MTSU aims to help rural medical providers

By Logan Langlois

MURFREESBORO, TN — Middle Tennessee State University has recently launched a PA
program that is partnering up with medical facilities in many of Tennessee’s rural areas. Program Director Dr. Marie Patterson said many of these rural Tennessee clinics have been experiencing hurdles in providing medical care to their communities, one of which is understaffing.

She said that many of these community’s face difficulty with both medical access and education, with citizens much of the time unable to make the long-distance travels that are required for them to receive advanced, or sometimes even basic medical care.

“We’re trying to partner with everyone,” Patterson said. “So obviously we want to be in the
bigger cities as well, but we have it as a goal for all our students to do at least one rural or
underserved area rotation.”

Molly Valentine, a PA student about to graduate from the program as a member of its
inaugural class, said students are not given the authority of licensed physicians but are treated as extensions of the physician they are training under. Valentine said that with this authority, she can assist physicians in speeding along simpler processes such as conducting the patient’s initial interview and then reporting back to the physician.

“We are able to basically practice what it would be like to be a medical provider under the
supervision of that preceptor,” she said when describing how PA students practice in a clinic setting.

Valentine said she would propose a diagnosis based on the symptoms and ask the
physician supervising her whether they would agree. If not, they would guide as to why and what their plan would be to treat the patient. After a PA has completed their student training and taken their board exams, however, they are no longer monitored like this.

“It allows us the opportunity to really practice the PA role so that when we graduate, we’re
able to do that more confidently,” Valentine said.

Dr. Patterson said the program has been working on coming together since April 2020,
during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Patterson said because of the ensuing lockdowns, she and the rest of the team worked on the lengthy and difficult process required for a school to open a PA program remotely. Patterson said that she was extremely proud the program was set up and ready to launch by its May 2022 start date.
Patterson said while putting together the interview process, she decided to focus on a holistic process to evaluate all the candidates’ character. She said this was important to her because she wanted to build a tough and diverse student body.

“In our profession, GPA has not been a good predictor in who does well in PA school,”
Patterson said. “I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that PA school moves very fast and you have to learn a lot at one time.”

Patterson said while shaping the program it was very important to her to not only encourage volunteers within their student body to volunteer but to build the time within their schedule so that they had the time to volunteer in the first place. This dedication to volunteering was one of the things that Valentine said appealed to her while she was looking to apply to the program.

Patterson said that she doesn’t require the students to donate their volunteer time to a specifically medically based program, it was the very fact that they were volunteering that was the most important. As the program continues, Patterson said they will continue to reach out to medical providers who may need assistance and recruit good candidates.