USD School of Health Sciences Success Spotlight: Keeley Pollman, PA

Degree: Bachelor of Science in Physician Assistant Studies

Current Position: Physician Assistant at Surgical Institute of South Dakota 

For 16 years, Keeley Pollman has worked daily with advanced practice providers, physicians, nurses and therapists as a Physician Assistant at Surgical Institute of South Dakota. She works primarily in general surgery and trauma and says the physician assistant program at the USD School of Health Sciences was excellent preparation for the collaborative work she does now. 

"We had a lot of our classes with physical therapy, occupational therapy, and medical students," says the Wakonda native.  "I had the same gross anatomy classes as the medical students. In healthcare, we work together everyday anyway, so that was a perfect entry into the profession."

Pollman's draw toward medicine and toward USD is not surprising given that her mother is a nurse who taught at the University. Although she considered going to medical school, Pollman says she settled on the PA program, which has now become a master's degree program, because of the career flexibility it would give her. 

"I appreciated that I could change my specialty without having to go back and do a residency," she says. Pollman spent five years working in a plastic surgery practice before joining Surgical Institute, where she had done a five-week rotation. "I definitely picked the right career path and I appreciate where it has led me," she says.

Today, Pollman helps select the USD PA students who will also rotate through Surgical Institute. 

"I really appreciate and strongly encourage people to go to USD, to the point that I actually sit on the admissions committee and help do interviews every year," she says. "I like to be a part of that because we will be working with those PA students for weeks."

And potentially even longer; Pollman says three out of the four PAs at Surgical Institutes are graduates of the USD School of Health Sciences PA program.