MPAS Physician Assistant

The Physician Assistant program is a post-baccalaureate program, leading to a Master of Physician Assistant Studies degree (MPAS).

A Physician Assistant (PA) is a healthcare professional who is licensed to practice medicine under the supervision of a Doctor of medicine (MD) or Doctor of osteopathic medicine (DO) and can exercise delegated autonomy in decision-making. Physician Assistants can make clinical decisions and provide a variety of diagnostic, therapeutic, preventive, and health maintenance services to patients.

The CMU PA program offers a student-centered curriculum that has a unique emphasis on training compassionate and competent PAs to be ambassadors of wellness in their careers and communities. Our program places emphasis on wellness promotion and disease prevention for the individual patient and the community. The program is a rigorous 27-month, full-time on campus program consisting of 112 credits. The CMU PA Program curriculum is designed to educate clinicians with the knowledge and skills to be agents of excellence and innovation in the delivery of quality healthcare to the communities of Western Colorado and beyond.

To become a certified PA following completion of a Master's program, you must pass the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE).

Important information for this program:

All CMU masters-level graduates are expected to demonstrate proficiency in specialized knowledge/applied learning, quantitative fluency, communication fluency, critical thinking, information literacy, and ethical reasoning. In addition to these campus-wide student learning outcomes, a graduate of this program will be able to: