The effects of a program for faculty development in geriatrics for physician assistant teachers

A Geriatric Education for Physician Assistant (PA) Faculty program enrolled teachers from 21 of the 55 PA training programs in the country to participate in three-week training sessions at Stanford University. The faculty trainees took part in lecture/discussion, audio-visual review, clinical training, and individual conferences. They prepared a lecture and a complete geriatric teaching plan for their home program, and were assigned a text and numerous articles to read. Measures of effect of the training found the following: a significant increase in knowledge scores, although the trainees came into the program with relatively high scores; a heightened awareness and increased positive attitudes toward aging; high ratings of performance on a functionally oriented comprehensive health assessment; and augmented geriatric curriculum and clinical training in their home PA programs.