Bushardt Reamer L, Booze Loraine E, Hewett Mary L, Hildebrandt Carol, Thomas Suzanne E
Department of Physician Assistant Studies, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157, USA.
J Physician Assist Educ. 2012;23(1):19-23. doi: 10.1097/01367895-201223010-00003.
Determination of the ideal terminal degree for physician assistants (PAs) and academic preparedness of PA educators have received much attention in recent years. This investigation, completed in 2009, sought to describe the current state of PA training programs, specifically regarding Carnegie classification, percent conferring master's degrees, number of full-time faculty, percent of faculty--both principal and other full-time faculty--with doctoral degrees, student-to-faculty ratio, and first-time graduate Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE) pass rates. A secondary aim was to determine if any of these variables predict PANCE pass rates.
This study combined existing data obtained from multiple Internet resources including PA program websites and the PAEA Faculty Directory to determine the number of faculty, faculty credentials, number of students, and PANCE reports. Faculty members were categorized by highest degree attained. Linear regression was used to examine whether any of the programmatic variables were significant predictors of PANCE pass rates.
Two of four predictors were significant--whether the program conferred a master's degree (Beta = 0.54, t = 7.25, P = .001) and student-to-faculty ratio (Beta = -0.21, t = 2.63, P = .01). Mean number of full-time faculty per training program was eight (SD = 4, range = 2-36). The mean percent of full-time faculty members with doctorates per training program was 17.6% (SD = 17.7%, range = 0-80%).
These results, if replicated, suggest that if a program is seeking to increase its student performance on the PANCE, it may be more helpful to focus resources on improving student-to-faculty ratio, regardless of whether or not the faculty are doctoral level.
近年来，医师助理（PA）理想的最终学位以及PA教育工作者的学术准备情况备受关注。这项于2009年完成的调查旨在描述PA培训项目的现状，特别是关于卡内基分类、授予硕士学位的比例、全职教员数量、拥有博士学位的教员（包括主要教员和其他全职教员）比例、师生比以及首次毕业的医师助理全国认证考试（PANCE）通过率。第二个目的是确定这些变量中是否有任何一个能够预测PANCE通过率。
本研究整合了从多个互联网资源获取的现有数据，包括PA项目网站和PAEA教员名录，以确定教员数量、教员资质、学生数量和PANCE报告。教员按获得的最高学位进行分类。使用线性回归来检验任何项目变量是否是PANCE通过率的显著预测因素。
四个预测因素中有两个具有显著性——该项目是否授予硕士学位（β = 0.54，t = 7.25，P = .001）和师生比（β = -0.21，t = 2.63，P = .01）。每个培训项目全职教员的平均数量为8名（标准差 = 4，范围 = 2 - 36）。每个培训项目拥有博士学位的全职教员的平均比例为17.6%（标准差 = 17.7%，范围 = 0 - 80%）。
如果这些结果得到重复验证，表明如果一个项目想要提高其学生在PANCE上的表现，集中资源改善师生比可能更有帮助，无论教员是否具有博士水平。
