Leaders with Wake Forest University School of Medicine’s PA Program are making sure the program continues to fill a vital role: meeting the unmet care needs of the underserved by addressing health inequality.
It was a key priority when the program launched its successful partnership with Appalachian State University in 2013. That same priority was highlighted again in May when a partnership was announced with Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) to create a pathway for more students at the city’s historically Black university to pursue careers as PAs at the School of Medicine.
“Access to health care is uneven,” says Gayle Bodner, DHSc, PA-C, associate professor and chair of PA Studies with the School of Medicine. “There are areas of the country that have better access to health care than others, and we don’t have enough health care providers to take care of certain populations. When we are able to meet that need, PAs can expand health care access, not only in rural and underserved communities, but also within our own health system.”
With one of America’s leading PA programs — ranked 16th nationally in the most recent U.S. News & World Report rankings — the School of Medicine is determined to address the need.
Brian Peacock, MMS, PA-C ’10, assistant professor and director of PA Studies, cited recent information from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, which noted that nearly every county in the state is considered underserved for primary care or mental health.
“In primary care, behavioral health, pediatrics, women’s health — areas where there are deficits, especially here in North Carolina — I would love to see PAs playing a prominent role in helping to narrow that gap or reach those places in the state that really need help,” Peacock says.
The PA Program now has more than 170 students enrolled on its campuses in Winston-Salem and Boone who could potentially help.
“This is an exciting time for our PA Program, which was among the very first programs of its kind in the country,” says Julie Ann Freischlag, MD, FACS, FRCSEd(Hon), DFSVS, MAMSE, chief academic officer and executive vice president of Advocate Health, chief academic officer and chief executive officer of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, and executive vice president for health affairs with Wake Forest University.
“Our program has seen growth in northwest North Carolina with the Appalachian State campus. Our students and alumni there are getting more involved in the community itself, and we have new faculty working there. Through the partnership with Winston-Salem State, we’re also growing in our community here. We are proud to see our PA students demonstrate a commitment to serve the surrounding communities where they train.”
Working with WSSU
The new WSSU partnership builds on earlier efforts that include a mentorship program named in honor of Robert L. Wooten, PA-C ’81, assistant professor of PA Studies. The Robert L. Wooten Mentorship Certificate Program has helped pre-PA students at WSSU receive important professional guidance from PA faculty and current students. The experience includes a series of workshops designed to equip PA students with the skills and knowledge necessary to become effective mentors.
Bodner credits Andrea McKinnond, MMS, PA-C ’15, assistant professor and director of clinical education, who chaired the program’s racial equity task force, and Sobia Hussaini, MHA, assistant professor and director of admissions and strategic recruitment, for building relationships with WSSU students who may later apply to the program.
The PA Program also continues to work with WSSU’s health degree programs on interprofessional education. One event, organized with the support of the Northwest Area Health Education Center, brings together students from physical and occupational therapy, nursing, medical laboratory science, health care management and administration, rehabilitation counseling and social work for a hands-on exercise.
“This year, the students were given a case of a gentleman who has an accident on the job,” Bodner says. “They made it an escape room-style problem they had to solve. They all worked together to help take care of this patient, not just on medical issues but on all the social determinants of health and the ways he needed to access health care. The students learned from each other while looking at the different aspects of caring for that patient.”
Active in Boone
The partnerships with WSSU and Appalachian State are very different but related.
“I think that underserved care is the link,” Bodner says. “We want to have PAs who are representing the communities they are coming from, with different perspectives and different lived experiences.
“When we think about our Appalachian State relationship, that’s about a rural and underserved community and bringing in perspectives and social determinants of health there. When we think about being a PA program and our impact on training future PAs and patients they will serve, we want to have students who can bring their experiences and represent populations that they’re serving. We’ve made a great impact in Boone, and we have a lot of alumni networking there. There are more PAs working in the area since we started the program there, and we are stronger for having different students in our program for those areas.”
Peacock says encouraging connection with the community starts early.
“On the first day of orientation, we engage with the students about community service through the faculty and staff, to show its importance and value in hopes that they will want to stay and be part of those communities and help give back,” he says. “They are well-equipped by the time they graduate to take jobs in those underserved areas and help improve health inequality.”
After nearly 12 years in Boone, the PA Program is well-integrated into Appalachian State.
The program offers a Lifestyle Medicine Certificate Program on the campus that is open to all graduate students there and is taught by both by Appalachian State and Wake Forest PA faculty. The certificate aims to expand the impact that PAs have on lifestyle and nutrition as part of a whole patient perspective.
The Boone campus also has versions of the pre-PA club and interprofessional training that are in place with WSSU, with a poverty simulation exercise to help address social determinants of health in that community.
New for Alumni
The program is also working to add features for PA alumni, including an alumni board and a new honor — induction into the School of Medicine’s Bowman Gray Society.
Kathy Black, PA-C ’01, led the inaugural board meeting in March as its first president.
“Kathy was super excited when we talked to her about developing an alumni board and did not hesitate to agree to lead that charge,” Peacock says. “She has been full of energy and engaging and has lots of ideas on how to reach alumni we haven’t reached before and what to do once we reach them.”
Beginning this spring, PA alumni who have reached their 50th reunion year will be inducted into the Bowman Gray Society. Previously, alumni of the school’s MD program have been inducted as part of their classes’ 50th reunion activities, and in 2025, the PA classes of 1971 through 1975 will be recognized.
“It will be wonderful to honor them and also to tell the story of how far we’ve come, how these early alumni paved the way for the alumni who followed them to succeed with pathways to employment and engagement,” Bodner says.
For a program that celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019, it is building momentum — through partnerships, outreach and a priority on addressing health inequality — for success in the next half-century.