Interview with James van Rhee, Director of Yale PA Online [Show Summary]

Have you always wanted to be a PA, but did circumstances in your life just not allow for it? Yale might have just the right program for you – a PA program delivered primarily online, with clinical experience in or near your hometown. Learn more from Jim van Rhee, Director of Yale PA Online.

An Inside Look at Yale's Online PA Program [Show Notes]

It gives me great pleasure to welcome back to AST Jim van Rhee, Director of Yale PA Online. Jim became a PA in 1989 and after several years of working in patient care returned to academia. Since 2006 he has been Physician Assistant Program Director at first Wake Forest, then Northwestern, and now Yale, which he joined in 2013 as Director of the Yale Physician Associate Program. In 2016 he became Director of the Yale PA Online Program.

Can you give us an overview of Yale’s Online Physician Assistant Program? [2:01]

It is a blended program with a lot of different teaching methodologies. We have synchronous and asynchronous coursework, so students learn via video lectures, problem-based learning in small groups, immersions on campus for a week at a time where students learn the hands on skills that need to be taught face-to-face, and clinical rotations just like any other program. We do lectures online, small groups online, and use technology to the fullest extent.

The lecture portion of our curriculum is recorded. When we are online, students are doing application work in small groups – doing a case history, a physical exam applying what they learned in the lectures. It is really important to show and teach students how to utilize information, and we use all of our face-to-face time in application, not delivering content.

For our in-person immersions, the first one is 10 weeks, which is anatomy and physical exam skills. Right before rotation (12 months in) we have a procedural immersion - how to draw blood, how to give a shot, start an IV, etc. The last immersion is right before graduation to give a final assessment to make sure students are ready for clinical practice and boards.

A lot of programs frontload basic science, but we divide the curriculum by organ system. For example, students learn about congestive heart failure having just studied the physiology of the heart. They learn basic science and within days apply it to clinical medicine in cases with small groups

How many students are in each class of the Yale Online PA program? [6:00]

Our first cohort was 41 students, the second was 59. We plan to grow but are more interested in keeping at 60 for now to see the outcomes of our students. Our first cohort was January of 2018 and they just started clinical rotations and our second year students just started January 7th. Our first class graduates in May of 2020.

<< READ: Macy’s Journey Through Yale’s Online PA Program >>

What does it take to get into the program? [7:40]

Just like every PA program, you have to have the academic skills to be in PA school. Our students tend to be a little older, so we are looking for people who have really thought this through. It really can take time to decide if you want to be a PA. When I went to PA school I had been a medical technologist for years.