Saskatoon340 people applied for the 20 seats in U of S’s inaugural Master’s Physician Assistant Studies program – the first such program in Saskatchewan.340 people applied for 20 seats in master’s program for physician assistant studiesKatie Swyers · CBC News · Posted: Sep 09, 2025 10:36 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours agoThe 20 students in the University of Saskatchewan’s inaugural master’s program for physician assistant studies had their stethoscope ceremony on Tuesday. (Don Somers/CBC)Officials hope a new University of Saskatchewan program to train physician assistants will help ease the burden on doctors in the province. The first class in the school’s master’s of physician assistant studies program had their stethoscope ceremony — welcoming students to the start of the program — on Tuesday.It’s the first program to train physician assistants in Saskatchewan. Previously, those interested in the profession had to leave the province to receive training. There were 350 applicants for 20 seats in the program.Physician assistants help “extend what a physician can do,” said Dr. Sarah Forgie, the U of Saskatchewan’s dean of medicine.That can be through things like doing the first part of a physical examination with a patient or checking labs and reporting the results to doctors, she said. It’s still a fairly new profession, said Ashley Millham, a registered physician assistant and one of the professors with the program.”There’s not a lot of PAs. We’re still a growing profession of only about 1,000 across the country,” Millham said.Saskatchewan licensed physician assistants to practise in 2023, allocating over $1 million for 12 physician assistant positions at the time. The province is the only jurisdiction that allows physician assistants to handle both clinical and teaching roles, said Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill.Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Advanced Education put $7.1 million toward establishing the U of S program, which was promised in the 2025-26 provincial budget. Minister of Advanced Education Ken Cheveldayoff said the program is part of the province’s “broader commitment to strengthen Saskatchewan’s health workforce through a homegrown approach,” with about 75 per cent of the students coming from Saskatchewan.The U of S program requires applicants to be either Canadian citizens or permanent residents in order to apply.Cheveldayoff said the program has been in talks for years. Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill says having a physician assistant program in Saskatchewan will help with recruitment. (Don Somers/CBC)Cockrill said it’s part of a wider effort to shore up staffing and alleviate pressures on the health-care system in Saskatchewan. The province has been struggling with staffing shortages in various health-care jobs, with roughly 1,600 positions open across Saskatchewan currently, according to the province’s database. Several rural emergency rooms were forced to close temporarily earlier this year due to staffing shortages. Training physician assistants in the province will make recruitment easier, and is “the best thing” the province can do, Cockrill said.”In two years, we’re going to have 20 [physician assistant] graduates coming out of the University of Saskatchewan. They’ve already been in our hospitals. They’ve seen the opportunities that are here for them in the big city, but also in rural communities,” he said. “I’ll go out on a limb right now and say there will be job opportunities for all 20 graduates in two years,” he said. “If they want to be here in Saskatchewan, we’ll have a job for them.”According to Cockrill, there are currently four physician assistants working in Saskatchewan. The province’s job board shows there are 32 open positions for physician assistants, as of Tuesday. The province hopes to expand the program in the future, he said. ABOUT THE AUTHORKatie Swyers is a reporter with CBC Saskatchewan, based in Regina. She is a 2021 Joan Donaldson Scholar and has previously worked for CBC Podcasts, CBC’s Marketplace, CBC’s network investigative unit, CBC Toronto, CBC Manitoba and as a chase producer for Canada Tonight on CBC News Network. You can reach her at katie.swyers@cbc.ca.With files from Halyna Mihalik
U of Sask. welcomes 1st class to new physician assistant program
