PA Students Put Tennessee First

A new generation of Physician Assistants trained at UT Health Sciences are heading toward the communities that need them most.

The bus pulled out of Memphis before sunrise. A few students dozed in the early dark, heads tilted toward windows as the highway unspooled west to east. In the quiet, a voice carried from the front.

"What are you doing?"

Another student had cracked open his notes before dawn. "I mean, I'm not behind," he says, "but if I'm not ahead, I'm behind."

"If you're not first, you're last?" the student up front calls back. "Isn't that from Talladega Nights?"

Laughter rolled down the aisle. By the time the bus reached Nashville, the large group of tight-knit first-year physician assistant (PA) students from the University of Tennessee Health Sciences were ready to stretch their legs with a short walk through the city to the Tennessee State Capitol. They were ready to take in the environment and connect with their legislators face-to-face.

A Profession Built on Access

PAs diagnose illness, develop and manage treatment plans, and often serve as a patient's principal healthcare provider. They practice in every medical specialty, and in rural and underserved communities, a PA is frequently the only clinician within 50 miles.

Expanding their reach requires more than clinical skill. It requires visibility, and that's part of what brings UT Health Sciences PA students to Nashville each year. PA Day on the Hill gives them a firsthand look at how healthcare policy shapes who gets care and where, and it introduces the people writing those policies to the next generation of providers who will deliver it.

"The crux of everything is access," says Assistant Professor Natalie Stafford, PA-C, who teaches the PA profession course and organizes the trip. She participated in a similar experience in Texas and wanted every student in Memphis to have the same opportunity.

Stafford is involved with the Tennessee Academy of PAs, the state's professional organization for PAs, and treats civic engagement as part of the job description from day one.

"When you're in practice for a while, you can get a little pessimistic," she says. "These students have energy. They care so much about patients having access."

Before her students walked through the legislative corridors, she told them simply, "You're going to do important things today, and in practice."

During the latest PA Day on the Hill at the State Capitol in Nashville, Chancellor Peter Buckley, MD, met up with UT Health Sciences PA students and professors on the steps of the Capitol building to support their efforts.

Made for Tennessee, Growing Fast

The UT Health Sciences PA program welcomed its first class 12 years ago. Now, each January, it launches a cohort of 30 students, who move through the 24-month curriculum at a demanding pace, blending classroom medicine with early hands-on experience at community sites across Memphis.

One of those sites is a free clinic serving uninsured patients, supported by faculty including Associate Professor Evan Ward, PA-C. Students rotate through the Wellness & Stress Clinic of Memphis, practicing patient interactions and clinical reasoning where the stakes are genuine.

"We don't get to see what a perfectly healthy person looks like on a test," says first-year student Hunter Moeschle, who grew up in the Memphis area and attended Mississippi State University. "We get to see real people, people who are navigating a system that hasn't always made room for them."

By design, UT Health Sciences produces graduates who often practice where the need is highest, and the program's cost compares favorably to private PA programs nationally, making the profession accessible to students who might otherwise be priced out of it.

The forthcoming College of Medicine Interdisciplinary Building will expand simulation and collaborative space alongside nursing, dentistry and the health professions. It poses a meaningful next chapter for the program's infrastructure and reach.

At PA Day on the Hill, UT Health Sciences students Hunter Moeschle and Tanvi Patel discussed their future profession and plans to serve rural Tennessee upon graduating.

Going Home to Pigeon Forge

Tanvi Patel grew up in Pigeon Forge, tucked into the mountains of East Tennessee, watching her parents build a life from scratch after immigrating from India. They worked two jobs. Her grandmother moved in. By age 10, Patel was navigating medical appointments for her, translating clinical jargon, coordinating chronic care for hypertension and diabetes, and advocating for someone who couldn't necessarily advocate for herself.

"I should say it felt like an obligation," she says, laughing a little. "But I realized I actually enjoyed it. And eventually, I was like, wait, I really enjoy this."

She applied to PA school four times over four years, spending thousands of dollars on application fees and surviving cycles of rejection before UT Health Sciences called. The program director asked whether she had any plans for January. She knew what that meant.

Between applications, Patel worked in general surgery at UT Medical Center during her undergraduate studies at UT Knoxville, graduating in 2021. She then moved to Durham, North Carolina, for a position as a certified nursing assistant in general surgery at Duke University. From there, she gained experience in pediatric urgent care, dermatology surgery, and oncology and hematology. By the time she arrived in Memphis, her clinical foundation was formidable, and the match felt immediate. "When I got here on campus," she says, "I just felt like this was home."

For PA Day on the Hill, she met with the representative from her home district. "It's about being seen, making sure people know what PAs can do," she says.

"I do want to go back home," she adds about her post-graduation plans. "Pigeon Forge needs providers who know the community."

Longer term, she sees herself working with nonprofit organizations that address care gaps in underserved areas, a vision formed partly by visits to India, where she has watched patients wait for hours without knowing what medications they receive or why. "You can be better," she says. "And if you have a way of doing that, you want to do that."

The Backbone of Rural Care

Hunter Moeschle didn't necessarily picture himself as a PA. He started at Mississippi State studying kinesiology, considering his mother's path into physical therapy. As he weighed options, he realized he wanted agency in a patient's care, immediacy and flexibility.

"What's really neat about being a PA," he says, "is you can go anywhere with it. If I want to work in pediatrics for 10 years and then move to a new state and switch specialties, I can adapt to whatever that community needs most."

Adaptability speaks directly to the rural care challenge. Moeschle spent four years in rural Mississippi before enrolling at UT Health Sciences, shadowing clinicians and watching nurse practitioners serve as the only providers for entire communities.

"A PA isn't just someone who helps the doctor," he says. "In a rural community, they're the backbone of the patient's access to care."

He also talks about trust, the way a small town operates on relationships, and how a PA who shows up consistently, knows patients by name and manages their conditions, earns something no credential can manufacture. "Once they spend time with us and we build that relationship, that's where we really shine."

Moeschle added the PA cohort is like a melting pot of knowledge. "We all kind of help each other out. It's a 'no person left behind' type of mentality."

Throughout the day, students spoke with their legislators including State Senator Paul Rose, who represents the counties of Tipton, Lauderdale and parts of Shelby.

The Right People in the Right Places

College of Medicine Executive Dean Michael Hocker, MD, sees the PA program as central to both the university mission and Tennessee's healthcare.

"The need in this state is not abstract," Dr. Hocker says. "Our rural communities face real shortages of providers, and our PA graduates can step directly into those gaps. Physicians and PAs working together, that's what meaningful access to care looks like in practice. This program produces the right people and sends them to the right places, and we intend to keep building on that."

By midday in Nashville, the group had fanned out through Capitol floors and in offices. Some met representatives from rural districts who had never spoken with a PA student before. Others had the chance to explain in person what the profession actually involves, that a PA diagnoses and treats, manages complex chronic conditions and serves as a primary care provider in communities a physician may never reach.

Professor Stafford watched her students move through these conversations with poise, explaining their stories and the profession to people who maybe hadn't thought much about it.

The bus ride home was quieter. (After the impromptu karaoke session.) Snacks and stories surfaced. A few more students dozed. Some shared study aids created that morning.

Throughout Tennessee, communities were waiting for these passengers.

This story is featured in the first edition of Health Sciences Magazine, coming this summer.