Curriculum

courses and practice concentrations

The MPAS Degree Advancement Option consists of 36 semester credit hours of didactic courses and either educational methodology or clinical experiences intended to be completed in five semesters. Please note, the program cannot be completed any sooner than 5 semesters. Students must choose either the clinical track or the education track for their program of study. In order to complete the program in five semesters, students must complete one didactic course each semester combined with one course from the clinical track or one course from the education track. The courses required to complete the program are listed below.

Didactic Courses
SAHP 626 Health Care Ethics & Critical Thinking (Fall only) - 3 semester credit hours
SAHP 631 Management in Health Care (Spring only) - 3 semester credit hours
PHAS 680 Health Care Policy (US students only) (Summer only) - 3 semester credit hours
PHAS 681 Canadian Health Care Policy (Canadian students only) (Summer only) - 3 semester credit hours
PHAS 682 Clinical Inquiry and Writing - 3 semester credit hours
PHAS 790 Master's Capstone (Prerequisite: PHAS 682)  - 4 semester credit hours

Clinical Track Courses^
PHAS 785 Advanced Supervised Clinical Practice I - 4 semester credit hours 
PHAS 786 Advanced Supervised Clinical Practice II - 4 semester credit hours
PHAS 787 Advanced Supervised Clinical Practice III - 4 semester credit hours
PHAS 788 Advanced Supervised Clinical Practice IV - 4 semester credit hours
PHAS 789 Advanced Supervised Clinical Practice V - 4 semester credit hours

Education Track Courses
Some of the Education Track courses are currently under development and pending approval.
PHAS 765 Instructional Design in Higher Learning (Fall only) – 4 semester credit hours
Education Theory in Medicine (Spring only) - 4 semester credit hours (PHAS 664 Special Topics course for first year of offering in 2012-2013.)
PHAS 767 Leadership in Clinical Education (Summer only) - 4 semester credit hours
*Supervised Teaching Practice I - 4 semester credit hours
*Supervised Teaching Practice II - 4 semester credit hours

*Supervised Teaching Practice: to complete the education track of this program, students are required to complete and document a total of 320 clinical teaching hours (160 hours in each of two semesters) in a supervised situation. This can be associated with a formal institution of higher learning or can be other forms of community education/patient education.

^Clinical Track Courses
To complete the clinical track of this program, students are required to complete and document a total of 800 clinical hours (160 hours in each of five semesters) in a specific core area. During your first three semesters of the Advanced Clinical Practice coursework, you will meet objectives for one of our five Core Areas. The five core areas are: family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, and surgery. Your core area should be based on the type of clinic/practice in which you are employed. During your final two semesters of the Advanced Clinical Practice coursework, you may meet objectives for a more specialized concentration area if you so choose. A full list of these concentration areas can be found below. The concentration areas available within a specific core area are listed to the right. Note: Each semester is 14-16 weeks in length. Students cannot log more than 160 hours in a semester.

Education goals and objectives have been established for the following practice areas. The student should select the core area that best matches his/her clinical practice, and identify any further focus of concentration if desired. The applicant whose concentration is not listed below should contact the program.

Core Areas and Concentrations