PA Fellowship Overview

Program Description

The Department of Emergency Medicine at Regions Hospital  offers a postgraduate program for Physician Assistants interested in advanced training in emergency medicine. The Physician Assistant Fellowship Program collaborates with the existing Physician EM Residency Program and the departments of Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, Orthopedics, and Trauma and Acute Care Surgery at Regions Hospital and with local outreach hospitals. Regions Hospital is the Level I Trauma and Burn Center for Ramsey County and is located in Saint Paul, Minnesota part of the metropolitan Twin Cities. The Emergency Department at Regions has 50,000 square feet, 55 treatment rooms, with approximately 90,000 patients seen annually. PA Fellows train with experienced physician and PA staff alongside physician emergency medicine residents and students of various disciplines.


Program Mission

The mission of the Emergency Medicine PA Fellowship Program is to provide a post-graduate specialty training program for physician assistants that will promote excellence in emergency department patient care with a focus on critical care knowledge and practice experience.  PA fellows undergo intensive didactic and clinical training  preparing them to be skilled partners in care delivery in emergency, acute care, and intensive care settings.

Vision Statement: The vision of the Regions Hospital EM PA Fellowship Program is to be an educational partner in the improvement of the health of our patients and communities.

Length of Program: 18 Months

Class Size: 3

Starting Date: March or June start dates


Curriculum

Didactic

Regions Hospital PA fellows are required to study the core content curriculum that is required for emergency medicine physician board certification. PA fellows participate in weekly conferences with the EM physician residents. They are required to certify in ACLS, PALS, and ATLS. PA residents participate in skills workshops including procedure labs and simulation labs. There is opportunity for additional training in Ultrasound, EMS, Toxicology, International Emergency Medicine, and research studies.

Clinical

PA fellows devote a significant portion of their training to emergency medicine. They have required rotations in specialty areas essential for proficiency in emergency medicine. There are rotations to an outreach pediatric emergency department and a single provider covered community emergency department.

18 Month Clinical Rotation Schedule

  • 10.5 months     Emergency Medicine at Regions
  • 5 weeks           SICU
  • 5 weeks           MICU
  • 5 weeks           Pediatric ED
  • 4 weeks           Outreach Partner ED
  • 4 weeks           Hospital Medicine/Cardiology
  • 3 weeks           Orthopedics
  • 2 weeks           Elective
  • 2.5 weeks        Ultrasound/Anesthesiology
  • 4 weeks           Toxicology/EMS

Accreditation:

The Regions Hospital Emergency Medicine/ Physician Assistant Fellowship Program is designed to meet the requirements for Clinical Post Graduate PA Programs as determined by The Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA), and the SEMPA (Society of Emergency Medicine Physician Assistants) Postgraduate Training Program Standards. The program started the application process for accreditation, however the ARC-PA suspended the accreditation process in 2014 and it reinstated the voluntary accreditation for programs that were previously accredited by ARC-PA in 2020. We are considering the option of pursuing accreditation in the future.