Report to the Community - Samuel Merritt University

Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy students
also have unique clinical environments. Portions of their
clinical work take place in University sponsored clinics.
These clinics focus on rehabilitation issues and serve
individuals who have a physical or mental impairment that
substantially limits their skills of daily living, and serve
those who have exhausted their health insurance.
Michael De Rosa, PhD, MPH, PA-C, Chair of the Master
Physician Assistant program, credits early clinical
placement as one of the top reasons why his program
has a 98 percent
first time pass rate
on the Physician
Assistant National
Certification
Examination for
all graduates.
(Average national
first time pass rate
over same period is
91 percent.)
Physician Assistant students
Amanda Dick and Abbey Goetz
The excellence of any
type of practitioner
is largely dependent on the quality and range of clinical
care offered to students during their educational program.
“These responsibilities are managed by dedicated faculty
whose sole role is scheduling and managing clinical sites
and their attendant contracts,” adds Dr. Foster. “It is well
accepted that in the academic community, these clinical
coordinators have some of the toughest jobs handling a
myriad of sites, contracts, student issues, scheduling, and
of course, counseling and evaluating students through this
most critical phase of their education.”
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