The application for admission to the JCHS PA Program is on the web at the Central Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA) at www.caspaonline.org.

Visit this site for information about the application process and fees.

CASPA’s mailing address is:
CASPA
PO Box 9108
Watertown, MA  02471
Phone: 617-612-2080.
No hard-copy CASPA applications are available from the College.

References: Although CASPA does not specify the number of references, we require three-one each from an academic advisor, a clinical supervisor, and an employer.  Substitutions may be made, if all three are not available. Submit these directly to CASPA using CASPA’s forms.

Transcripts: Send all transcripts to CASPA, not to the College. Students are to send transcripts to the College only after they are accepted and have paid their deposit.

Interviews: Our Admissions Committee starts reviewing completed applications November 1. Applicants who are selected to be interviewed will be informed of their interview session several weeks ahead of time. Interview sessions begin in mid-December and usually continue through mid-March.

Physician Assistants are healthcare professionals licensed to practice medicine with physician supervision. PA increase access to primary care, promote cost savings, improve practice efficiency and productivity, and relieve physicians of essential but time-consuming patient-care duties, while maintaining quality of care.
Services commonly provided by a PA:

·      performing medical histories and physical exams

·        ordering and interpreting lab tests

·        diagnosing and treating illnesses

·        assisting in surgery

·        prescribing or dispensing medication

·        counseling patients

·        making referrals to other health care professionals

The PA profession was launched in 1965 at Duke University, where the first PA educational program had a class of four former military corpsmen. Today, there are more than 58,000 practicing PAs and 130 accredited PA programs offered by medical schools, colleges and universities, teaching hospitals, and the US armed forces. PAs are found in all areas of medicine. Half of all PAs practice primary care medicine—family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics, and gynecology. About 19% are in surgery or the surgical subspecialties. Average salary range for a starting Physician Assistant is $48,000-$69,000.

Since its beginning in 1997, the JCHS PA program has been financed in part by federal grants from the Health and Human Services Bureau of Health Professions for work in rural, medically underserved areas, which is encompassed in the larger category of Community Health. The emphasis of our latest grant has been the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP). In this innovative program, our students live in rural underserved areas during their Community Medicine rotation and set up programs that train people in rural areas to manage their chronic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, on their own by, for instance, planning and implementing behavioral change.

Our current sites are in southwestern Virginia—Giles and Franklin Counties and Saltville, a migrant worker community. Students who have contributed to this have expressed a great sense of satisfaction and realization that they can apply the concepts and techniques learned here to any type of practice they go into.

The National Association of Community Health Centers, Inc. (NACHC) awarded plaques to four members of the Class of 2004 for work they did for the association in our Saltville, VA, rotation site. Our students interviewed and recruited patients to participate in cognitive testing.

Troutdale Medical Center in Southwest Virginia owes its existence to the hard work of members of our Class of 2002 who wrote a successful migrant health grant proposal. The Troutdale Medical Center opened May 2003.

In the ten years of our PA program, we have graduated 234 students.

Percent of graduates practicing in:

• Virginia: 59%
• Tennessee or North Carolina: 18%
• Other states: 23%
• Rural areas:  46%
• Urban areas: 54%
• Family Practice: 35%
• Orthopedics: 11%
• Emergency: 10%
• Surgery: 10%
• Internal Medicine: 9%
• Cardiology: 8%
• Neurosurgery: 4%
• Other specialties: 11%

In the past nine years, our students have performed their rotations in more than 500 different sites, 75% of which have been in rural, underserved areas in the Appalachian areas of Southwest Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Kentucky. We have permanent sites in Smyth and Giles Counties in Virginia, in which each student completes the Community Medicine Rotation, helping teach self-management of chronic diseases to immigrant workers, coal-mining families, and others in those rural areas. Affiliated local academic and clinical hospitals involved in our educational program are:

• Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital(CRMH)


• Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital(CRCH)


• Lewis-Gale Medical Center


• Salem Veteran’s Administration Medical Center

CRMH and CRCH are large urban academic teaching facilities for the University of Virginia School of Medicine. They currently have several AMA-approved programs for training medical students and residents. Equipment of Carilion’s academic hospitals is available for PA students. About 15% of our students’ rotations take place in these medical centers.