Emotional Intelligence: Changes Over the First Year of Physician Assistant Education.

Purpose: To investigate emotional intelligence (EI) development in physician assistant (PA) students as they progress through their didactic education.

Methods: Data were gathered through an online survey of EI distributed to a purposeful sample of 5 institutions with similar curriculum length and start dates. Program directors forwarded the survey to students at the start of their didactic education (pretest).

A Web-Based Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention Training Module Within Physician Assistant Programs in the Midwest to Increase Knowledge, Attitudes, and Confidence: Evaluation Study.

Background: Preventing and reducing risky alcohol use and its side effects remains a public health priority. Discussing alcohol use with patients can be difficult; dedicated training for health care providers is needed to facilitate these conversations. A Web-based alcohol screening and brief intervention (SBI), comprising didactic and skills application training, was designed for physician assistant students.

Emotional Intelligence: one Component in the HeART of Medicine.

The increasing need for health care providers has contributed to a rise in the number of physician assistant (PA) programs. Unfortunately simply increasing the number of graduates to meet this increased need is not good enough. Not only must PA programs and educators make sure that graduates have the necessary medical knowledge and clinical skills but that graduates also have the ability to understand and manage emotions and behaviors which result from working with others and taking care of patients.