Physician Associate/Assistant Program Medical Directors Are Important Advocates for the Physician Associate/Assistant Profession: Results From a National Pilot Study.

Introduction: This pilot study aimed to evaluate whether and how physician associate/assistant (PA) program medical directors play a role in advocating on behalf of PAs and what factors correlate with this.

Methods: The study used a mixed-methods grounded theory approach and was deemed institutional review board exempt. After literature review, a survey was developed and piloted by study personnel and faculty to affirm validity. Recruits with known email addresses were sent a link to a survey that included demographic information and 10 Likert scale questions. There were 69 respondents, and the response rate was 26%. Fisher's exact test and analysis of variance were performed using the R program. A P-value <.05 indicated significance. Thematic analysis of qualitative data was performed using ChatGPT, followed by iterative analysis by the research team. Consensus was achieved for each response.

Results: Most of the respondents had the following characteristics: MD degree, male, White, practicing clinically, and worked as PA medical directors 8 to 12 hours per week. Participants did not support PA title change, nor had they engaged in legislative efforts to support optimal team practice. Participants were strong PA advocates by promoting PA leadership positions, PA employment, improved attitudes in health care organizations toward PAs, and securing clinical rotations. Many respondents (41%) felt that none of their professional organizations supported them in their role as PA program medical director.

Discussion: Exploring ways to support continued advocacy by our valued PA program medical directors within PA professional organizations could be advantageous to PA program medical directors' professional growth and the PA profession.