Understanding Changes in Resistance to Arts and Humanities Content in Physician Assistant Education

This paper examines student resistance to arts and humanities (A&H) educational content and whether it is durable over time among physician assistant (PA) students.

A cohort of PA students from a Midwest university medical center (N = 64) participated in ten A&H modules as part of their didactic curriculum. Focus groups assessed student responses to the modules at 2 time points: after completion of all modules and again after their clinical rotations. We coded and analyzed the data using a grounded theory approach.

We found that cohort resistance to A&H changed over time. During the didactic curriculum, students attributed their struggles to an impression that they performed module tasks poorly or to a lack of interest in particular A&H activities. They reported feelings of vulnerability or anxiety, which they did not appreciate. In contrast, after clinical rotations, we heard no A&H resistance. Instead, PA students spoke of seeing greater value in A&H after its use in patient encounters, preceptor discussions/modeling, and their own increased participation in A&H due to the easing of time constraints.

While PA students were initially resistant to the A&H activities when they were first presented during their didactic education, their perceived value of the activities became more positive over time following experience in the clinical setting during clerkships. Assessing resistance at 2 different points in the educational trajectory leads us to conclude that initial resistance to A&H education diminishes as the content connects to clinical practice through experience.