As the demand for healthcare outpaces the supply of doctors in rural areas nationwide, physician assistants are increasingly the ones filling the gap. For the communities that depend on physician assistants to meet their primary care needs, PAs provide similar medical services to doctors, often at a lower cost.
At the same time, the number of physician assistants in America is growing, as wages rise with demand and the number of training programs grows.
Now, an expansion of the University of Missouri system’s physician assistant program will bring those students into mid-Missouri. A satellite campus of UMKC’s program, a new school at the University of Missouri in Columbia welcomed 10 students this month.
Eric Johnson, who directs the UMKC program, said the Columbia addition will help address the shortage of healthcare providers in rural parts of mid-Missouri.
“The program has a focus on the underserved … and so currently from the Kansas City standpoint, we have a more urban underserved focus,” he said. “As we expand into Columbia, we want to look at the underserved population in rural Missouri, and use Columbia as a springboard.”
The program intends to hire four new faculty for the Columbia location. Students at both campuses will split their in-class time between in-person lectures at their campus, and online lectures from faculty at the other campus. Clinical training will occur through MU Healthcare facilities, though Johnson said the program may partner with more rural clinics in the future.
Johnson said a public physician assistant program in Columbia will help bring in more students from small mid-Missouri communities, who are more likely to stay and work in rural parts of the state.
“The data shows that where students have grown up is where they tend to try to go back to practice,” he said. “So taking students into your program that are from Missouri is really an initial step in the right direction for providing care for rural patients.”
In 2028, the program plans to expand its enrollment to 20 students a year, doubling the number of physician assistant students in the UM system.
