Clinical

Yale Physician Associate students complete their clinical rotations in a variety of venues. Inpatient settings include tertiary care hospitals, community hospitals and long-term care facilities in the State of Connecticut. Outpatient experiences occur at community health centers, university clinics, urgent care centers, and private practice settings. The majority of rotations are completed in the State of Connecticut, although some mandatory and elective experiences are available out of state and vary based on availability and area of interest.

Institutions such as Yale New Haven Hospital (York Street and St. Raphael campuses), Yale Health, and the Nathan Smith Clinic are within the city limits of New Haven. Clerkship sites within commuting distance of New Haven include: VAMC West Haven, Bridgeport Hospital, Greenwich Hospital, Lawrence and Memorial Hospital, Hartford Hospital, Bristol Hospital, St. Francis Hospital, Norwalk Hospital, Northeast Medical Group Clinics (NEMG) and private practices around the state.

• Branford
• Bridgeport
• Bristol
• Greenwich
• Hartford
• Middletown
• Milford
• New Haven
• New London
• Orange
• Stamford
• Trumbull
• Waterbury
• West Haven
• West Hartford
• Westerly, RI

PA program faculty will recruit clinical rotation sites and preceptors and will assign students to both mandatory and elective rotation sites as appropriate. Students may provide suggestions to clinical faculty for clinical sites or preceptors, but are not required to do so. Suggested sites or preceptors may only be vetted by program faculty.

The majority of the clinical preceptors within the Yale New Haven Health System are full time, ladder faculty or have voluntary faculty appointments with the Yale School of Medicine. Some sites afford students the opportunity to work with teams of medical staff including medical students while others provide one-to-one precepting by a physician or physician assistant.

Participation in global health electives allow PA students to work with diverse patient populations, develop cross-cultural understanding, reflect on ethical aspects of global health learning, and explore health systems and approaches to medical care in other nations as well as domestically. Yale University and the Yale School of Medicine has a long tradition of supporting students in global health learning.

The Yale Physician Associate Program has offered students the opportunity to complete a 4-week global health clinical rotation elective since 2007. These experiences not only prepare PA students to learn medicine with diverse patient populations but also expose students to different cultures, communities and languages. PA students often learn alongside local trainees under the mentorship of clinical preceptors with long standing partnerships with our PA program. These experiences can be transformative.

A global health elective experience is merit-based, and placements are made via an application process and multidisciplinary committee review. PA students must be in good academic standing in order to be eligible for this international elective. Participation in a global health elective requires students to be prepared for a safe experience prior to and during travel abroad: https://your.yale.edu/work-yale/campus-services/travel/international-travel.

To support the traveling PA student, Yale provides a generous stipend to offset some of the travel related costs. Personal protective equipment and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) medications are provided for those traveling to HIV endemic areas. Travel evacuation insurance is provided at no cost to the student. Current global health elective sites are located in La Push, Washington; Gallup, New Mexico; Córdoba, Argentina; and Kampala, Uganda.

Limited opportunities for elective clinical year rotations are available at the Yale New Haven Hospital for students from outside PA programs. Preference will be given to Connecticut based PA programs. For students interested in pursuing an elective rotation in the Yale New Haven Hospital, the clinical coordinator at the visiting student’s program must email the Director of Clinical Education, Alicia Bolden: alicia.bolden@yale.edu , with the inquiry. If an appropriate clinical rotation and preceptor is available, the student/program will be asked to complete the Yale PA Visiting Student Application. Contact from the program’s clinical coordinator to the Yale DCE must precede submitting the application. Potential students and programs should not directly contact Yale New Haven Hospital preceptors or arrange rotations independently. Potential visiting students should not be the first point of contact with the Yale PA Program.

All requests will be considered on a rolling, first-come, first-served availability. All applications are due 90 days prior to the start of the requested block. Visiting student rotations are confirmed once availability is determined and no sooner than 90 days prior to start of the rotation.

Confirmed rotations must meet the following:

• Students must be in good academic & professional standing and enrolled in the clinical phase of an ARC-PA accredited PA Program.
• Students must have successfully completed all preclinical course requirements before being admitted to a clinical rotation.
• Signed Yale PA Visiting Student Affiliation Agreement prior to the rotation start.
• An administrative fee of $200 will be applied once a student is successfully placed on a visiting student rotation.