Physician assistants are mid-level health care providers who can perform many of the same functions as doctors. They conduct physical exams and order lab tests, write prescriptions and diagnose and treat illnesses.
They work under the general supervision of a doctor, who may be in a different location.
One of today's graduates, Katie Copps-Wilson, 35, will be the primary care provider at a community health center in Naknek in the northeastern end of Bristol Bay. Her main supervising doctor will be in Sitka.
Copps-Wilson and her cohorts are expected to help tackle a big problem not only for Alaska but across the country: a persistent shortage of primary health care providers, including doctors, advanced nurse practitioners and PAs. Such providers are especially scarce in rural Alaska.
Alaska's PA program started in 2009 and is a collaboration of the University of Washington and UAA.
The first graduates get their physician assistant certificates in a ceremony beginning at 2:30 p.m. in the Wendy Williamson auditorium.
The graduates earn their PA certificates from the UW School of Medicine. They can get bachelor's degrees from either UW or UAA, said Ruth Ballweg, director of MEDEX Northwest, the UW physician assistant program.
The students spend their first six weeks in Seattle, then return to Alaska. Their first year consists of instruction; the second year they fan out into doctor's offices, clinics and hospitals across the state to gain clinical experience.
All students came to the PA program with significant prior experience in medicine, such as work as health aides, medics and certified medical assistants.
Copps-Wilson was a health aide in Levelock in the Bristol Bay region.
Brad Newhart, 28, was an Army medic, with an emergency medical background. "I don't get freaked out easily," he said.
Jenny Davis, 30, who is the class president, was a certified medical assistant at an orthopedic office for six years.
That kind of prior experience is a prerequisite for getting into the Alaska PA school. That allows the PA program to turn out graduates in just two years, with a target of about 20 per year.
The graduates can expect starting pay of about $85,000, said Ballweg. It costs about $40,000 to get through Alaska's PA program, she said.
Karen Perdue, former head of the state Department of Health and Social Services and current president and CEO of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association, said over time the physician assistant graduates will make a dent in a state shortage of primary care providers.
"If we were to keep at it every year, 15 to 20 a year, in five years that's a hundred new grads," Perdue said. "That would be very impactful."
The Alaska Department of Labor, in a report this month on the state's health care industry, projected a need for 177 more physician assistants by 2018.
The PA graduates, said John Riley, Alaska director of Medex Northwest, will work in community health centers, the tribal health systems, the Alaska Department of Corrections and the private offices.
The students were admitted to the PA program because of their interest in primary care, and in extending care to under-served Alaskans, said Riley.
"Our intention with this class is to grow our own Alaska health care providers and get them to the areas of highest need," he said.
Reach Rosemary Shinohara at rshinohara@adn.com or 257-4340.
Important warning about e-mails purporting to be from the adn.com staff.