Journal of Physician Assistant Education最新文献

Purpose: The Interservice Physician Assistant Program (IPAP) educates up to 169 matriculants per year. Each service branch sets the admission criteria, including all prerequisites, for their applicants. We hypothesized that prerequisites obtained online/virtual are less rigorous than coursework completed in-person. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate whether online/virtual prerequisite courses were associated with academic deceleration or attrition at any point.

Methods: Student self-reported data were retrospectively analyzed to evaluate program scores of students who took prerequisites online/virtual or in-person.

Results: There were no statistically significant differences in foundational course performance between online/virtual and in-person coursework. In addition, students who took anatomy online performed better than students who completed the coursework in-person (140.6 ± 15.6 vs. 145.6 ± 14.7, P = .05).

Conclusions: This analysis indicates that using the prerequisite source to predict academic difficulty may not be possible in IPAP students. Faculty will need to continue to search for other predictors of academic difficulty.

Purpose: While the processes of ongoing self-assessment and accreditation provide significant benefits to physician assistant (PA) programs, faculty members are often challenged by the required procedures and standards set by accreditation agencies. This study explored faculty perspectives regarding the processes of ongoing self-assessment and accreditation in PA programs.

Methods: A qualitative research design centered around semistructured interviews was used. A total of 26 participants were recruited, including PA program directors, associate program directors, directors of assessment and accreditation, past Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant commissioners, accreditation consultants, deans, and PA Education Association leaders.

Data collection: Semistructured one-on-one interviews were conducted by 8 members of the research team through Zoom video conferencing. Data were collected until saturation was reached.

Data analysis: The interview recordings were transcribed and analyzed independently by 3 researchers. The transcripts were imported into NVivo, a qualitative data analysis software, for coding and inductive thematic analysis.

Results: Six emergent themes were identified under 2 major categories: facilitators and challenges. Facilitators for conducting continuous programmatic review and analysis include it takes a village, internal and external support, and sustained faculty development, whereas challenges are lack of knowledge and time, unclear expectations, and inflexibility.

Conclusion: The study highlights factors associated with facilitating the ongoing self-assessment process. However, a number of challenges were also identified. The study suggests opportunities for intervention at the program, institution, and profession level.

Purpose: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) inclusion in medical education is increasing, and understanding of clinical educators' perceptions and use patterns is needed. The purpose of this research project was to explore current use, interest, knowledge, perceptions, and readiness to teach POCUS from the perspectives of clinical preceptors for physician assistant (PA) students.

Methods: A survey research study was completed on previously identified preceptors. Descriptive statistics outlined the frequencies of responses. Bivariate analysis with Chi-Square or Fischer Exact Testing was used to identify statistically significant differences between groupings.

Results: Most preceptors (87.1%) believe POCUS adds clinical value, but a minority received POCUS training (37%), are familiarity with its use (37.4%), and currently use POCUS (23.4%). Two-thirds (66.1%) of preceptors stated they would allow PA students to practice POCUS skills on clinical rotation; however, few (31%) felt comfortable with this and even fewer (22.6%) felt comfortable findings on POCUS into their clinical decision making.

Conclusions: Despite support of incorporation of POCUS into PA education, clinical preceptors' readiness to teach POCUS on clinical rotations is limited. This study shows that preceptors are neither comfortable with student use nor incorporating student findings into clinical decision making. A lack of sufficient clinical preceptors to support POCUS education has not been previously reported. PA programs attempting to incorporate POCUS into their curricula will need to be intentional providing opportunities to continue POCUS on clinical rotations.

Introduction: Current physician assistant (PA) learners have a clear preference for interactive learning that is vibrantly present in new media technologies. At present, there is a paucity of research regarding use or acceptability of gamification in PA education. The purpose of this study was to examine PA students' experience with, attitudes toward, and outcomes of a gamified cardiac auscultation curriculum.

Methods: Faculty at one institution designed an interactive Mobile App Cardiac Auscultation Curriculum (MACAC). The MACAC incorporates independent and group learning using the Littmann Learning mobile app. Author-created surveys as well as knowledge and auscultation assessment tools were delivered to all students.

Results: Most of the students recommended the use of the app for future cohorts and reported confidence to accurately identify normal and abnormal heart sounds. Knowledge and auscultation assessment scores demonstrated proficiency in identification of normal and abnormal heart sounds.

Discussion: Gamification research is important because blended learning that incorporates new media technologies with traditional approaches can help overcome the limitations of passive learning environments. This study provides evidence that the use of a mobile app can be an effective and innovative method to teach cardiac auscultation to the 21st century PA learners.

Purpose: The pandemic strained many usual methods of communication and training, forcing changes to selection processes for health professions programs. The purpose of this study was to determine, through interviewee feedback, the effectiveness of a virtual interview process when compared with a previous in-person interview process at one physician assistant (PA) program.

Methods: During the pandemic, the PA program adapted to a virtual holistic interview process to include interaction with current students and faculty. The effectiveness of the virtual platform was measured comparatively using the program's existing interviewee evaluation format for previous in-person experiences.

Results: Prepandemic data showed high ratings from interviewees regarding the interview process. Intrapandemic data suggest an interview process can be duplicated in a virtual format without compromising experience and goals of the program.

Conclusions: Through virtual interviews during a pandemic, the PA program mirrored the effectiveness of their previous in-person experience.