Northern Arizona University will soon be part of the downtown Phoenix community, as the school moves into the Phoenix Biomedical Campus this year.
NAU is set to start the first physician assistant program at a public university and will expand their physical therapy program to the Biomedical Campus. In the future, an occupational therapy program will be added.
“There’s a shortage of health-care providers in Arizona,” said Richard Dehn, chair of the physician assistant program at NAU. “The primary mission (of the program) is to graduate confident providers to the health-care needs of Arizona.”
Physician assistant students will enroll in the master’s program, which takes place over 24 consecutive months. The first year is strictly academic, with classes that may overlap with the University of Arizona’s medical program. The second year consists of fieldwork in clinics across Arizona along with weekly seminars, Dehn said.
This fall, 25 students will enroll in the physician assistant program at the Phoenix campus.
Physician assistant graduates generally do the same work as a regular physician and can assist in surgeries, diagnose patients and prescribe medicine. Physician assistants have to report to a supervising physician but can also work alone, said Michelle DiBaise, an associate professor at NAU.
“One major benefit is working in rural areas in rotations, so this program attracts people who move to Phoenix for a year, and then they can go back to their home community and help provide health care,” DiBaise said.
The three-year physical therapy program focuses on restoring full physical ability to people who are injured. The program will have 24 students this fall on the Biomedical Campus.
If they reach their full capacity, the physical therapy and physician assistant programs will have 220 students combined at the Biomedical Campus by 2017, Dehn said.
Future occupational therapy students will study physical rehabilitation as well; however, they will also learn to mentally and emotionally prepare patients for an independent life.
The Biomedical Campus is part of the Phoenix City Council’s 2004 plan, “Downtown Phoenix: A Strategic Vision and Blueprint for the Future,” preparing for downtown development in 10 years.
NAU’s involvement stems from the Arizona Board of Regents, a group that oversees the state’s public universities, and their role in the original 2004 plan.
The board emphasized the need for biomedical education and research in Phoenix, said Katie Paquet, a spokeswoman for the Board of Regents, in an email.
Currently on the campus are the University of Arizona College of Medicine and College of Pharmacy. ASU’s Biomedical Informatics Department was originally part of the plan, but withdrew from collaboration in April 2010.
The UA and NAU programs “will fortify the health-care workforce in the Valley and the state for years to come,” Paquet said in an email.
Contact the reporter at alicia.m.canales@asu.edu
