Section 1400.220  Clinical Rotations

a)         Applicants shall complete a full-time practicum of 14 months supervised clinical training, including a research project.  During the clinical rotation program, students shall complete rotations in the following areas:

1)         Emergency Medicine;

2)         Family Medicine;

3)         Geriatrics;

4)         Internal Medicine;

5)         Obstetrics and Gynecology;

6)         Pediatrics;

7)         Psychiatry;

8)         Surgery; and

9)         One elective of the program participant's choice.  (Section 4.2(a)(2)(C) of the Act)

b)         The clinical rotation training shall be completed either within the parameters of an American Psychological Association (APA) or equivalent approved doctoral program or pre-doctoral program, or during a post-doctoral master's program in clinical psychopharmacology.  The training program must be housed in an institution that is accredited by a regional accrediting body recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.  The clinical rotation program shall meet the following requirements:

1)         All program faculty and preceptors must hold an active physician and surgeon, advanced practice nurse, or prescribing psychologist license.  Program faculty and preceptors must be sufficient in number and be qualified through academic and clinical experience to provide enrolled participants with sufficient attention, instruction and supervised practice experiences necessary to acquire the knowledge and competencies required to meet the objectives of the program. 

2)         A program must have access to adequate labs and clinical medical rotation sites for participants.  A program must assure that clinical support services, including pharmacy, clinical laboratory and diagnostic imaging, are readily available to participants on clinical rotations.  Clinical support staff must be available in numbers sufficient that participants are not expected to serve as replacements for staff.

3)         In order to be considered a full-time practicum, the program must require a minimum of 20 clock-hours of rotations per week and require all 36 credits of rotations to be completed within a minimum of 14 months and maximum of 28 months after the participant begins rotations.  To earn 36 hours of clinical rotation training credits, a participant must complete a minimum of 1,620 clock-hours of clinical rotation training. 

4)         The program must provide participants with experience in progressive responsibilities for patient management.  Participants must be provided the opportunity to observe and demonstrate competence in skills necessary for the pharmacological assessment and treatment of mental disorders within a medical setting under supervision of a physician, advanced practice nurse or prescribing psychologist. 

5)         The program must assure that the volume and variety of clinical experiences provides for a sufficient number and distribution of appropriate experiences/cases for each participant to meet defined program expectations.  Clinical rotations may be held in hospitals, medical centers, health care facilities located at federal and State prisons, hospital outpatient clinics, community mental health clinics, patient-centered medical homes or family-centered medical homes, women's medical health centers, and Federally Qualified Health Centers; (Section 4.2(a)(2)(C) of the Act).  The program must coordinate clinical sites and preceptors for program required rotations.

6)         Program participants must be clearly identified as such to distinguish them from physicians, medical residents, APNs, prescribing psychologists, and other health care professionals and residents.

7)         The program must conduct periodic, objective and documented formative evaluations of participants to assess their acquisition of knowledge, problem-solving skills and clinical competencies.

8)         The program must define and maintain consistent and effective processes for the initial and ongoing evaluation of all sites and preceptors used for participants' clinical practice experiences. 

c)         The clinical training must meet the standards for:

1)         physician assistant education as defined by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant;

2)         advanced practice nurse education as defined by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education for the Advanced Nurse Practitioner or the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing for the Advanced Nurse Practitioner; or

3)         medical education as defined by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. (Section 4.2(a)(1)(C) of the Act)

d)         The Division hereby incorporates by reference the ARC-PA Standards for Physician Assistant Education, 5^th edition (with clarifications as of September 2023), the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant, 12000 Findley Road, Suite 275, Johns Creek GA  30097, September 2020, with clarifications 11/2019, 9/2020, 3/2021, 3/2022, 9/2022, 3/2023 & 9/2023, with no later amendments or editions.

(Source:  Amended at 48 Ill. Reg. 12770, effective August 9, 2024)