Brescia University started a feasibility study more than a year ago to examine the statewide shortage of healthcare workers and began developing a Physicians Assistant (PA) program at the school. According to BU, there are currently no PA programs in Western Kentucky, and only 3 in the state.

The need for physician assistants is projected to grow by 28 percent through 2031 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Brescia received startup funding from HealthForce Kentucky to support the new PA program. HealthForce Kentucky is an effort to inspire careers in health care by providing wider access to the highest levels of instruction and technology. The collaboration involves 9 colleges and universities along with numerous school districts across 16 counties in Western Kentucky.

The proposed Physician Assistant degree program for Owensboro, Daviess County, and this region of Kentucky is a groundbreaking advancement in health care quality and access, said Bart Darrell, Chancellor of HealthForce Kentucky. There is an abundance of talent within our region. HealthForce Kentucky will partner on initiatives like this first-ever Physician Assistant program in Owensboro, to ensure that we keep as many of our best and brightest at home so that the region offers a broad range of health care with quality second to none.

The University is currently conducting a national search for a PA program director and is pursuing provisional accreditation, a status granted to new PA programs, from the Accreditation Review Council for Physician Assistants (ARC-PA).Brescia will be able to accept students during the provisional status.

Education consists of classroom and laboratory instruction in the basic medical and behavioral sciences (such as anatomy, pharmacology, pathophysiology, clinical medicine, and physical diagnosis), followed by clinical rotations in internal medicine, family medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, emergency medicine, and geriatric medicine.

The PA program has an anticipated length of 27 months, with the hope to accept the first cohort of students in Spring 2026. Brescia will work closely with Owensboro Health for clinical site rotations and staffing.

The path to accreditation will be necessarily tough, but we are up for the challenge, said BU Executive Vice President Lauren McCrary, Ed.D. We hope to get on the first available slot of the accreditors in summer 2025 and start accepting students soon after the site visit. That gives us about a year and a half to get ready. Our next step is to work to get a program director hired as soon as possible to start developing the program.

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BU working to add master's level Physicians Assistant program - The Owensboro Times