Engagement: Primary Relationships & Primary Care

What does it take to become a physician assistant? Apart from the basic clinical skills of medicine, one must cultivate trusting relationships with the patients. During their first year at MEDEX Northwest, PA students learn the necessary clinical skills in the classroom setting— taking a medical history, and conducting medical examinations. Then they apply this learning to their first patients: elderly, high-functioning residents at local retirement homes. Over seven weeks the students visit their assigned residents, applying their newly learned medical skills. Most importantly, the students develop relationships with their charge, discovering how to build patient rapport. In this video, we follow three first-year Seattle PA students as they move from classroom theory to patient engagement.