Investigational Overview of Supervised Clinical Practice Experiences

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Physician Assistant Studies

Background:

• Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) sets standards for PA programs.
• Significant variation exists in the design and implementation of supervised clinical practice experiences (SCPEs).
• Limited research has explored the link between SCPE design and program outcomes like PANCE pass rates.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate trends and best practices in PA clinical education design.
• To assess the correlation between SCPE design elements and PANCE first-time taker pass rates.

Main Methods:

• An anonymous online survey was distributed to PA programs listed by ARC-PA (May 2014).
• Programs with provisional or probation accreditation were excluded.
• Post hoc analysis compared SCPE design features with PANCE pass rates.

Main Results:

• Quantified variations in the administration and design of clinical education curricula.
• Identified significant differences between programs with above-average and average/below-average PANCE pass rates.
• Key differences included rotation length, minimum end-of-rotation scores, and minimum preceptor evaluation scores.

Conclusions:

• Demonstrated multiple viable approaches to clinical education components.
• Established correlations between specific SCPE design elements and PANCE first-time taker pass rates.