EVALUATION OF A PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT STUDENT ADMISSION PLAN THAT CONSIDERS RACE NEUTRAL FACTORS A Research Project by (original) (raw)
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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...
Academic Medicine, 2019
Purpose Health professions schools can foster a diverse medical workforce by ensuring equal educational access for students of varied backgrounds. This study examined how physician assistant (PA) applicants’ demographic characteristics and prior academic history affected likelihood of PA program matriculation. Method The authors used national application data from the 2015–2016 PA application cycle to investigate associations between applicants’ underrepresented minority (URM) status, age, and gender, and likelihood of matriculating into a PA program. Effects were examined alone and after adjusting for other demographics and potential confounders (number of applications submitted, patient care hours, academic achievement). The authors tested whether odds of matriculation differed among demographic subgroups with and without current Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) scores. Results In univariate models, likelihood of matriculation was lower among URM, older, and male applicants. In ...
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.
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.
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.
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.
Minority Students, Affirmative Action, and the Admission Process: A Literature Review, 1987-1998
Teaching and Learning in Medicine, 2000
Background: Despite numerous initiatives, medical educators have failed to effect a sustainable increase in the number of underrepresented minority students at medical colleges in the United States. This study reviewed the recent literature regarding the admission process to specifically examine and determine if current policies are helping facilitate the proper representation of minority students. Papers were selected on the basis of their relevance to the topic of underrepresented minority students and medical school admission policies and were limited to the years between 1987 and 1998. Each paper was individually evaluated on the basis of its study design and soundness of its contribution to the field.
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...
Journal of the National Medical Association
The Louisiana State University (LSU) School of Medicine-New Orleans has been active in recruiting minority students to create a diverse medical student body. Recognizing the need to explore ways to assess minority applicants, over the past 10 years, LSU has offered Stimulated Minority Admissions Exercise (SMAE) workshops to its admission committee members. Participants in six of LSU's SMAE workshops were asked to respond anonymously to an evaluation form immediately following the workshop. Sixty of the 64 participants responded. The overall evaluation of the workshops was positive. More than 80% of participants indicated that due to their participation in SMAE, they knew how to locate and assess application data particularly relevant to minority applicants. The results suggest that identifying variables that enhance minority student admission and retention is desirable.