Enhancing Physician Assistant Psychiatry Interviewing Skills Using Standardized Patients

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Physician Assistant Training
• Psychiatry Education

Background:

• Assessing the impact of supplemental psychiatry training on physician assistant (PA) students.
• Evaluating improvements in scores on the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) Psychiatry and Behavioral Health End of Rotation examination.
• Examining the effect on psychiatry preceptor evaluations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if additional psychiatry training during the didactic year enhances PA student performance.
• To compare outcomes between students who received supplemental training and those who did not.
• To analyze the effect of supplemental training on standardized examination and clinical evaluation scores.

Main Methods:

• A pilot study comparing two cohorts of PA students from a single institution.
• Cohort 1 (n=62) received standard training; Cohort 2 (n=63) received supplemental psychiatry/behavioral health training.
• Data analyzed using independent t-tests and multiple regression, controlling for age, sex, and GPA.

Main Results:

• The experimental group (supplemental training) scored significantly higher on both the PAEA End of Rotation examination (M=86.3 vs M=83.4) and preceptor evaluations (M=92.6 vs M=90).
• Moderate effect sizes were observed for both the examination (d=0.51) and evaluation (d=0.62).
• Age, sex, and GPA did not significantly influence the results; training intervention was the key factor.

Conclusions:

• Supplemental psychiatry and behavioral health training positively impacts PA student performance.
• Training incorporating standardized patient encounters and interviewing techniques leads to better examination and evaluation scores.
• This suggests that targeted supplemental training can effectively improve competency in psychiatry for PA students.