Physician Assistant MPAS

Why the Physician Assistant Program?

The university of Southern Mississippi will offer a newly established, state of the art PA program on the breathtaking Gulf Park Campus.

In the clinic or in the hospital, Physician Assistants are dedicated to the compassionate care of everyone they encounter. Physician Assistants (PAs) are health care professionals who collaborate with physicians to provide primary services, emergency care, clinical diagnosis and treatment, therapeutic intervention, across the age continuum for the whole range medical conditions.

What Will I Learn?

Students who want to become certified Physician Assistants must earn a degree from a ARC-PA accredited physician assistant program.

Accredited programs include formal instruction in areas such as clinical medicine and surgery, first aid and emergency care, assessment of injury/illness, human anatomy and physiology, therapeutic modalities, clinical research, clinical reasoning and decision making. Classroom learning is enhanced through clinical education experiences.

Accreditation

The University of Southern Mississippi PA Program has applied for Accreditation - Provisional from the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA). The University of Southern Mississippi PA Program anticipates matriculating its first class in October 2025, pending achieving Accreditation - Provisional status at the June 2025 ARC-PA meeting and pending approval by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. Accreditation - Provisional is an accreditation status granted when the plans and resource allocation, if fully implemented as planned, of a proposed program that has not yet enrolled students appear to demonstrate the program’s ability to meet the ARC-PA Standards or when a program holding accreditation-provisional status appears to demonstrate continued progress in complying with the Standards as it prepares for the graduation of the first class (cohort) of students.