|  Duke
University is an accredited, private coeducational institution with
approximately 13,000 students. Formerly Trinity College, the university
was created in 1924 through an endowment from James Buchanan Duke,
a tobacco industrialist. The school was named in honor of his father,
Washington Duke. Today, Duke University includes the neo-Gothic
style West Campus, site of the magnificent Duke Chapel,
and the Georgian-style East Campus.
Duke University Medical Center includes Duke
University Hospital, the School of Medicine and the School
of Nursing. Graduate students in the Physician Assistant Program
have the full educational resources of the Medical Center available
to them including some 2,000 research and adjunct faculty and more
than 1,100 full-time faculty in the clinical departments. Duke University
Hospital is a teaching institution and is licensed for 924 beds.
The Seeley
G. Mudd Communication Center/Library in the Seeley G. Mudd building is a superb facility housing approximately 296,000 volumes, approximately 175 current print only subscriptions and 4,304 electronic journal titles, a reserve reading room, group and individual study rooms, a large central reference and periodicals area as well as a retrieval center for computerized medical information. Also within the medical center
are the Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Heart Center, the Center
for the Study of Aging and Human Development and the Eye Center.
Most classroom activities during the preclinical
phase of the program take place in the amphitheater and small group
rooms located in Hanes House. Laboratory sessions are held in the
Bell Building and research and teaching spaces adjacent to the hospital.
Selected small group meetings may occur in other rooms located in
the clinical areas of the hospital. During the clinical year, many student rotational
experiences are scheduled at Duke University Hospital and the adjacent
Durham
Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Some Durham
rotations also use Durham
Regional Hospital. To experience a range of clinical
practice, students are also scheduled for rotations in private community
practices, public health clinics and large and small community hospitals
located throughout North Carolina and the Southeast. All students
are asked to complete a minimum of two months of rotational assignments
in a medically underserved area. Duke University Medical Center, the focal point
of a thriving medical and intellectual community, has gained national
recognition as a top medical school and hospital. Leadership in
developing and administering highly specialized medical research
and treatment earned Duke its place of prominence. As the major
tertiary care center for the Southeast, it dominates research and
treatment in many medical specialties and draws patient referrals
from around the nation and the world. Today, in an era of managed care and rapidly changing
health care, the Medical Center is creating a new model of academic
medicine. The traditional model created in the early part of this
century is evolving into an entire system of health care. This system
is more socially relevant and more entrepreneurial in spirit; a
model that is more self-supporting and pragmatic while still placing
a high priority on core academic missions such as pure discovery
research. This new institution - Duke University Medical Center
and Health System - includes a regional network of Duke primary
care physicians; an affiliations program with numerous community
providers throughout the region; a home health agency; an international
program; and many other strategic relationships and programs. The Physician Assistant Program at Duke is part
of the Physician Assistant Division of the Department of Community
and Family Medicine. The Department provides family medicine services
to Duke employees, their families, students, and other residents
of Durham and surrounding communities. The Department of Community
and Family Medicine also includes a family practice residency for
physicians and a predoctoral education program for medical students
as well as the Divisions of Clinical Informatics, Community Health,
Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Physical Therapy Education,
Diet and Fitness, Prevention Research, and Student Health. While the quality of the educational experience
will certainly be a primary criterion for choosing an educational
institution, many students find the Triangle area of North Carolina
an unexpected bonus. Located in the central Piedmont of the state,
Durham is a short drive from the mountains and the Atlantic Ocean.
Duke maintains a championship golf course, tennis
courts, swimming pools, running trails and hiking paths. Four universities
(Duke, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Central University and North Carolina State University in Raleigh)
provide a lively array of cultural events. |
