Physician Assistant Student Attitudes About People With Serious Mental Illness

This study explored the attitudes of physician assistant (PA) students toward the future care of individuals with serious mental illness (SMI). Physician assistant student education offers a unique opportunity to confront and reduce bias toward individuals with SMI. However, no previous literature has documented PA student attitudes toward SMI.

Preclinical students (n = 7) from a single PA program were invited to participate in 2 focus groups exploring attitudes toward the future care of patients with SMI. The focus groups lasted approximately 60 minutes and were conducted by non-PA faculty using a question guide.

Four themes emerged from interviews: perceptions about the population, knowledge of mental health conditions, approach to care, and program curriculum input.

Several themes aligned with the participant's level of training. Participants demonstrated didactic knowledge yet lacked clinical exposure to provide context. Future studies should focus on developing interactive learning techniques to prepare students for patients with SMI.