Eric Zuniga, Campus Carrier news editor

James Fox, Campus Carrier deputy news editor

Berry’s new Physician Associate (PA) program is moving quickly toward its goal of opening next fall, with the program now working on admitting its inaugural class. 

The program opened its admission process in April. Applicants are considered on a rolling basis.

“We’re trying to bring in smaller groups of the top applicants so that those folks get an opportunity to learn more detail about the program, about Berry, meet the faculty and staff,” Clinical Associate Professor Victoria Galloway said. “Just to be invited for an interview is a big deal and should be a celebrated milestone for any applicant.”

Dr. Galloway said that the program has received a good number of applications from a diverse range of geographical areas. Some Berry undergraduate students have applied for the program as well. 

“We’ve had a good show of people from the Southeast, but we also had some people from the Northeast and the Midwest,” Dr. Galloway said. “Some good diversity with our applicant pool — I’m happy about that as well.”

Requirements for admission to the program, which are posted in full on Berry’s website, are rigorous. Applicants are required to have taken several courses in biology and chemistry and must have kept a 3.0 GPA in undergraduate coursework. Competitive applicants are recommended to have garnered at least 500 hours of clinical experience. Berry’s program offers preferences to Berry students, honorably discharged veterans, applicants from medically underserved areas and applicants from Appalachia. 

The program has hired all but one of its full-time faculty members. Two are Army veterans, and all have prior experience in PA education. 

“It’s unusual for a developing program to be able to pull in this type of talent,” Dr. Galloway said. “I think that’s a testament to Berry, to the institutional support here and to the quality of the program that we are developing. I’m very excited about that — students should be very excited about that.”

Dr. Galloway said that the program has been looking for faculty members with excellent teaching skills and a diverse range of past clinical experiences. 

“[PA faculty] are clinicians that are education-minded and are willing to go back and learn more about teaching and education, so it takes a special person to come into that,” Dr. Galloway said. “We’re looking for different people that can bring different clinical expertise and acumen to the curriculum, and I think that’s important, too.”

The program has established several relationships with healthcare providers to offer hands-on clinical experiences for students. Berry has established enough partnerships to provide eight clinical experiences each for the program’s maximum size of 40 students — a requirement for accreditation. 

“We have exceeded our benchmark,” Dr. Galloway. “We have enough rotations right now for 100% of our maximum class to have every rotation they need and graduate on time, which is required for accreditation, but we continue to grow.”

Though many of the partners, known as preceptors, are based locally, the program has also established relationships in other states in the Southeast. 

 “We do have some that are in other states — they’re a little bit further away, but they’re all in the Southeast right now,” Dr. Galloway said. “We continue to recruit and continue to grow because we want to have a very robust portfolio of preceptors for students to work with. We are not limited on geography, so we are willing to look at preceptors across the country to 
find excellence.”

The United States is facing a worsening shortage of healthcare workers, with the Association of American Medical Colleges projecting that the country will experience a shortage of 86,000 physicians by 2036. Rural areas in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee have an even greater need for health workers, according to Dr. Galloway. 

“By supporting the PA program, they are making an investment in healthcare for our communities,” Dr. Galloway said. “We have to have good providers.”

Berry’s PA program will consist of one year of classroom education and one year of hands-on clinical rotations culminating in a Master of Medical Science degree. 

Berry publicly announced its intention to start a PA program in May 2023. The program’s opening, pending the granting of provisional accreditation status, is planned for next fall — a short turnaround time of two years. 

“Because of the level of institutional support and community support, the timeline has been completely feasible,” Dr. Galloway said. “We are doing it in the shortest timeframe possible.”

 According to Dr. Galloway, Berry’s PA program will stand out for its student-centered curriculum. 

“The intentionality behind the curriculum — not just the course choices, but the timing of the courses, the timing of the courses not just in semesters or in the year but the timing of the courses within the week, those things are really built out to the students,” Dr. Galloway said. “I think the student experience here is going to be top quality.”

Dr. Galloway said that the PA program fits within Berry’s ethos and mission of service. 

“The PA program is an activation of that legacy in a new way, and in a new field of medicine,” Dr. Galloway said. “Having meaningful education that doesn’t just benefit the individual but improves the quality of life of society and our communities in a meaningful way and through servant leadership — I think the program does that.”