Physician assistant students complete supervised clinical practice experiences across many specialties and sites, often in quick succession. Every site has to receive a cleared student, and the program has to show its accreditor that each student met its health screening and immunization requirements.
PA programs are accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA), whose 6th edition standards took effect on 1 September 2025. Your clinical sites and affiliation agreements decide the exact list.
What physician assistant students usually need before clinical rotations
- Immunizations. CDC recommends hepatitis B, MMR, varicella, Tdap and annual influenza vaccination for healthcare personnel, a group CDC defines to include students and trainees, proven by records or titers. (source) See titer testing explained.
- TB screening. CDC recommends baseline screening for all healthcare personnel and no routine annual testing without an exposure, but many clinical sites still set their own schedule. (source) See TB testing requirements.
- CPR / BLS certification, tracked to its expiration so a lapse is caught before a rotation, not during it.
- Background check, often with healthcare sanctions screening for hospital placements. See student background checks.
- Drug screen, usually a 10-panel urine screen (ours includes oxycodone) before the first placement.
- N95 fit testing where a site requires respirators. Students aren't employees under OSHA, so the requirement comes from the site; when it applies, OSHA's standard calls for a fit test before first use and at least annually. (source) See N95 fit testing.
What’s specific to physician assistant programs
- Immunization and health screening policies. ARC-PA Standard A3.09 requires policies based on current CDC recommendations for health professionals, and applicable state mandates, for minimum immunization and health screening of students. (source)
- Exposure to hazards. Standard A3.05 requires policies on student exposure to infectious and environmental hazards before students undertake any activity that would place them at risk. (source)
- Documented in the student record. Standard A3.16 requires student records to show that the student met the institution and program health screening and immunization requirements. (source)
- Clinical site agreements. Standard A1.01 calls for agreements with clinical sites that specify whose policies govern the student, including when site policies supersede the program’s. (source)
How Drug Free Schools handles it
Everything below runs in one clinical compliance tracking portal shared by all of your school’s health science programs.
- One portal, your requirement list. Set how each item renews: flu by season, CPR through the end of the printed month, Tdap every ten years. Add another way to meet a requirement, or a declination pathway.
- Every upload reviewed within 24 hours. If something is wrong, the student sees the exact reason and what to upload instead.
- Upload guides for every requirement: an example of the right document, the common reasons for rejection, and a blank form to download.
- Deadlines and reminders by email and text, and a dashboard that shows anyone not cleared for an upcoming rotation.
- Clinical sites built in. Track affiliation agreements, assign students to rotations, log clinical hours, and block anyone who isn't cleared from being placed. Send a site exactly the records it needs through a secure link with an access code that expires in 30 days.
For physician assistant programs: Add the exposure policy acknowledgment to your PA requirement list with a blank form students can download, and use the rotation check dashboard to see, before each rotation, which students aren’t cleared for the site they’re assigned to.
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Students: online training courses (Healthcare Bloodborne Pathogens, HIPAA, Workplace Fire Safety and HazCom, from ProTrainings) are available for individual purchase. See the online training courses.
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Recorded in the live portal: the rotation check dashboard, document review, requirement rules, clinical sites and rotations, and secure links for sending records to a site.
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Frequently asked questions
What do physician assistant students need before clinical rotations?
Most sites ask for the immunizations CDC recommends for healthcare personnel (hepatitis B, MMR, varicella, Tdap and annual flu), TB screening, CPR, a background check and a drug screen, plus N95 fit testing where respirators are used. ARC-PA requires programs to base their immunization and screening policies on current CDC recommendations.
Can the portal show that each student met the health requirements?
Yes. Every requirement keeps its approved document, review date and expiration in the student record, and you can export a report for any cohort.
How much does the compliance portal cost?
$30 per student, one time for the whole program, not a yearly fee. Administrator and faculty accounts are free, and the school can pay instead of the student.
Can one portal cover all of our health science programs?
Yes. Each program gets its own requirement list and renewal rules, while the school has one portal and one support line, 7 days a week by phone, text or email, for students and school staff.
Sources
- CDC/ACIP: Immunization of Health-Care Personnel
- CDC: TB screening of health care personnel, 2019
- OSHA 29 CFR 1910.134, respiratory protection
- OSHA interpretation letter on students, 1999
- ARC-PA Accreditation Standards, 6th edition
This page summarizes public accreditor, federal and CDC documents as of October 2026. Requirements vary by school, clinical site and state; confirm against your current standards and affiliation agreements. Quest Diagnostics is a trademark of its owner.