THE LMU TAMPA PA PROGRAM STUDENT SOCIETY (LMU TAMPA-PASS)
The LMU-Tampa PA Program Student Society serves to promote academic achievement and clinical excellence, to advocate for PA students, to serve the community, and to advocate for the advancement of the PA profession. A student board will be elected at the end of the first semester, by the class, to include the minimum of a Class President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Social Coordinator and Diversity Belonging Chair. The class will also elect an AAPA student Academy Representative and a Florida Academy of PAs Student representative. The student society constitution and bylaws can be obtained by contacting the Appointed Faculty Advisor and the Program’s Administrative Coordinator.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF CLASS OFFICERS
President
This position requires a flexible, open-minded, and motivated person who possesses excellent time management skills. The main responsibility of the class President is to be a good communicator. The President represents the class at state and national meetings, helps with organizing projects and facilitates communication between the class, faculty, campus administrators and other professionals. This position also requires a person to be a team player, since most decisions that are made on behalf of the class are discussed with the Executive board (E-board) members and classmates.
The President will also serve as a liaison between students and faculty. The President will have the responsibility to coordinate schedule meetings with the faculty advisor and will have the responsible to relay announcement to the class when appropriate. Challenge Bowl for both FAPA/AAPA this is part of the PA Program requirements, and the President will assist in the coordination of these events.
The main role of the Vice President is to assist the President and other E-board members in all matters that pertain to class issues. The Vice President coordinates special student projects and organizes the new class orientation.
The class Secretary is responsible for keeping lecture notes, recording important dates for class events, creating a class email list and forwarding email announcements from faculty and staff to the class list, typing E-board meeting minutes, creating a “phone tree” for last-minute class announcements and organizing the PA Student Resource Room. The Secretary must be extremely organized and able to maintain a good working relationship with other class officers.
The class Treasurer is responsible for maintaining the class bank account, tax-free identification number and budget; collecting class dues; issuing checks for class functions; and arranging a representative to speak to your class regarding medical equipment in-service.
The Class Treasurer must have the ability to create Excel spreadsheets, balance a checking account, keep/manage a budget, and take a strong initiative to manage the budget and make reimbursements appropriately is required. The Treasurer also must have knowledge of (or willingness to learn) banking rules pertaining to clubs/organizations and appropriate (as outlined by the university) activities for your class to sponsor. This is by no means a time-consuming position once dues have been set, collected, and registered, and a budget determined.
The FAPA representative works closely with FAPA on a variety of levels. The FAPA Representative’s main duties are to attend FAPA meetings, vote on behalf of LMU-Tampa PA Program in the FAPA elections and update your classmates on current FAPA issues. FAPA meetings are usually held quarterly on a Saturday morning but occasionally have been scheduled bimonthly. Other optional duties are to provide newsletters to FAPA regarding your class activities and progress and assist in projects for the annual FAPA conference in October. The Representative will work closely with the Program Office for both FAPA and AAPA. The AAPA conference is to take place in May of the 2nd summer. The AOR or FAPA/AAPA Representative will need to attend the conference and all student activities. Will also help and support the quiz bowl team that will be participating the AAPA conference.
The Social Coordinators are responsible for planning fun activities to give classmates a reprieve from the stresses of PA student life. Examples of past years’ activities include a summer picnic for both Didactic Phase and Clinical Phase students, Halloween party, Christmas party, cohort mission trips, community service events and cohort projects.
The Social Coordinators will take pictures of class parties, outings, community service projects and other events. The Social Coordinators are also responsible for assembling a scrapbook at the culmination of the program, which can be entered in an annual AAPA contest. The Social Coordinator will also assist in the organization of blood pressure clinics or blood drives in the community and disseminating health information to the community.
COMMUNITY SERVICE REQUIREMENT {A3.01}
During the course of the student’s tenure in the PA Program, he/she will be required to complete a minimum of 16 hours of verified community service or volunteer work in the local community This community service will be completed as part of the clinical phase of the program.
It is the student’s responsibility to track these hours and report them to the designated faculty member for inclusion in the student’s professional file.
- Excel spreadsheet: calculate the total community service hours.
- Faculty advisor: monthly check-in
These community service hours may be coordinated by the LMU-Tampa Physician Assistant Student Society (PASS) organization for group participation or may be done individually.
- Complete service hours request from prior to completing service hours.
- Training should be provided before the activity if needed.
- Community service may include health and non-health services.
- Community health service is recommended.
The community service should be focused on meeting the medical needs of the local community or community improvement/activities, examples of service opportunities include hosting a medical screening event, volunteering in the medical tent of a charity run/walk event or blood drive, offering education or screenings to attendees of local senior centers. Status on the completion of service hours will be intermittently reported to faculty advisors to ensure that students have appropriate plans to complete required hours before the end of the program.