Bouton Marcia, Wild Jennifer, Bolch Charlotte, Mitzel Katherine, Zhou Tian
Marcia Bouton, DMSc, MHPE, PA-C, DFAAPA, is an assistant professor in the PA program, Midwestern University, Glendale, Arizona.
Jennifer Wild, DO, is a medical director and assistant professor in the PA program, Midwestern University, Glendale, Arizona.
J Physician Assist Educ. 2024 Dec 1;35(4):370-375. doi: 10.1097/JPA.0000000000000620. Epub 2024 Aug 21.
This pilot study aimed to evaluate whether and how physician associate/assistant (PA) program medical directors play a role in advocating on behalf of PAs and what factors correlate with this.
The study used a mixed-methods grounded theory approach and was deemed institutional review board exempt. After literature review, a survey was developed and piloted by study personnel and faculty to affirm validity. Recruits with known email addresses were sent a link to a survey that included demographic information and 10 Likert scale questions. There were 69 respondents, and the response rate was 26%. Fisher's exact test and analysis of variance were performed using the R program. A P -value <.05 indicated significance. Thematic analysis of qualitative data was performed using ChatGPT, followed by iterative analysis by the research team. Consensus was achieved for each response.
Most of the respondents had the following characteristics: MD degree, male, White, practicing clinically, and worked as PA medical directors 8 to 12 hours per week. Participants did not support PA title change, nor had they engaged in legislative efforts to support optimal team practice. Participants were strong PA advocates by promoting PA leadership positions, PA employment, improved attitudes in health care organizations toward PAs, and securing clinical rotations. Many respondents (41%) felt that none of their professional organizations supported them in their role as PA program medical director.
Exploring ways to support continued advocacy by our valued PA program medical directors within PA professional organizations could be advantageous to PA program medical directors' professional growth and the PA profession.
本试点研究旨在评估医师助理项目医学主任是否以及如何代表医师助理进行倡导，以及哪些因素与此相关。
该研究采用混合方法扎根理论方法，被认为无需经过机构审查委员会批准。在文献综述之后，研究人员和教员开发并试点了一项调查问卷以确认其有效性。向拥有已知电子邮件地址的招募对象发送了一份调查问卷链接，其中包括人口统计学信息和10个李克特量表问题。共有69名受访者，回复率为26%。使用R程序进行费舍尔精确检验和方差分析。P值<.05表示具有显著性。使用ChatGPT对定性数据进行主题分析，随后由研究团队进行迭代分析。对每个回复达成了共识。
大多数受访者具有以下特征：医学博士学位、男性、白人、从事临床工作，并且每周担任医师助理项目医学主任8至12小时。参与者不支持更改医师助理的头衔，也未参与支持最佳团队实践的立法工作。参与者通过促进医师助理担任领导职位、就业、改善医疗机构对医师助理的态度以及确保临床轮转等方式积极倡导医师助理。许多受访者（41%）认为他们的专业组织中没有一个在他们担任医师助理项目医学主任的角色方面给予支持。
探索支持我们宝贵的医师助理项目医学主任在医师助理专业组织中持续进行倡导的方法，可能有利于医师助理项目医学主任的职业发展以及医师助理职业。
