Clinical Year Details
Prior to entering their clinical rotations, students complete a rigorous didactic education designed to ensure exceptional preparation for their clinical year and beyond. This includes coursework in clinical medicine, patient assessment, procedures, pharmacology, pathophysiology, ethics, cultural humility and professional practice.
The 12-month clinical year builds on this foundation with supervised clinical education experiences in ambulatory, inpatient, emergency, and surgical settings. Students also experience a variety of practice settings including rural, inner city, and medically underserved communities.
Required clinical rotations include:
- Family Medicine
- Internal Medicine
- Emergency Medicine
- General Surgery
- Pediatrics
- Women’s Health
- Behavioral Health
During each rotation, students apply the body of knowledge and clinical skills specific to that specialty as well as how it fits within the framework of the healthcare team. The focus in all clinical experiences is medical care across the lifespan as students gain exposure to pregnancy, infants, children, adolescents, adults, and elderly patients.
With the guidance and supervision of PAs, physicians and other qualified preceptors, students gain higher levels of clinical skill and confidence.
Throughout the clinical training, students assume responsibility for:
- Their education
- Competent, compassionate practice of patient care
- Functioning as a team member
- Adjusting to change in the healthcare system
- Practice of evidence-based medicine
- Becoming life-long learners
General Objectives
Each required rotation has a set of defined learning objectives which are provided for the preceptors and students in a rotation manual. (Link to or have a “see forms” XXX). Specific rotation expectations with minimum diagnoses exposures are outlined out in the rotation manual under Instructional Objectives. These expectations are not meant to be all-inclusive but rather form a matrix of minimum exposure with which the student must be familiar or have completed during the clinical year.
Rotation Details
- Length: Most rotations are 5 weeks
- Timing: Clinical year begins in 2028
- Locations: Across the U.S.
Physician Associate students are not required to provide or solicit clinical sites or preceptors.
Rotation Logistics
- Rotation Opportunities: Starting January 2028.
- Rotation Length: ~5 weeks per discipline
- Scheduling: Built around provider availability
- Documentation: All forms and evaluation tools provided by OBU
- Preceptor Expectations: OBU’s clinical team handles logistics, onboarding, and evaluations. Learn more about your responsibilities as a preceptor.
Become a Preceptor
Accreditation Information
Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA)
Oklahoma Baptist University’s (OBU) PA Program has applied for Accreditation - Provisional from the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA). OBU’s PA Program anticipates matriculating its first class in January 2027, pending achieving Accreditation - Provisional status at the October 2026 ARC-PA meeting. Accreditation - Provisional is an accreditation status granted when the plans and resource allocation, if fully implemented as planned, of a proposed program that has not yet enrolled students appear to demonstrate the program’s ability to meet the ARC-PA Standards or when a program holding Accreditation-Provisional status appears to demonstrate continued progress in complying with the Standards as it prepares for the graduation of the first class (cohort) of students. If the Accreditation – Provisional status is not granted by the ARC-PA in October 2026, the first cohort will not matriculate in January 2027 as planned.