Mission, Vision, Goals

Mission Statement

Our mission at Nazareth University is to educate highly skilled, compassionate PAs who excel in interprofessional collaboration and are dedicated to serving diverse communities with a focus on underserved populations.

Vision Statement

Our vision at Nazareth University is to empower a new generation of healthcare leaders with a transformative approach to education. Through our innovative hybrid model, we envision a future where highly skilled and empathetic PAs serve as catalysts for change in healthcare. With a steadfast commitment to interprofessional collaboration, we aspire to bridge gaps in access, ensuring every community, especially those in underserved areas, receives equitable and exemplary care.

Program Goals

  1. Ensure that PA students acquire essential medical knowledge, skills, and clinical reasoning abilities necessary for providing exemplary, evidence-based, patient-centered care.
  2. Offer PA students diverse healthcare exposure, emphasizing medically underserved communities, to expand access to high-quality healthcare.
  3. Develop PA students who excel in interprofessional collaboration essential for delivering comprehensive and patient-centered care.
  4. Instill in PA students the value of compassion to meet the holistic needs of their patients.
  5. Promote PA student well-being by providing curriculum for self-care and resilience, to reduce burnout and enhance professional fulfillment.

Program Learning Outcomes & Student Competencies

Medical Knowledge
  1. Recognize normal and abnormal health states across all organ systems.
  2. Discern among acute, chronic and emerging disease states across the lifespan.
  3. Apply principles of basic and clinical science to identify, diagnose and provide patient care to healthy and ill patients.
Clinical Reasoning & Problem Solving
  1. Formulate a most likely diagnosis and differential diagnoses based on an appropriate history, and physical examination for a variety of acute, chronic, and emergent medical conditions for patients across the lifespan.
  2. Recommend appropriate diagnostic laboratory and imaging studies relevant to the history and physical and provide or obtain interpretations.
  3. Develop appropriate treatment plans based on the clinical assessment and findings that include pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions.
Clinical & Technical Skills
  1. Demonstrate the ability to obtain a medical history, perform a physical examination, and document patient information.
  2. Perform diagnostic and routine therapeutic procedures.
  3. Implement appropriate strategies for disease prevention and health care maintenance.
  4. Demonstrate the ability to provide appropriate patient education by utilizing evidence-based medicine to guide clinical decision-making.
Interpersonal & Communication Skills
  1. Demonstrate the ability to provide effective verbal and nonverbal communication with patients, families, and members of the health care team.
  2. Review medical records, complete documentation, and communicate diagnostic findings and management strategies in a timely manner.
  3. Demonstrate strong reading, writing, and presentation skills.
Professional Behaviors
  1. Uphold academic integrity and professionalism.
  2. Demonstrate cultural competencies affecting the health of the individual and the community being served.
  3. Apply the core principles of medical ethics to provide medical care that is patient centered, respectful, and equitable.
  4. Establish respectful and collaborative relationships with all members of academic and healthcare teams.
  5. Demonstrate understanding of professional responsibilities around regulatory and legal aspects of medical practice.