Predicting Physician Assistant Program Matriculation Among Diverse Applicants: The Influences of Underrepresented Minority Status, Age, and Gender (original) (raw)
Related papers
BMC Medical Education, 2023
Background Numerous studies have demonstrated that the increasing racial and ethnic diversity of the US population benefits from access to healthcare providers from similarly diverse backgrounds. Physician assistant (PA) education programs have striven to increase the diversity of the profession, which is predominantly non-Hispanic white, by focusing on admitting students from historically excluded populations. However, strategies such as holistic admissions are predicated on the existence of racially and ethnically diverse applicant pools. While studies have examined correlates of matriculation into a medical education program, this study looks earlier in the pipeline and investigates whether applicant-not matriculant-pool diversity varies among PA programs with different characteristics. Methods Data were drawn from the 2017-2018 Central Application Service for PAs admissions cycle. Applications to programs with pre-professional tracks and applicants missing race/ethnicity data were excluded, resulting in data from 26,600 individuals who applied to 189 PA programs. We summarized the racial and ethnic diversity of each program's applicant pools using: [1]the proportion of underrepresented minority (URM) students, [2]the proportion of students with backgrounds underrepresented in medicine (URiM), and [3]Simpson's diversity index of a 7-category race/ethnicity combination. We used multiple regressions to model each diversity metric as a function of program characteristics including class size, accreditation status, type of institution, and other important features. Results Regardless of the demographic diversity metric examined, we found that applicant diversity was higher among provisionally accredited programs and those receiving more applications. We also identified trends suggesting that programs in more metropolitan areas were able to attract more diverse applicants. Programs that did not require the GRE were also able to attract more diverse applicants when considering the URM and SDI metrics, though results for URiM were not statistically significant.
Research Square (Research Square), 2022
Background Numerous studies have demonstrated that the increasingly diverse US population bene ts from access to diverse healthcare providers from similarly diverse backgrounds. Physician assistant (PA) education programs have striven to increase the diversity of the profession, which is predominantly non-Hispanic white, by focusing on admitting historically underrepresented students. However, strategies such as holistic admissions are predicated on the existence of diverse applicant pools. While studies have examined correlates of matriculation into a medical education program, this study looks earlier in the pipeline and investigates whether applicant-not matriculant-pool diversity varies among PA programs with different characteristics. Methods Data were drawn from the 2017-2018 Central Application Service for PAs admissions cycle. Applications to programs with pre-professional tracks and applicants missing race/ethnicity data were excluded, resulting in data from 26,600 individuals who applied to 189 PA programs. We summarized the racial and ethnic diversity of each program's applicant pools using: (1)the proportion of underrepresented minority (URM) students, (2)the proportion of students with backgrounds underrepresented in medicine (URiM), and (3)Simpson's diversity index of a 7-category race/ethnicity combination. We used multiple regressions to model each diversity metric as a function of program characteristics including class size, accreditation status, type of institution, and other important features. Results Regardless of the diversity metric examined, we found that applicant diversity was higher among provisionally accredited programs and those receiving more applications. We also identi ed trends suggesting that programs in more metropolitan areas were able to attract more diverse applicants. Programs that did not require the GRE were also able to attract more diverse applicants when considering the URM and SDI metrics, though results for URiM were not statistically signi cant. Conclusions Our ndings provide insights into modi able (e.g., GRE requirement) and non-modi able (e.g., provisionally accredited) program characteristics that are associated with a diverse applicant pool.
BMC Medical Education
Background The Physician Assistant (PA) workforce falls short of mirroring national demographics mainly due to a lack of diversity in student enrollment. Few studies have systematically examined diversity across PA programs at the national level, and little is known about best practices for consistently graduating a diverse group of students. We descriptively characterized the extent to which PA programs are graduating a diverse group of students and identified top performing PA programs. Methods Data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) were used to calculate the number and proportion of racial or ethnically diverse graduates. The study sample included 139 accredited PA programs that had graduated a minimum of five cohorts from 2014–2018. Within each of the United States Census Divisions, programs were ranked according to the number and proportion of graduates who were underrepresented minority (URM) race, Hispanic ethnicity, and of non-white (URM race, H...
The journal of physician assistant education : the official journal of the Physician Assistant Education Association, 2015
The purpose of this descriptive cross-sectional study was to identify the characteristics and effectiveness of recruitment strategies for underrepresented minorities (URM) and barriers to URM applicants to physician assistant programs. A 108-question survey was e-mailed to 168 physician assistant programs; 36 partial and 67 fully completed surveys were returned. The fully completed surveys were used in the data analysis. Participants were asked about the use of 20 recruitment strategies and the importance of 34 perceived barriers to enrollment of URM applicants. Of the 20 recruitment strategies, only 4 were used by close to 50% or more of programs: site visits (61.2%), preadmission counseling (58.2%), student loans (57.6%), and presentations targeted to minority students (47.8%). Only 9% of programs used enrichment courses, but this strategy was rated as most effective. Of the 34 barriers, the most frequent was low undergraduate grade point average (GPA) (82.5%). Self-reported succe...
Date iii ABSTRACT Purpose: The purpose of this project was to evaluate race-neutral admissions criteria for PA applicants in order to make an impact on increasing the number of underrepresented minority (URMs) applicants to Wichita State University's PA Program. Methods: This cross-sectional study analyzed admissions policies utilized in 2003, 2004-2005, and 2006 in the PA Department at WSU. This project targeted applicants and matriculates into the WSU PA Program. Specifically, the study measured the relationship of minority applicants to matriculates into the class of 2005 (paper-based applicant criteria heavily weighted toward GPA), classes of 2006 and 2007 (expanded criteria with race-neutral factors, still heavily weighted toward GPA), and class of 2008 (expanded criteria with race-neutral factors, with equalization of GPA with other factors). Results: Overall the classes of 2005 and 2008 had more minority applicants than matriculates. The classes of 2006 and 2007 had more minority matriculates. Conclusion: To date, the WSU-PA Program's admission plan that considered race neutral factors did not have a significant relationship on the number of URMs accepted into the PA Program.
Increasing Racial and Ethnic Diversity at the University of Utah Physician Assistant Program
Family Medicine, 2021
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Among the oldest in the nation, the Uni- versity of Utah Physician Assistant Program (UPAP) serves the state of Utah and surrounding areas and is a division of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. Recognizing the need to produce health care provid- ers from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, UPAP instituted structural changes to improve student compositional diversity. This paper is a presen- tation and evaluation of the changes made to determine their relationship with compositional diversity, ultimate practice setting, and national rankings. METHODS: UPAP changed diversity messaging, curriculum, efforts in ad- missions, recruitment, and retention to improve the representation of Black, Latinx, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander students, as well as those from educationally and economically dis- advantaged backgrounds. RESULTS: UPAP tripled the number of underrepresented minority matricu- lated students over the course of five admitted classes, while simultaneously increasing the proportion of students from educationally or economically dis- advantaged backgrounds. UPAP maintains both high boards pass rate and top national rankings, (number two ranking in public physician assistant pro- gram and number four overall program in the United States). CONCLUSIONS: The UPAP experience demonstrates that intentional diver- sity efforts are associated with improvement in racial/ethnic diversity and national rankings. Other medical school graduate programs, specifically the medical doctor (MD), public health, and basic science programs can use this model to improve their compositional diversity.
Recruitment and retention of minority students in a physician assistant program
Academic Medicine, 1987
A culturally diverse nursing workforce is essential to meet the health needs of an increasingly diverse Canadian population. The recruitment and retention of nursing students representing diverse backgrounds are vital to the building of this diversified work force. Studies have shown that diversity within the student body benefits everyone. For example, students who study and work within a diverse environment are better able to understand and consider multiple perspectives and to appreciate the benefits inherent in diversity. This paper describes one school of nursing's project on the Recruitment and Retention of Black students into their Bachelor of Science Nursing (BScN) Program. The project goals are to increase diversity, foster student learning, and ultimately improve health care for the Black community. Presented in this paper are the project background, implementation process, challenges and outcomes. This may provide learned lessons and future directions for similar initiatives in other institutions.
Black attrition in physician assistant training programs
American Journal of Public Health, 1981
We report on correlates of attrition for Blacks and Whites in physician's assistant training programs. The data reveal an unusually high rate of attrition for Blacks (65 per cent) and, in particular, for Black males (59 per cent). This latter group, regardless of educational background and other potential predicators of educational success, encounters significant difficulty in the educational process. An understanding of this attrition phenomenon is useful for designing admissions policies which identify a larger percentage of low risk recruits to health professions education.
Racial and Gender Disparities in the Physician Assistant Profession
Objective. To examine whether racial, gender, and ethnic salary disparities exist in the physician assistant (PA) profession and what factors, if any, are associated with the differentials. Data Sources/Study Setting. We use a nationally representative survey of 15,105 PAs from the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA). Study Design. We use bivariate and multivariate statistics to analyze pay differentials from the 2009 AAPA survey. Principle Findings. Women represent nearly two-thirds of the profession but receive approximately 18,000lessinprimarycompensation.Thedifferentialreducestojustover18,000 less in primary compensation. The differential reduces to just over 18,000lessinprimarycompensation.Thedifferentialreducestojustover9,500 when the analysis includes a variety of other variables. According to AAPA survey, minority PAs tend to make slightly higher salaries than White PAs nationally, although the differences are not statistically significant once the control variables are included in the analysis. Conclusions. Despite the rough parity in primary salary, PAs of color are vastly underrepresented in the profession. The salaries of women lag in comparison to their male counterparts. Key Words. Workforce diversity, physician assistant, health care supply, gender, race and ethnicity