Pathway to Health Care Leadership: An Education Innovation for Physician Associate Students in Leadership Development

Physician associates (PAs) are increasingly stepping into leadership positions across all health care settings, yet formal leadership training is not consistently included in PA school curricula. We designed a leadership curriculum aimed to prepare PA students to be future health care leaders.

The curriculum was developed by an experienced PA who recognized gaps in their own leadership development. The curriculum was administered to second-year (PY-2) PA students. Group didactics were paired with facilitated small group exercises and a leadership panel discussion. Presurveys and postsurveys were collected to assess curriculum effectiveness. Data from three years of implementation were analyzed using Wilcoxon signed rank tests.

Sixty-two presurveys and postsurveys were collected from PY-2 students from 3 cohorts. Following the curriculum, students reported a higher likelihood of taking on a leadership role (P < .01) and felt they had the tools to bring about health care change (P < .01). Their comfort with engaging in difficult conversations with a power differential and explaining how to be an effective listener to a peer significantly improved (P < .01). They found the leadership training valuable and agreed that it should be incorporated in all PA programs (P < .01).

Physician associate students are highly interested in pursuing leadership roles in their careers. Our leadership curriculum led to an increased level of comfort navigating difficult conversations and provided PA students with tools for future leadership roles. The leadership curriculum was feasible, easy to adopt, and well-received. Future iterations should include long-term follow-up on roles after graduation and inclusion of a leadership mentoring component.