Mission, Vision and Goals for the CHA/PA Program

The Child Health Associate/Physician Assistant (CHA/PA) Program has a long history of educational excellence, preparing physician assistants for practice in all areas of medicine. The PA program has had continuous ARC-PA accreditation since 1972 and is currently accredited through September 2026.

The PA Program has gained national recognition for its curriculum in primary care medicine. The Program confers a Master of Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS). In accordance with the mission of the program, the curriculum provides comprehensive physician assistant education in primary care medicine with expanded training in pediatrics and at risk and medically underserved populations.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Child Health Associate/Physician Assistant Program is to provide an innovative learning environment to educate socially conscious physician assistants dedicated to the holistic care of diverse and underserved patient populations across the lifespan with an emphasis on primary care and expanded training in pediatrics.

Vision Statement

The University of Colorado, School of Medicine, Physician Assistant Program will be a leading educational program with a national reputation for excellence in innovative curriculum, research and scholarship, community engagement and clinical care.

Commitment to Diversity

The Child Health Associate/Physician Assistant Program believes that diversity is a value that is central to its mission. 

Goals

Goal 1: Integrate, study, and disseminate information related to innovative PA educational programming.

To meet this goal, the CHA/PA Program or its representatives will present at least 1 national scholarly presentation or publish in a peer-reviewed platform on a CHA/PA program curricular innovation annually.

Benchmark: Our benchmark of 1 national scholarly presentation or publication was chosen as there are limited avenues for PA educators to publish or present on a national level, peer-reviewed article publication is competitive, the time to publication may be prolonged between submission and publication.

Data:

Goal 2: Create a learning environment where students receive didactic education in concepts that increase awareness of social factors that contribute to health and health outcomes.

To meet this goal, the CHA/PA Program’s didactic curriculum will provide more than 28.5 hours in educational opportunities related to social factors (including cultural health factors, substance abuse disorders, care of those with disabilities, and education about social determinants of health) that influence health outcomes, which would represent more than the PA education national average.

Benchmark: PAEA Didactic Curriculum Report 5, the most current PAEA survey related to didactic curriculum, and JPAE articles on disability curriculums were used to determine a working value for a national average in all of these areas.  Using this data, it was determined that education in cultural health factors, SUD, disabilities and SDoH is 28.3 hours nationally.

Data:

Goal 3: Recruit and train students with an interest in underserved populations to increase the likelihood of future practice with underserved populations

To meet this goal, CHA/PA created a key objective to recruit a greater number of PA students interested in practicing in medically underserved areas (MUAs) or with patients experiencing health disparities compared to the national average.

Benchmark: Using PAEA Student Report 3 we determined that the national mean from matriculating PA students related to the likelihood of working in a medically underserved area after graduation was 66%.

Data: From 2022 to 2025, the percentage of CHA/PA matriculants intending to work with patients in medically underserved areas has been high.  From 2022 to 2025, student intention to work with patients experiencing health disparities ranged from 78% to 100%.  

Goal 4: Recruit qualified applicants who are aligned with the primary care mission of the program and will practice in primary care after graduation

To graduate PAs with a mentality/aptitude toward primary care, it is essential to recruit at least 24% of a matriculating class with interest in primary care practice, which would mirror the national average of PA’s working in primary care.

Benchmark: The NCCPA’s Statistical Profile of Board Certified Physician Assistants Annual Report from 2022 shows that 23% of PAs work in primary care, which has remained stable for the last several years.  Using this data, we determined that we would aim for more than 24% of matriculated students expressing an intention to practice in primary care fields. 

Data: 

The CHA/PA Program’s second objective toward this goal is to graduate at least 24% of graduates (higher than the national average) who are interested in or end up practicing in primary care after graduation.  

To assess this objective, we reviewed our graduates’ employment setting to determine those graduate working in the NCCPA’s definition of primary care (family medicine/general practice, internal medicine and pediatrics)

Benchmark: The NCCPA’s Statistical Profile of Board Certified Physician Assistants Annual Report from 2022 shows that 23% of PAs work in primary care, which has remained stable for the last several years.  Using this data, we determined that we would aim for more than 24% of graduating students with employment in primary care domains.

Data:

Goal 5: Recruit qualified applicants who are interested in pediatrics and will practice in pediatrics after graduation.

To meet the recruitment objective, the CHA/PA Program will aim to recruit at least 50% of a cohort with an interest in pediatrics after graduation. 

Benchmark: Using PAEA Student Survey 5 and Student Survey 6, it was noted that nationally, 51.9% of matriculating students found pediatrics to be desirable for future practice.  We chose 50% as we would like to be on par or above the national average for recruitment of students who see pediatrics as a desirable future practice.

Data: 

 

The CHA/PA Program’s second objective toward this goal is to graduate 10% of students (higher than the national average) who practice in pediatrics after graduation.  

Benchmark: NCCPA’s 2021 Statistical Profile of Board-Certified PAs by State, which was published in 2023, indicates that only 1.8% of PA’s work in pediatrics.  As a program with expanded training in pediatrics, we aim to graduate more than the national average (goal is >10% of our class) who choose pediatrics for future employment.

Data: