What does it take to become a physician assistant? During their first year at MEDEX Northwest, students learn in class how to take a medical history and perform an exam, and then apply those lessons to their first patients: elderly, high-functioning residents at local retirement homes. This video (13:24)  follows three first-year Seattle students as they move from classroom theory to a seven-week stint at the Park Shore retirement community, developing rapport, and then relationships, with patients.