Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a self-selection process for clinical rotation on student satisfaction with the program. Chatham University provides its students with the opportunity to self-select all of their clinical rotations from a list of pre-approved sites that have been determined to meet accreditation standards.

Methods: A survey was administered to all senior students enrolled in Chatham’s Physician Assistant Program to assess their perceptions of the self-selection clerkship process. In addition, a survey was sent to all clinical coordinators nationwide to determine the techniques they used at their programs to assign students to rotation sites.

Results: Of the program’s 61 students, 52 participated, yielding an 85.2% response rate. It was determined that students are very satisfied with the process of self-selection of the clinical rotation sites. Students reported that they take greater ownership in their rotations, because they were assigned to the rotations they wanted. Rotation self-selection was also reported as a desired feature of our program. Of 192 clinical coordinators that received the survey, 46 participated, and we found that 57% allow self-selection for elective rotations, and 43% do not allow selection of any rotations.

Conclusions: Despite limitations such as loss of sites and preceptor turnover, the self-selection process is beneficial for both students and clinical coordinators. The process used could be easily adapted to other physician assistant programs.