What Works? Fostering Inclusivity in Physician Assistant/Associate Education: The Retention, Outreach, Alignment, and Diversity (ROAD) Framework.

Introduction: There are well-known strategies to increase diversity in health professions education, evidence is sparse on how such strategies are practically implemented and longitudinally sustained. This study investigated the most widely used strategies across physician assistant/associate (PA) educational programs that have consistently demonstrated the ability to graduate racial and ethnic underrepresented students.

Methods: Following a grounded theory, qualitative interviews were conducted with 41 nationally accredited PA programs identified as top performers in consistently graduating racial and ethnic underrepresented students.

Mpox (Formally Known as Monkeypox).

This article reviews Mpox, including its epidemiology, transmission, clinical presentation, diagnosis, prevention, and management and treatment of the virus. This article also investigates the current outbreak of Mpox in nonendemic countries, including the United States. It discusses the high prevalence of Mpox affecting the men who have sex with men community.

Assessing and benchmarking equity, diversity, and inclusion in healthcare professions.

Healthcare professions are among the fastest growing careers in the United States, but the issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion remain a challenge. The percentage of underrepresented minority groups is disproportionately small despite many efforts to increase workforce diversity over the past several decades. As the demographics in our nation are rapidly changing, increasing racial, ethnic, and cognitive diversity is crucial to achieving a workforce with the capacity to provide accessible and equitable healthcare.

An assessment of physician assistant student diversity in the United States: a snapshot for the healthcare workforce.

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.

Assessing Harmful Bias and Celebrating Strength Through the Narratives of Black/African American Physician Assistant Students.

Introduction: Two national crises, the COVID-19 pandemic and systemic racism, have drawn nationwide attention to the disparities that exist in our society today. The American healthcare system, including physician assistant (PA) education, is not exempt from the impact of harmful bias and discrimination. The purpose of this study was to explore narratives recounting the experiences of Black/African Americans who have successfully completed their PA education in an attempt to understand how PA educators can better support students of color.

Minority Physician Assistant Faculty: A Phenomenological Assessment of Factors Leading to Retention in the Faculty Role.

Improving racial and ethnic diversity in the physician assistant (PA) profession is important to providing better care for underserved communities. The recruitment and retention of minority PA faculty is one aspect of helping to attract and retain a more diverse student body. Previous research has indicated that minority status is associated with the increased attrition of PA faculty but has not provided insight into the specific factors involved in the retention or attrition of minority PA faculty.

Veterans as physician assistants.

The physician assistant (PA) profession emerged nearly 50 years ago to leverage the healthcare experience of Vietnam-era military trained medics and corpsmen to fill workforce shortages in medical care. In 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Primary Care Training and Enhancement program was established to improve access to primary care. Training military veterans as PAs was again identified as a strategy to meet provider access shortages.

Full circle: a new classroom site to facilitate the veteran to physician assistant pathway.

Introduction: Former military medics and corpsmen face challenges entering a civilian health care system that underutilizes their training and experience. The MEDEX Northwest physician assistant (PA) program launched a new classroom site in Tacoma, Washington, near local military bases, to ease entry into the PA profession for those in the local military and civilian communities.

Methods: To fill the new classroom, the program conducted outreach to prospective applicants at community colleges, on-base transition and education centers, and education and career events near local installations.