The Physician Assistant Student's Guide to the Clinical Year: Behavioral Health: With Free Online Access!

“A lifesaver – not just for PA students, but for faculty and administrators trying our best to prepare them. Perfect for students to read and use on rotation.”

– James Van Rhee, MS, PA-C, DFAAPA, Program Director, Yale Physician Assistant Online Program

The first pocket-size resource to guide PA students through their behavioral health rotation

Prepare for and thrive during your clinical rotations with the quick-access pocket guide series, The Physician Assistant Student’s Guide to the Clinical Year. The Behavioral Health edition of this 7-volume series, discounted when purchased as a full set, delineates the exact duties required in this specialty.

Written by an experienced PA educator, this guide details the clinical approach to common presentations such as anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders. It also provides a systems-based approach to 40 of the most frequently encountered disorders you will see in this rotation, including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and personality disorders.

Distinguished by brief, bulleted content with handy tables and figures, the reference offers all pertinent psychiatric rating scales, screening tools, and diagnostic criteria needed to confirm a diagnosis. This guide also describes the urgent management techniques you will learn during the behavioral health rotation, including suicide risk assessment, management of delirium tremens, and use of restraints.

Key Features:

• Provides a pocket-size overview of the PA behavioral health rotation
• Describes common clinical presentations and mental health disorders
• Offers a step-by-step approach to diagnosis and treatment planning
• Includes clinical pearls throughout
• Reflects the 2019 NCCPA PANCE blueprint
• Includes two bonus digital chapters! Three guided case studies to reinforce clinical reasoning plus 25 rotation exam-style questions with remediating rationales
• Includes full digital access on Springerpub Connect

Other books in this series:

The Physician Assistant Student’s Guide to the Clinical Year:

• Family Medicine
• Internal Medicine
• Emergency Medicine
• Surgery
• OB-GYN
• Pediatrics

Jill Cavalet, DHSc, PA-C, is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Physician Assistant Department at Saint Francis University in Pennsylvania.

Maureen Knechtel, DMSc, PA-C, holds a Bachelor of Health Science and a Master of Physician Assistant Studies, as well as a Doctor of Medical Science with a focus in medical education. She has spent her clinical career as a physician assistant specializing in general cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology. She teaches electrocardiogram (EKG) recognition and interpretation to both physician assistants and nurse practitioners. Throughout her career, she has been a guest lecturer nationally and locally on topics including EKG interpretation, ischemic heart disease, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. Dr. Knechtel is a fellow member of the American Academy of Physician Assistants and the Tennessee Academy of Physician Assistants, and a Cardiovascular Team Member with the American College of Cardiology. She currently serves as academic coordinator and associate professor with the Milligan University Physician Assistant Program in northeast Tennessee.