Recruitment and retention of minority students in a physician assistant program

The authors report two years of experience in the recruitment and retention of minority physician assistant students and the employment patterns of graduates from one physician assistant program. Recruitment strategies increased the proportion of minority students to 54 percent in the first year of the program and to 44 percent in the second year. The number of years of postsecondary education and clinical experience acquired by the minority students before admission to the program tended to have less impact on their performance in training than did their prior completion of formal academic degree programs and prior level of clinical responsibility. Attrition was higher for the minority students than nonminority students, and the minority students took longer than nonminority students to complete the program. The rates at which the students passed the certifying examination of the National Commission on Certification of Physician's Assistants were comparable for the two groups. Minority graduates tended to practice in areas of health manpower shortage.