Ben Shachar, MD, is a family medicine resident at the University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, in Toronto, Ontario.
Serena Rubin, MD, is a family medicine resident at the University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, in Toronto, Ontario.
J Physician Assist Educ. 2022 Dec 1;33(4):279-283. doi: 10.1097/JPA.0000000000000471.
Physician assistant (PA) is a burgeoning profession in Canada, with several accredited training programs. Because the scope of practice for PAs in Ontario, as delineated by the province, stipulates that all tasks they perform must be delegated by a supervising physician, it is expected that medical students will increasingly encounter and work alongside PAs in clinical environments. There has been a paucity of research to date investigating how medical students experience this professional relationship. This current study aimed to investigate the attitudes and perspectives that medical students have about working with PAs.
Medical students from the University of Toronto (n = 11) in various stages of training participated in 3 focus groups. The focus groups used a semi-structured interview guide to explore medical students' general opinions of the profession, their understanding of the interprofessional relationship, and their experiences working with PAs. Qualitative methods with a phenomenological underpinning were used to analyze the focus groups.
The findings show that medical students have observed or collaborated with PAs in clinical environments but are generally unaware of the profession's scope of practice and responsibilities. Medical students also viewed PAs as beneficial to patient care and expressed a desire to discover more about the profession through formal education.
This call for interprofessional education should be heeded by medical faculty to better prepare medical students for future collaboration with PAs.
医师助理（PA）在加拿大是一个新兴的职业，有几个经过认证的培训项目。由于安大略省规定的 PA 执业范围规定，他们执行的所有任务都必须由一名监督医生授权，因此预计医学生在临床环境中会越来越多地遇到并与 PA 一起工作。迄今为止，研究如何调查医学生对这种专业关系的体验的研究很少。本研究旨在调查医学生对与 PA 合作的态度和看法。
来自多伦多大学（n = 11）的不同培训阶段的医学生参加了 3 个焦点小组。焦点小组使用半结构化访谈指南来探讨医学生对该职业的一般看法、他们对跨专业关系的理解以及与 PA 合作的经验。采用具有现象学基础的定性方法对焦点小组进行分析。
研究结果表明，医学生在临床环境中观察或与 PA 合作过，但普遍不了解该职业的工作范围和职责。医学生还认为 PA 对患者护理有益，并表示希望通过正规教育进一步了解该职业。
医学教师应该响应这一跨专业教育的呼吁，以使医学生更好地为与 PA 的未来合作做好准备。
