Stephanie Neary, MPA, MMS, PA-C, is an assistant professor adjunct and director of didactic education for the PA Online Program at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.
Renée Kamauf, EdD, is Deputy University Registrar at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
J Physician Assist Educ. 2023 Mar 1;34(1):72-75. doi: 10.1097/JPA.0000000000000485. Epub 2023 Jan 18.
Parental leave policies are not well established or always available for prospective graduate students. This study examined the availability and inclusivity of PA program parental leave policies to prospective students at accredited US programs.
The websites and available student handbooks of the 282 currently accredited PA programs were searched for the terms "pregnant," "pregnancy," "maternity," "parent," "family," "child," and/or "birth." Descriptive statistics and Pearson's chi-square test were used to analyze the data.
In total, 13.5% (38/282) of PA program websites and available handbooks met search criteria. Of these 38 programs, 23 (60.5%) provide information with gendered language that discriminates based on sex, most commonly only mentioning the pregnant female.
PA programs should create specific policies for pregnancy-related and parental leaves that are inclusive to heteronormative families as well as nontraditional and nonnuclear families, and these policies should be widely available to potential applicants and students.
准研究生的父母假政策尚未完善或尚未普及。本研究旨在调查美国认可的项目中，准研究生可享受的 PA 项目父母假政策的可用性和包容性。
搜索了 282 个目前认可的 PA 项目的网站和可用学生手册，搜索词为“pregnant”、“pregnancy”、“maternity”、“parent”、“family”、“child”和/或“birth”。使用描述性统计和 Pearson 卡方检验分析数据。
共有 13.5%（38/282）的 PA 项目网站和可用手册符合搜索标准。在这 38 个项目中，23 个（60.5%）提供了基于性别的信息，存在性别歧视，最常见的是只提到怀孕的女性。
PA 项目应制定具体的与怀孕和育儿相关的休假政策，以包容异性恋家庭以及非传统和非核心家庭，并且这些政策应该广泛提供给潜在的申请人和学生。
