Message from Program Director
NYU Winthrop Hospital, a 593 bed teaching hospital affiliated with Stony Brook University School of Medicine, is pleased to offer the well qualified Physician Assistant a post-graduate opportunity in the growing field of surgical critical care. The twelve month, rigorous program has been designed to provide the Physician Assistant the advanced knowledge and technical skills necessary to provide an evidence based approach to the management and care of patients with critical illness and injury. Critical care medicine is practiced using a multidisciplinary team approach consisting of board certified Critical Care Intensivists, Attending Physicians and a well seasoned team of Physician Assistants in the fields of Cardiothoracic, General, Trauma and Neurosurgery. Combined with the knowledge and experience of Critical Care Nurses, Respiratory and Physical Therapists, Dieticians and Social Workers, the educational experience will be truly interdisciplinary and well-rounded. Formal lectures and small group discussions will set the foundation for broad based learning and clinical insight, while hands-on procedural training will provide the technical skills necessary to practice with competence and confidence in the field of surgical critical care. The standards of care embedded at NYU Winthrop Hospital are unsurpassed. Practicing “good” medicine is much more than the day to day clinical management of patients. Entrenched within the twelve months of residency, the moral obligation we have to our patients and to their families will be re-enforced. Respect, compassion, a patient’s right to privacy and a cognizance of cultural sensitivity are paramount to, and an integral part of, the healing process. The goal of this Residency program is to train the Physician Assistant to be an extraordinary practitioner in the field of surgical critical care medicine. It is through the interface of teaching, intense clinical training, ethical awareness, and a strong dedication to the Physician Assistant profession that this can be accomplished.
Introduction and Philosophy
In response to a projected shortage of critical care clinicians as stated by the Committee on Manpower for Pulmonary and Critical Care Societies (COMPACCS) and fostered by the exemplary model of the Physician/PA critical care team which has been applied successfully in critical care settings across the nation, and in particular, at NYU Winthrop Hospital, a postgraduate Critical Care Residency is being offered to candidates who meet the competitive application criteria and who are able to meet the physical and cerebral demands of a critical care environment. The program will enhance the fundamental concepts of critical care medicine learned in a PA Program and further foster ones knowledge of patient care, evidence based medical knowledge, research principles, systems based medicine, and communication among the healthcare team, patients and their families.
Program Requirements
Interested applicants must fulfill the following prerequisites:
- Graduation from an ARC-PA accredited Physician Assistant education program.
- Successful completion of the NCCPA Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination and current NCCPA certification
- Possess a valid New York State License to practice as a Physician Assistant
- Current BLS/ACLS certification
- Submission of a completed application including 3 letters of recommendation from preceptors, supervising Physician Assistants or Attending doctors. One letter must be from the applicant’s school program Director if the applicant is a new graduate.
- Recent Curriculum Vitae
Program At A Glance
The program consists of 12 months of intensive training in the sub-specialties of Trauma, Cardiothoracic Surgery, General Surgery, and Neuro-Surgery critical care. Training is I.C.U. based and encompasses a multi-disciplinary team of health care professionals. Patients on each of these units are managed 24/7 by physician/PA teams whom you will regularly interact with. The faculty consists of renowned and well respected Critical Care Intensivists, Traumatologists, Neurosurgeons, Neurologists, Cardiothoracic Surgeons, Cardiologists and PA’s. Formal lectures will be provided throughout the program year; however, the majority of didactic learning comes from small group discussions and interaction with surgeons, critical care intensivists, teams of highly seasoned Physician Assistants and other members of the health care team. Additional lectures offered by other hospital departments will be attended at the discretion of the program director.
The Physician Assistant will be involved in all phases of patient care including emergency department evaluation, admission orders, History and Physical evaluation, daily progress notes, morning and evening rounds, morbidity and mortality conference and all preoperative and post-operative intervention and management. In addition, the Physician Assistant will be responsible for case presentations and writing a paper on the topic of his or her choice as it pertains to surgical critical care. A daily log will also be kept for review by the Program Director to ensure the Physician Assistant is gaining the knowledge and experience necessary to be a successful practitioner in the field of surgical critical care.
Technical skills will also be taught and perfected throughout the program year. The Physician Assistant will become proficient performing a vast array of invasive procedures, including, but not limited to, central line placement, arterial catheter placement, chest tube placement and Swan-Ganz catheter placement. In order to maximize the clinical experience, the Physician Assistant will work rotating hours to a maximum average of 60 hours/week, and during his/her training, will be paired with at least one or more experienced P.A.’s
