Assessing the Racial and Ethnic Diversity of Physician Assistant/Associate Program Graduates from 2010 to 2012 and...

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Medical Training Diversity
• Physician Assistant Studies

Background:

• Assessing racial and ethnic diversity among US Physician Assistant (PA) graduates.
• Comparing PA graduate diversity to the diversity of the student-seeking population.
• Analyzing trends in PA graduate diversity over time.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the racial/ethnic diversity of US PA program graduates.
• To compare PA graduate demographics with the 20-35 year old population benchmarks.
• To identify changes in PA graduate diversity between 2010-2012 and 2019-2021.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) for graduate data (2010-2012, 2019-2021).
• Employed American Community Survey for 20-35 year old population demographics.
• Calculated a Diversity Index (DI) for each PA program, comparing graduates to benchmark populations.

Main Results:

• The percentage of Black graduates decreased nationally from 2010-2012 to 2019-2021.
• The national Diversity Index (DI) for Black graduates declined (0.28 to 0.23), while for Hispanic graduates it increased (0.28 to 0.37).
• In 2019-2021, only 5 schools showed a DI >1.0 for Black graduates and 7 for Hispanic graduates.

Conclusions:

• Black and Hispanic graduates are significantly underrepresented in US PA programs.
• The PA education community must develop novel strategies for increasing diversity.
• Future diversity efforts must align with legal decisions restricting race-conscious admissions.