Service-Learning in Physician Assistant Education: A Scoping Review

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Health Professions Education
• Pedagogy in Healthcare

Background:

• Service-learning (SL) is a valuable pedagogy for healthcare education, fostering social determinants of health awareness and compassionate care.
• A comprehensive assessment of SL activities within physician assistant (PA) education is currently lacking.
• This review aims to explore and summarize existing literature on SL courses in PA programs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a scoping review of the literature on service-learning (SL) courses in physician assistant (PA) education.
• To identify and summarize the scope and quality of SL activities reported in PA programs.
• To understand the current landscape of SL implementation in PA curricula.

Main Methods:

• A systematic scoping literature search was conducted across four major databases: CINAHL, PubMed, Embase, and Scopus.
• Peer-reviewed journal articles specifically detailing SL in PA education were included.
• Studies were excluded if they did not involve PA students, were not true SL activities, or were not full articles.

Main Results:

• Nine articles met the inclusion criteria for this scoping review.
• A significant number of potential studies were excluded, primarily due to a lack of distinct SL learning objectives.
• The absence of structured, guided critical reflection was another common reason for exclusion.

Conclusions:

• Service-learning (SL) remains an underutilized, high-impact teaching practice in physician assistant (PA) education.
• Effective implementation requires faculty training in aligning SL activities with learning objectives.
• Enhancing structured critical reflection is key to creating more impactful and authentic SL experiences for PA students.