Cheverko Colleen M, Flores Chloie, Hamidi Sabah, Simpson John, Yurich Hannah, Wilson Adam B
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Rush Medical College, Rush University, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Rush Medical College, Rush University, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Anat Sci Educ. 2025 May;18(5):485-495. doi: 10.1002/ase.70029. Epub 2025 Apr 10.
Anatomy is a required curricular component within physician assistant (PA) programs, but the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) does not regulate specific course characteristics such as how or when anatomy is taught or the inclusion or type of specific laboratory approaches. The growing number of newly accredited PA programs could impact trends in these and other course characteristics. This project presents descriptive and correlational outcomes of US PA programs and their anatomy course characteristics. Program names and year of initial accreditation were obtained from the ARC-PA website for currently accredited programs. Two independent evaluators reviewed and extracted data from each program website related to term(s) anatomy was taught, whether anatomy was taught independently or combined with other subjects, the instructional format of lab components, and anatomy credit hours. Additional contextual measures included the term system used, overall program and didactic curriculum lengths, and program credit hours. Summary and inferential statistics were used to test relationships between these data. Most anatomy courses are taught independently and in a single term, and the number of newly accredited PA programs since 2019 did not shift emphases on laboratory instruction. Programs averaged 5.5 credit hours for anatomy, but averages differed between semester versus quarter-system courses, independent anatomy courses versus courses that combined anatomy with other subjects, and courses that used dissection versus prosection laboratory instruction. Broad variation in program and course characteristics aligns with previous findings that local curricular decisions are made according to program and institution resources and constraints.
解剖学是医师助理（PA）项目中的一门必修课程组成部分，但医师助理教育认证评审委员会（ARC-PA）并未对特定课程特征进行规范，比如解剖学的授课方式或时间，以及特定实验室教学方法的纳入或类型。新获得认证的PA项目数量不断增加，可能会影响这些及其他课程特征的趋势。本项目展示了美国PA项目及其解剖学课程特征的描述性和相关性结果。从ARC-PA网站获取了当前已获认证项目的项目名称和初始认证年份。两名独立评估人员对每个项目网站进行审查，并提取了与解剖学授课学期、解剖学是单独授课还是与其他科目合并授课、实验部分的教学形式以及解剖学学分小时数相关的数据。其他背景指标包括所使用的学期制、项目整体时长和理论课程时长以及项目学分小时数。使用汇总统计和推断统计来检验这些数据之间的关系。大多数解剖学课程是单独授课且在一个学期内完成，自2019年以来新获得认证的PA项目数量并未改变对实验室教学的侧重点。解剖学课程平均为5.5个学分小时，但学期制课程与学季制课程、独立解剖学课程与将解剖学与其他科目合并的课程，以及使用解剖法与使用局部解剖法实验室教学的课程之间的平均学分小时数有所不同。项目和课程特征的广泛差异与之前的研究结果一致，即当地的课程决策是根据项目和机构的资源及限制做出的。
