Marie Patterson

marie.patterson@mtsu.edu

Marie Patterson

Physician Assistant Studies

Master Classroom

Cason-Kennedy Building, 105

N/A

N/A

The Physician Assistant Studies Program will begin in May 2022 and will be housed in the Cason-Kennedy Building. This is a Masters level degree that will prepare PAs to work as clinicians in any specialty. PA schools are tasked with training students across the medical spectrum and are held to high accreditation standards. Classroom 105 will be utilized by the entire PA Program which will have 30 students admitted annually. When the program is fully operational, there will be 90 PA students at one time. Each class will be a cohort and will take all classes together. They will utilize the classroom space all day, every weekday for classes and every evening and weekend for group study. Medical curriculum is ever changing. The demands of teaching this level of medical education require an innovative classroom with a flat surface and movable tables and chairs to allow for a combination of seating arrangements. This will allow a variety of teaching pedagogies to be utilized (flipped classroom, etc.). Currently, the classroom has stadium style seating. Also, tables are bolted to the floor and chairs are bolted to the tables. This arrangement inhibits team based learning. Removal of the stadium seating to allow for a uniform flat floor is needed as well as new movable tables and chairs. Technology is also not up to date with what is needed for innovative medical education. Digital equipment that has screen sharing capabilities without cumbersome set up is needed to allow for interactive student involvement.