WEST PLAINS, Mo. – Members of the Missouri State University Board of Governors have approved the addition of the Associate of Arts in the Health Professions degree to the list of academic programs available at the Missouri State-West Plains campus.
The action took place at the March 16 meeting of the board’s executive committee in Springfield. The proposed program will now be submitted to the Missouri Coordinating Board of Higher Education (CBHE) for approval at its meeting April 13-14.
According to the resolution’s text, the new degree will be beneficial to students planning to become a physician assistant, physical therapist or other related health professional as it constitutes the first two years of a four-year program in these professions. It was developed in collaboration with the Missouri State University Biomedical Sciences Department specifically to give local students a pathway to complete health profession degrees at the Springfield campus. Because of the degree’s 42-credit-hour general education block, however, students may choose to transfer to other institutions offering similar programs, knowing they will have met the general education requirements at that institution, as well.
“The initial submission is an emphasis in providing students interested in the physician assistant program in Springfield with an opportunity to get a head start in West Plains,” explained Joyce Jennings-Pineda, assistant professor of biomedical science and biology at Missouri State-West Plains. “It consists of the 42-hour block of transferable general education with additional credit hours representing specific prerequisites toward the bachelor’s degree in cell and molecular biology offered in Springfield. It also emphasizes the pre-professional prerequisites required for entry into the Master of Science Physician Assistant Program. Entry into most health professions is dependent on successful completion of these same prerequisites. As a result, it will benefit students pursuing other four-year programs such as occupational therapy, physical therapy, radiation technology, dental hygiene, pharmacy and related disciplines.”
Dr. Steven Dodge, director of the physician assitant program at the Springfield campus, indicated in visits with faculty in the Missouri State-West Plains Biomedical Sciences Department a desire to expand the program into rural areas where need for these services is the greatest, Pineda explained. “With the new degree, it will be possible for future PAs to receive an important part of their undergraduate education here in West Plains and then go to Springfield to complete their degree and begin the first part of their PA training. In their final year of training, they can return to West Plains to complete their clinical training with local physicians and surgeons. Experience strongly suggests that such students will be very likely to remain in the West Plains area to practice and thereby help alleviate the shortage of practitioners,” she said.
According to national projections from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the health care industry will add more jobs than any other sector through the year 2018. Employment of health care occupations is projected to grow 19 percent from 2014 to 2024, much faster than the average for all occupations, adding about 2.3 million new jobs. In Missouri, there will be over 3,000 projected openings for physician assistants, physical therapists and other related health professions between 2012-2022, state figures show.
“Health care occupations will add more jobs than any other group of occupations,” Pineda said. “This expected growth is due to an aging population and an increase in the number of individuals who have access to health insurance because of federal health insurance reforms.”
Helping to reduce the shortage of health care providers in rural Missouri is an important part of the mission of the physician assistant program at Missouri State University, Pineda added. “It has long been noted in medicine that where clinicians learn their profession tends to be where they end up practicing after the completion of their training,” she explained. “Therefore, officials with the Missouri State program hope to increase the number of PAs practicing in rural areas through two main strategies – recruiting students from rural communities and arranging for as much of their education as possible to occur in or near their hometowns. In the future, the goal is to increase the number of students entering all the health professions by packaging courses specific to their needs, which they can complete on the West Plains campus, and use those courses as a platform to continue their education in a number of different fields.”
Pineda pointed out a survey of all Missouri State-West Plains students in the biomedical and biological sciences departments during the 2015 spring and fall semesters indicated a strong interest in the program already, and there was strong attendance by students at a natural sciences career program sponsored by the departments last September. The program included faculty representing the biology, biomedical science and chemistry departments on Springfield campus whose presentations focused on the courses students should take at Missouri State-West Plains before transferring.
If the Associate of Arts in the Health Professions degree is approved by CBHE, Missouri State-West Plains will then be authorized to offer 19 associate degrees and 24 certificate programs.
For more information about these degrees and certificate options, visit the Missouri State-West Plains website or call the admissions office at 417-255-7955.