Health Professions Education, Physician Assistant Leadership and Learning Academy, Graduate School University of Maryland Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, USA.
UMB Physician Assistant Program, Physician Assistant Leadership and Learning Academy, Graduate School University of Maryland Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, USA.
BMC Med Educ. 2022 Aug 13;22(1):617. doi: 10.1186/s12909-022-03668-1.
Most health professions in the United States have adopted clinical or practice doctorates, sparking an ongoing debate on whether physician assistants/associates (PAs) should transition from a master's to a doctorate as the terminal degree for the profession. Although more studies are anticipated, there is no validated instrument assessing perceptions of various stakeholders regarding an entry-level PA doctoral degree. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a novel self-report measure to assess perceptions of an entry-level PA doctoral degree.
A multifaceted, mixed-methods approach was adopted. Based on a comprehensive literature review of the doctoral transition experiences in other health professions, an initial version of perceptions of an entry-level terminal PA doctoral degree scale (PEDDS) was generated. This scale was pilot tested with a group of PA faculty, students, and clinicians. Then, a cross-sectional survey consisting of 67 items was conducted with a national random sample of practicing PAs and PA students. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were conducted to ensure the validity of PEDDS. A principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted to reduce the number of items and reveal the underlying structure of PEDDS.
The PCA confirmed 10 factors of PEDDS consisting of 53 items as the best-fit factor structure with adequate internal consistency of subscales. Those factors include a) expected positive impact on the PA profession, b) expected impact on prerequisites, (c) expected impact on the student preparedness as PA faculty and educators, (d) expected impact on the student preparedness as clinicians, (e) expected impact on accreditation and certification, (f) expected impact on curriculum, (g) expected impact on PA educators, (h) expected positive impact on diversity, (i) expected negative impact on the PA profession, and (j) expected impact on the student competency.
The present study highlights the need to develop valid and reliable measurements to assess perceptions regarding the transition to the entry-level doctorate across health professions. This study could be used to guide further discussion of the entry-level doctorates for PAs and other health professions by bridging the gap of existing literature related to valid, reliable, and standardized measures on this topic.
美国大多数医疗保健专业人员都已经采用临床或实践博士学位，这引发了一场关于助理医师/医师助理（PA）是否应该从硕士过渡到博士作为该专业的终端学位的持续争论。尽管预计会有更多的研究，但目前还没有经过验证的工具来评估各种利益相关者对入门级 PA 博士学位的看法。本研究的目的是开发和评估一种新的自我报告工具，以评估对入门级 PA 博士学位的看法。
采用多方面的混合方法。根据对其他健康专业博士过渡经验的全面文献回顾，生成了一个入门级终端 PA 博士学位感知初始量表（PEDDS）。该量表在一组 PA 教师、学生和临床医生中进行了试点测试。然后，对全国范围内的执业 PA 和 PA 学生进行了一项包含 67 个项目的横断面调查。此外，还进行了半结构化访谈，以确保 PEDDS 的有效性。进行了主成分分析（PCA）以减少项目数量并揭示 PEDDS 的潜在结构。
PCA 证实了 PEDDS 的 10 个因素，包括 53 个项目，是最佳拟合因子结构，具有适当的子量表内部一致性。这些因素包括：a）对 PA 专业的预期积极影响，b）对先决条件的预期影响，c）对作为 PA 教师和教育者的学生准备的预期影响，d）对作为临床医生的学生准备的预期影响，e）对认证和认证的预期影响，f）对课程的预期影响，g）对 PA 教育者的预期影响，h）对多样性的预期积极影响，i）对 PA 专业的预期负面影响，以及 j）对学生能力的预期影响。
本研究强调了需要开发有效的、可靠的测量方法来评估跨健康专业过渡到入门级博士学位的看法。本研究可以用于通过弥合与本主题相关的有效、可靠和标准化测量的现有文献差距，指导进一步讨论 PA 和其他健康专业的入门级博士学位。
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