Mark Hertweck

Attitudes Toward Interprofessional Education: Comparing Physician Assistant and Other Health Care Professions Students

Purpose: Since the release of the 1988 World Health Organization report on the need for interprofessional education (IPE) programs, various forms of IPE curricula have been implemented within institutions of higher education. The purpose of this paper is to describe results of a study using the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) to compare physician assistant (PA) students with other health professions students. Methods: The RIPLS survey was completed by 158 health professions graduate students, including 71 PA students, at a small northeastern university in the fall of 2010. Students were enrolled in either counseling psychology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, or PA studies. Students completed the RIPLS survey, demographic questions, and a question regarding experience with the health care environment. Results: PA students scored significantly lower on three of the four subscales of the RIPLS survey, as well as lower in total score. Females of all health professions scored significantly higher on the RIPLS total score and on the Teamwork and Collaboration subscale than did males. Students with prior exposure to the health care system as a patient or as an immediate family member of a patient scored significantly higher on the Negative Professional Identity subscale than did students without such exposure. Conclusions: Results indicate that PA students may value interprofessional collaboration less than other health professions students. Also, there may be gender and experiential differences in readiness for interprofessional learning. These findings may affect the design of IPE experiences and support integration of interprofessional experiences into PA education.

Holistic admissions process: an initiative to support diversity in medical education.

&NA; In accordance with the call from multiple academic medicine bodies and professional medical societies, the physician assistant studies program at a small northeastern university implemented a holistic admissions process in 2008 with the intent of increasing diversity in the classroom. This manuscript outlines the processes that occurred and the results that ensued after adoption of a holistic admissions process.

Student expectations of problem-based learning (PBL)

13 persons over the impact of rescuers’ hands placement on the quality of chest compressions was organized. Participants were asked to perform four cycles of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on a manikin in two different scenarios. First, participants were asked to perform CPR in a typical manner. Second, CPR was performed with a mark indicating rescuers’ proper hands position. Timing for two scenarios were 60 7 s (43–83 s) and 60 5.75 seconds (47–81 s). In both scenarios 61% exceeded 1 min. Concerning quality of the compressions, at first scenario 88% achieved adequate compression depth while at the second 100%. Existence of the indication mark is correlated with better performance (r1⁄4 0.591, p5 0.01). Existence of the indicator did not change mean time but reduced standard deviation and increased participants’ achievement of adequate depth. Further data analysis revealed negative correlation of female sex with adequate depth (r1⁄4 0.306, p5 0.01). Older age is correlated with longer timing (r1⁄4 0.196, p5 0.05) and adequate depth achievements (r1⁄4 0.216, p5 0.05). Previous attendance is correlated with worse timing performance (p1⁄4 0.04) but also adequate depth achievement (r1⁄4 0.287, p5 0.01). Hand position during CRP is an issue concerning a variety of studies. ERC guidelines recommend as appropriate the lower half on the sternum (Koster et al. 2010) alongside with teaching in a simplified manner. This is reasonable since more complex guidelines, such as the ones of 2000 could potentially lead to bad positioning as shown by Owen et al. (2011) in a study comparing 2000 and 2005 guidelines.

Developing communities of interprofessional practice: using a communities of practice framework for interprofessional education.

Development of interprofessional education programs that meet new Interprofessional Education Collaborative competencies is a challenge for faculty and administrators. This article describes a curricular design that places students in learning communities over a 2-year period with a plan for 5 learning sessions. Communities of practice is the theoretical framework of the curricular design, creating interprofessional clinicians capable of effective collaborative practice.

The Effect of Experienced vs. Novice Problem-Based Learning Facilitators on Student Outcomes

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of experienced vs. novice problem‐based learning facilitators on evaluative measures on first‐year physician assistant (PA) students. Methods: Retrospective data from 47 students from the Chatham University PA class of 2007 were collected for this study. Student test scores for each of six multiple‐choice question (MCQ) exams and each of six patient management problem (PMP) exams were analyzed to determine facilitator effect. Differences among all six individual facilitators and also between the three experienced and three novice facilitators were analyzed. Results: Significant differences were noted in deviation from mean MCQ and PMP scores (p = 0.0002 and p =0.01, respectively) and rankings (p = 0.002 and p = 0.006, respectively) between students having experienced facilitators and those having novice facilitators. There was a significant difference between students with novice facilitators and student with experienced facilitators in the number having their worst MCQ scores (p = 0.001). When the data from the experienced facilitator with the highest‐scoring students and the novice facilitator with the lowest‐scoring students were eliminated, there was no significant difference among the remaining 4 facilitators. Conclusions: These results suggest that students of novice facilitators can score as well as students of experienced facilitators, but also that a facilitator can negatively affect the scores of his or her students. PA programs using problem‐based learning with multiple facilitators should be collecting and tracking student outcome measures by facilitator so that extra attention can be given to facilitators whose students perform poorly.

Wellness in a Physician Assistant Curriculum: An Experiential Model

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an experiential wellness project on perceived wellness of first‐year physician assistant (PA) students utilizing self‐selected, common lifestyle interventions. Methods: Forty‐seven students from the Chatham College PA Program class of 2007 each chose a personal wellness plan that included one or more lifestyle interventions from the following content areas: (1) diet, (2) exercise, (3) sleep/time management, (4) spiritual practices/stress management, (5) socializing/recreational activities, and (6) compliance with medications/dietary supplements. Surveys, including questions on compliance with the wellness plan as well as support given to and received from others, were collected weekly for 12 weeks. Pre‐ and post‐study questionnaires evaluating wellness practices were obtained and compared using paired t tests. Results: Significant improvement (p= 0.006) was noted in the wellness questionnaire scores from the pre‐study period to the post‐study period. There was statistically significant improvement in all individual wellness content areas except diet. Overall mean compliance with wellness programs was 1.6 ± 0.15 based on a Likert scale of 0 to 3. There was moderate correlation (r = 0.67) between mean compliance with all lifestyle interventions and mean support given to and received from others. Conclusions: Perceived wellness of first‐year PA students increased after a 12‐week period of lifestyle intervention. This concurs with previous research that suggests that incorporating wellness activities into PA curricula should be encouraged. This experiential model can be adapted by other programs to advance wellness activities in PA education.