TDNet Discover

Background: To gain admittance to Physician Assistant (PA) school, applicants must complete prerequisite courses and experiences, yet there is no universal standard for the PA school application process. The lack of standardization contributes to complexity and expense, as well as a lack of overall diversity of PA school matriculants. Purpose: This research was designed to assess current didactic PA students’ perceptions of prerequisite courses, course delivery methods, and direct patient care (DPC) experiences to determine those that were perceived to be the most useful in preparation for didactic PA education. The researchers hope the results will provide PA programs with common themes that may lead to standard prerequisite courses, delivery and patient care experiences, or admission to PA programs in the US. Methodology: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted with snowball and convenience sampling methods and was sent to eligible PA programs and students across the US. The survey collected current didactic PA student demographics, their opinions of usefulness for commonly required prerequisite courses for PA school, the usefulness of course delivery methods, and accepted DPC experiences. Collected data underwent quantitative statistical analysis using Intellectus, at a 95%CI, p<0.05 for statistical significance. A qualitative analysis was also conducted for open-response questions. Results: This recearch had 527 participants successfully complete the survey. The majority identified as female, White, non-Hispanic, or Latino/a, and were aged 25-34. Greater than 50% of participants reported that prerequisite courses in Anatomy, Physiology, General Biology, Genetics, Microbiology, “Other Biology,” Behavioral Science, General Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Speech, Ethics, CPR, Medical Ethics, Medical v Terminology, and Nutrition “prepared them well” or “extremely well” for PA school. The most frequently reported and recommended educational delivery method was “in person.” The DPC experience most frequently reported to best prepare the students for PA school were Medical Assistant, Certified Nursing Assistant, and Scribe. The most frequently recommended minimum number of DPC hours was 1,000 – 1,499. Chi-square tests for courses that prepared students “well” and “extremely well” revealed that in-person delivery had a statistically significant association for Anatomy, Physiology, Ethics, CPR, Medical Ethics, and Spanish. Conclusions: This research found common themes for courses, delivery, direct patient experiences, and significant associations that prepared students "well" or "extremely well" for PA didactic education. These findings should be considered by PA education associations, with further research or progress toward recommended or standard universal requirements for PA programs. This would provide a solid foundation across the US of knowledge and skills that would best prepare students for PA education