UTRGV and UT Health RGV announced a new Physician Assistant Career Track earlier today that will provide students an opportunity to be mentored by the honors program, according to university officials.
PACT is an “early assurance program for incoming freshmen planning to pursue the PA field,” according to a news release for the announcement.
The program is designed to provide a seamless transition from undergraduate to graduate degrees in physician assistant.
Students will be able to apply for the program on Feb. 1. The program will start in Fall 2020, according to Krystal Chappell, administrative associate for the UTRGV School of Medicine.
“The physician assistant profession is one of the top five jobs in the country and it’s predicted that it’ll stay up there for the next 10 years, at least, and it’s a very competitive program,” Frank Ambriz, chair of the Physician Assistant Studies Department, told The Rider after the news conference on the Brownsville campus. “This pilot program, or the PACT, is going to provide our local students a pathway into our program and they will be mentored by the honors program.”
The requirements to be in the program include maintaining a GPA of at least 3.5, having some health care experience, such as volunteer hours, and prerequisite courses, including anatomy, physiology, genetics and statistics.
“It’s a very competitive program,” Ambriz said. “A lot of the times the freshmen, they go into college, they have a lot of freedom, they mess around, their GPAs suffer and then when they decide two years later … that they want to get into a health-care profession, because their GPAs have already suffered, it’s really hard to bring it up. So, now as [freshmen], they’re going to be mentored.”
Mark Andersen, dean of the Honors College, told The Rider they are hoping to provide additional opportunities for students like professional experiences where they get to work in teams with physicians and other health professionals.
Asked if more programs like PACT will be available in the future, Andersen replied the College of Health Professions is starting a pharmacy and podiatry school.
“I just think that this program is a great opportunity to increase access to health care for people in this really severely underserved part of the country,” he said.
