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About

Our PA program will fulfill an important gap in healthcare delivery, graduating well-prepared, highly competent PAs to meet the needs of the Los Angeles community.

How We Train Effective & Resourceful Physician Assistants

The PA program is designed to meet the challenges in the medical field today. We focus on both providing you with a robust medical education, but also teach you how to adapt effectively in a modern, integrated healthcare system. You’ll learn how to communicate and collaborate effectively with physicians, interact ethically and compassionately with patients and their loved ones, and work to drive new insight in the field through research. Our program emphasizes working with diverse populations and encourages you to keep learning throughout your medical career. Our faculty and leadership are here to not only prepare you for licensure, but to inspire you to become an exemplary medical professional.

Our History of Success

Touro has a long history of providing exceptional PA education over the past 5 decades, and we’ve graduated thousands of PAs who bring their insight and knowledge into the medical field. Our students consistently have high PANCE pass rates, with our percentage of candidates who pass PANCE close to or at 100%, and low annual attrition rates.

Meet the Director

Joanne DePrisco

Joanne DePrisco, MS, PA-C

Program Director, Assistant Professor

Welcome to the Touro University California-Los Angeles Physician Assistant Program. This program is a part of the larger Touro College and University System, which has a long history of educating Physician Assistants since 1972. Touro is a private institution of higher learning and professional education founded by Dr. Bernard Lander in 1970.  

The program provides a 28-month rigorous academic and clinical education with a focus on contribution to the underserved communities of the Los Angeles area. The campus is hospital-based and located at Mission Community Hospital in Panorama City. Our goal is to foster ethical and humanistic values, critical thinking, leadership skills and service to society through health promotion and disease prevention. A Master of Science in Physician Assistant studies will be granted upon successful completion of the program.

Touro University California-Los Angeles PA program has applied for Accreditation-Provisional from the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA). Pending approval at the June 2024 ARC-PA meeting we hope to matriculate our first class in January 2025.

I thank you for your interest in the Touro University California-Los Angeles PA Program and wish you much success in your career pursuits.

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Mission Statement

The mission of the Physician Assistant Programs is to educate capable students from diverse backgrounds to meet the challenges of practicing medicine in collaboration with physicians and other members of the health care team. The curricula are formulated to sensitize the student to diverse populations and the complexities of healthcare delivery that influence patients and their families. Students engage in community service to foster effective communication, compassion, and dedication. We encourage research and create life-long learners trained to utilize evidence to deliver safe, effective patient-centered care to patients and their communities.

Goals

  1. Recruit capable applicants for PA education who will provide healthcare services as part of the healthcare team 
  2. Deliver a quality educational experience that provides students with knowledge and skills for employment and entry into clinical practice
  3. Engage all students in community outreach activity to foster community service
  4. Encourage and prepare graduates to work with patients from diverse populations
  5. Foster research and the application of evidence-based scientific information to improve patient-centered care and promote lifelong learning
  6. Provide students with the requisite knowledge to pass the PANCE and have a Five Year First Time Taker average PANCE pass rate that is within 5% of the national average

The program’s success in achieving these goals will be published following the graduation of the first cohort of students.
Survey ratings reported are on a scale from 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.
The program benchmark for meeting these goals is > 3.5.

Outcomes

Program data indicators to assess outcomes are listed below.

  1. Recruit capable applicants for PA education who will provide healthcare services as part of the healthcare team
    1. Incoming overall and science GPAs
    2. Preceptor end of rotation student evaluations
    3. Student exit survey
  2. Deliver a quality educational experience that provides students with knowledge and skills for employment and entry into clinical practice
    1. Student evaluation of courses and instructors
    2. Student exit and graduate surveys
    3. Preceptor rating of student’s preparedness for entry into clinical practice
    4. Preceptor rating of student’s performance in clinical skills
  3. Engage all students in community outreach activity to foster community service
    1. Student participation in community outreach
  4. Encourage and prepare graduates to work with patients from diverse populations
    1. Exit and graduate surveys
    2. Preceptors rating of students interpersonal and communication skills
  5. Foster research and the use of scientific information to improve patient-centered care and life-long learning
    1. Student evaluation of courses and instructors
    2. Student exit and graduate surveys
  6. Provide students with the requisite knowledge to pass the PANCE
    1. Program Five Year First Time Taker average PANCE
    2. Exit and graduate surveys

Accreditation

The Touro University California-Los Angeles PA Program is seeking Accreditation-Provisional designation from the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA). The Program anticipates matriculating its first class in January 2025, pending achieving Accreditation-Provisional status at the June 2024 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.

The program will not commence if provisional accreditation is not received from ARC-PA.

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