A delegation from the Canadian Forces, including faculty from its physician assistant program at Base Borden, Ontario, recently visited UNMC’s Omaha campus.
UNMC has had a five-year relationship with Canada’s military PA program, conferring bachelor’s degrees upon Canadian Forces physician assistant graduates since 2009. UNMC officials travel annually to Base Borden to meet with officials and take part in graduation ceremonies, but this was the first time their counterparts have come here.
The Canadians were in Omaha to trade ideas with UNMC staff and faculty regarding curriculum, strategic planning, program evaluation, and to observe a demonstration of UNMC’s clinical skills instruction.
“We can’t stress enough how positive our reception has been,” said Master Warrant Officer Roger Watson, himself a physician assistant and, through the program, a UNMC alum.
“It’s been an excellent exchange of ideas between our programs,” said Michael Huckabee, Ph.D., UNMC’s director of physician assistant education.
A handful of civilian Canadian universities have founded PA programs in recent years. But for many years, the military offered the only physician assistant training program in Canada. In the late-2000s, the Canadian Forces approached UNMC, which has had a similar 20-year relationship with the U.S. military’s Interservice Physician Assistant Program (IPAP).
“The physician assistant program is by far more advanced in the U.S.,” said Maj. Wayne Willcott, commandant overseeing the PA program and other health professions training at the Canadian Forces Health Services Training Centre. “But we are working to close that gap. UNMC offers a great example for us to follow. This gives us a lot of ideas on how our program can continue to improve.”
Canadian Forces PA students typically are selected based on a decade or more of prior exemplary service as medical technicians or other health care service in the military, Dr. Huckabee said. Canadian Forces physician assistant graduates are usually given high responsibilities, often in posts with doctors accessible only by phone. Examples include senior health care providers aboard ships, on remote bases or on the battlefield.
In addition to UNMC physician assistant faculty and staff, the Canadian delegation also met with Dele Davies, M.D., vice chancellor for academic affairs, and Kyle Meyer, Ph.D., senior associate dean of the School of Allied Health Professions.
Maj. Willcott said the Canadian Forces have been privileged to host Dr. Huckabee and Maggie Winnicki, academic and student affairs coordinator in the SAHP. Now, he said he and his team had benefitted from having been able to finally come to UNMC.
“It’s been a mutually beneficial relationship,” he said.