Dermatology and Musculoskeletal courses, and are half way through their Neurology course already. The new student board members have been elected and are enjoying their new roles. Some of the students have had their first shift at the St. Mary’s clinic and were so grateful for the experiences they had. The class recently worked with a nonprofit, Days For Girls, where they helped make packages for girls who do not have access to menstrual products, and found it to be incredibly rewarding.
The Class of 2022 has moved onto their clinical year! They completed a week of testing in order to progress to clinicals, and their first day is November 29th. In the meantime, they are spending time reviewing and doing cases with faculty. They are preparing for their first clinical rotations and are otherwise taking this time to wind down from the craziness of didactic year.
Maddy graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a degree in Psychology and a minor in Biology. She worked for 2 years as an Emergency Medical Technician in Bloomer Wisconsin and as a medical scribe throughout her undergraduate schooling, and now attends the St. Kate's PA Program!
Fall has been an exciting time for St. Kate’s MPAS Program as we welcome the class of 2023, prepare for our annual 5K, and transition the new student board. Class of 2023 began their first day of PA school on September 9th in person! They started with their foundations class and have begun their first body system course – Dermatology. The class presented their Kindness Wins project to the second-year class, have tested out of their first physical exam, and have started the cadaver lab. They are electing their student board members and will have their first meeting in the coming weeks.
Class of 2022 has been busy finishing up their didactic year! They completed Primary Care Day, which is a day full of simulations to mimic a day in the clinic. They had practice procedures in the cadaver lab and are finishing up two more courses before clinicals start in November. They are excited for their long-awaited white coat ceremony which is scheduled as they transition from didactic to clinical year. As a student board, they have finished planning the annual 5K to benefit St. Mary’s Clinics, one of which is hosted on campus every other Thursday. They are also beginning to plan some events for PA week.
Mikaela graduated from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities with a BS degree in Biology and a minor in mathematics. She worked for three years at Regions hospital as a clinical research intern and medical scribe until she was accepted into St. Kate's PA Program Class of 2022!
Spring semester has brought some exciting events for the first- and second-year students at St. Kate’s. Most of the students have completed their COVID vaccination series and are very excited to move forward with more in person training! The second-year students, being delayed for their clinical rotations for the last 5 months, finally finished off their didactic classes and spent a week taking their formative examinations which qualified them for clinical rotations. On March 29th, they started their long-awaited first day of clinicals!
The first years will start to return to campus occasionally for more in-person skills training after spring break. They have finished their courses in ENT, infectious disease, cardiology, pulmonology, and gastroenterology. They will finish off their spring semester with genitourinary, hematology/oncology, and mental health. The first-year students have almost finished their cadaver lab and physical exam practice and will soon begin to practice putting everything together with simulations. The student board has begun to start planning St. Kate’s annual 5K event and discuss plans for the incoming class, and several first years were able to meet with most of the incoming PA class of 2023 and are looking forward to more events with them soon.
Finally, the first- and second-year classes were very excited to participate in this year’s challenge bowl! There were 7 first year teams for the challenge bowl, and 2 second year teams. The competition was fierce but, in the end, M2L2, a second year team, deservingly won the challenge bowl. They will be happily using their Rosh Review subscription for their clinicals and PANCE exams next year.
Mikaela graduated from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities with a BS degree in Biology and a minor in mathematics. She worked for three years at Regions hospital as a clinical research intern and medical scribe until she was accepted into St. Kate's PA Program Class of 2022!
