Medicine and Health Sciences will confer the Master of Physician Assistant Studies  degree during commencement ceremonies at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, May 12, in the Alerus Center. Fifty-five candidates will receive the degree. They are the 38th class to graduate from the Physician Assistant (PA) Program. The graduates participate in a special hooding ceremony on Friday, May 11; the medical school has more than 1,600 graduates from the PA program.

The program is located in the Department of Family and Community Medicine in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Since its inception in 1970, the PA program has had continuous accreditation by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant. Over the course of the program, students rotate between the classroom on the UND campus in Grand Forks and a physician's practice in the student’s home community.

Physician assistants are health professionals who practice medicine collegially with, and under the supervision of, physicians, especially in primary care in rural areas of North Dakota and other rural and under-served areas within the United States. The UND Physician Assistant Program is one of 149 PA programs in the United States and is the only PA program in North Dakota.

Physician assistants assess the health status of individuals of all ages, obtaining a database, which includes a medical history, physical examination, and appropriate diagnostic tests. This information is compiled in a problem-oriented medical record. In addition, PAs, in collaboration with their supervising physicians, are prepared to implement, supervise, and evaluate therapeutic protocols for the management of common acute symptoms, chronic stable conditions, and to provide appropriate emergency care services. Program graduates also provide patient and community education to aid in promoting, maintaining and improving health status and to prevent disease.

For a complete list of graduates, please visit http://bit.ly/JpIngR.