Assessing the Racial and Ethnic Diversity of Physician Assistant/Associate Program Graduates from 2010 to 2012 and 2019 to 2021.

INTRODUCTION: To assess the racial/ethnic diversity of graduates of US Physician Assistant/Associate (PA) programs compared with the diversity of the populations from which they draw students and to assess diversity changes over time among PA graduates. METHODS: We calculated proportion of Black or Hispanic PA graduates nationally and by school between 2010 to 2012 and 2019 to 2021 using the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and compared it with the diversity of the 20 to 35-year-old population using the American Community Survey. We created benchmark populations for each school based on whether the school was public or private, with in-state/out-of-state proportions provided by the Physician Assistant Education Association. A diversity index (DI) was calculated for each program. A DI of 0.5 means that the representation of Black/Hispanic graduates is half their representation in the benchmark population. RESULTS: Although the numbers of Black/Hispanic graduates increased from 2010 to 2012 to 2019 to 2021, the percentage of Black graduates decreased. Nationally, the DI for Black graduates decreased from 0.28 to 0.23 and the Hispanic DI increased from 0.28 to 0.37 between 2010 to 2012 and 2019 to 2021. Among 213 PA programs included in the 2019 to 2021 dataset, 5 schools had a DI >1.0 for Black graduates and 7 schools had a DI >1.0 for Hispanic graduates. DISCUSSION: Using the IPEDS data, we found that Black and Hispanic graduates are underrepresented among PA program graduates. The PA education community needs to develop new strategies for diversifying the profession consistent with the new US Supreme Court decision banning race-conscious admissions.

C4Tech: Virtual connections between the classrooms, clinicians, and community clinics to bridge the gap between research and practice.

AIM: E-learning technologies are becoming vital components of medical and health professions education, as highlighted during the current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) considers education technologies essential to forming connections between education and healthcare delivery systems, which promote evidence-based practice and continuous learning and quality improvement in healthcare. There is a lack of evidence-based models to guide the integration of technology in medical and health profession education, in particular models that form synergistic linkages between healthcare education and delivery systems. This paper presents the evaluation of an innovative blended learning model, which leverages virtual technology to connect students in the classroom with clinicians in community clinics (C4Tech) for authentic learning related to quality improvement (QI) and social determinants of health (SDH). METHOD: This study applied a case study approach to evaluate the efficacy of the C4Tech model in supporting learning outcomes and assessed how virtual collaboration influenced the process of learning. RESULTS: This study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of how to design effective blended courses that connect the healthcare education and delivery systems through virtual technology. It also demonstrates how to connect students and practicing clinicians virtually to design evidence-based quality improvement projects.

Connecting Classrooms, Clinicians, and Community Clinics Through Technology (C4Tech) for Active and Collaborative Learning.

PURPOSE: This pilot study investigated the level of cognition that physician assistant (PA) students achieved through adoption of an innovative blended learning model that connects the classroom, clinicians, and community clinics through electronic-learning (e-learning) technologies (C4Tech) used in a PA course. This education intervention aimed to facilitate authentic learning collaborations between PA students and practicing clinicians that would result in higher-order cognition related to the manifestations of social determinants of health and health disparities. METHODS: A case study approach was adopted to assess levels of cognition and changes in those levels resulting from application of an innovative blended learning model. Content analysis using Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive domains facilitated determination levels of cognition and changes in those levels. The sample of 8 groups comprised 70 PA students and 8 clinical instructors from community clinics with underrepresented patient populations. RESULTS: Analysis of 2 course assignments revealed that application of the C4Tech model yields high levels of cognition. By the course's end, all 8 groups achieved at least the "evaluate" level of cognition and half of the groups achieved the highest level of cognition, the "create" level. A wide variation in the level of cognition was demonstrated between the first and second assignments in each group and among groups. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that e-learning technologies can be effective in blending classrooms and work environments for authentic and collaborative learning. Adoption of the C4Tech model yielded higher-order cognition related to course content.

Improving health disparities in PA practices: A quality improvement initiative.

OBJECTIVE: To assess a quality improvement initiative designed to highlight awareness of health disparities and improve healthcare practices among participants. METHODS: Data were collected from 102 clinically practicing PAs over a 2-year timespan via the quality improvement initiative Outside the Box: Reducing Health Disparities. As part of the program, participants reviewed 10 random charts in their practice, documenting how they identified and/or managed common health disparities. Then, participants reviewed the educational materials provided and implemented practice-specific interventions. Thirty days after the initial review, a second random review of charts was executed. RESULTS: Postintervention results showed statistically significant moderate- to large-sized quality improvement across most categories. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that Outside the Box participation was associated with practice quality improvements among participants in several domains that are known to experience health disparities. Results suggest that increasing awareness of ideal professional behaviors can result in quality improvements in practices.