scholarly journals A National Survey of postgraduate physician assistant fellowship and residency programs

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasco Deon Kidd ◽  
Sarah Vanderlinden ◽  
Roderick S. Hooker

Abstract Introduction The development of postgraduate programs for physician assistants (PAs) began in 1973 and by 2020 there were approximately 72 programs spread across a broad range of medical and surgical disciplines. PA Post-graduate education programs are voluntary and available to American licensed PAs. Therefore, an assessment of the characteristics of PA post-graduate fellowships and residencies programs was initiated. Method A non-experimental, descriptive research study was designed to obtain information on the characteristics of PA postgraduate education programs in the US. The source of information was from surveyed members of the Association of Postgraduate Physician Assistant Programs (APPAP). Questions were drawn from consensus discussions. Directors of postgraduate programs that were operational in 2020 were eligible to participate. Results Seventy-two postgraduate program directors were invited to the survey and 34 program directors replied. These programs are geographically distributed across the US in 13 states. The respondents represent a wide range of medicine: surgery, emergency medicine, critical care, orthopaedics, hospitalist, psychiatry, oncology, primary care, pediatrics, and cardiology. Most programs are associated with an academic medical center and some institutions have more than one postgraduate specialty track. The curriculum includes bedside teaching, lectures, mentorship, assigned reading, procedures, simulation, and conferences. An average program length is 12 months and awards a certificate. Stipends for PA fellows are $50,000–80,000 (2020 dollars) and benefits include paid time off, health and liability insurance. About half of the programs bill for the services rendered by the PA. Over 90% of graduates are employed within 2 months of completing a PA postgraduate training program. Conclusion A trend is underway in American medicine to include PAs in postgraduate education. PA postgraduate training occurs across a broad spectrum of medical and surgical areas, as well as diverse institutions and organizations overseeing these programs. Most PA postgraduate programs are in teaching hospitals where the PA resident or PA fellow also serves as a house officer alongside a categorical resident. This study sets the stage for more granular economic and social research on this growing phenomenon in American medicine.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasco Kidd ◽  
Sarah Vanderlinden ◽  
Roderick Hooker

Abstract Introduction: The development of postgraduate programs for physician assistants (PAs) began in 1973 and by 2020 there were approximately 100 programs spread across a broad range of medical and surgical disciplines. An assessment of these programs was undertaken. Method: A non-experimental, descriptive research study was designed to obtain information on the characteristics of PA postgraduate education programs in the US. The source of information was from surveyed members of the Association of Postgraduate Physician Assistant Programs. Questions were drawn from consensus discussions. Programs that were operational in 2020 were eligible to participate. Results: Seventy-two programs were invited to the survey and 34 replied. They are geographically distributed across the US in 13 states. The respondents represent a wide range of medicine: surgery, emergency medicine, critical care, orthopaedics, hospitalist, psychiatry, oncology, primary care, pediatrics, and cardiology. Most programs are associated with an academic medical center. The curriculum includes bedside teaching, lectures, mentorship, assigned reading, procedures, simulation, and conferences. The PA fellow serves as house officer alongside physician residents and fellows. An average program length is 12 months and awards a certificate. Stipends for PA fellows are $50,000-80,000 (2020 dollars) and benefits include paid time off, health and liability insurance. About half of the programs bill for the services rendered by the PA. Over 90% of graduates are employed within two months of fellowship completion. Conclusion: A trend is underway in American medicine to include PAs in postgraduate education. PA fellowships occur across a broad spectrum of medical and surgical areas, as well as diverse institutions and organizations overseeing the programs. Most are in academic medical centers or teaching hospitals. This study expands information on PA fellowships and their operation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasco Deon Kidd ◽  
Sarah Vanderlinden ◽  
Jennifer M Spisak

Abstract BackgroundThis study aims to investigate the admission criteria used by PA postgraduate education programs in selecting licensed PA applicants for postgraduate training in the United States. To our knowledge, there have been no previously published reports on selection criteria and/or other factors influencing postgraduate PA admission decisions. This study both draws on and builds upon previous research conducted by Vasco Deon Kidd et. al in exploring the characteristics of PA postgraduate education programs in the United States.Method A non-experimental, descriptive research study was designed to obtain information from members of the Association of Postgraduate Physician Assistant Programs (APPAP). ResultsTwenty-three out of 73 postgraduate programs (35.1%) responded to the survey; the low response rate in our survey may have been attributed to the resurgence of COVID-19 fueled by the delta variant. Nevertheless, the study reported that applicant PAs and NPs are largely selected on the basis of several factors. The most heavily weighted factor is the interview itself; other selection criteria perceived to be extremely/very important included board certification/eligibility, letters of recommendation, advanced degree, and personal essay. Survey data suggest that publications, undergraduate transcripts, and class rankings are not considered to be of high importance in applicant selection. The total cost of training a PA resident or fellow in postgraduate programs is currently $93,000 whereas the average cost of training a categorical physician resident is estimated at $150,000 per year when considering both salary and benefits. The number of PA applicants applying to each postgraduate training program averages around 26 and total number of enrollees is 3.6 per program.ConclusionsThis is the first study to examine criteria and others factors used by postgraduate PA programs in selecting candidates for admission. Results can be used by postgraduate programs for quality improvement initiatives related to including additional or modifying current selection criteria to improve the quality of trainee selection. Further research is needed to examine correlations between applicant attributes, selection criteria, and trainee success in completing postgraduate training.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasco Deon Kidd ◽  
Sarah Vanderlinden ◽  
Jennifer M. Spisak

Abstract Background This study aims to investigate the admission criteria used by physician assistant postgraduate education programs in selecting licensed PA applicants for postgraduate training in the United States. To our knowledge, there have been no previously published reports on selection criteria and/or other factors influencing postgraduate PA admission decisions. Method A non-experimental, descriptive research study was designed to obtain information from members of the Association of Postgraduate Physician Assistant Programs (APPAP). Results Twenty-three out of 73 postgraduate programs (35%) responded to the survey. The study reported that applicant PAs and NPs are largely selected on the basis of several factors. The most heavily weighted factor is the interview itself; other selection criteria perceived to be extremely/very important included board certification/eligibility, letters of recommendation, advanced degree, and personal essay. Survey data suggest that publications, undergraduate transcripts, and class rankings are not considered to be of high importance in applicant selection. The number of PA applicants applying to each postgraduate training program averages around 26 and total number of enrollees is about 3.6 per program. Additionally, some programs reported furloughing of trainees (temporary suspension of didactic and clinical training) during the pandemic, whereas the vast majority of postgraduate PA programs remained operational and some even experienced an increase in application volume. The total cost of training a PA resident or fellow in postgraduate programs is currently $93,000 whereas the average cost of training a categorical physician resident is estimated at $150,000 per year when considering both salary and benefits. Conclusions This novel study examined criteria and other factors used by postgraduate PA programs in selecting candidates for admission. Results can be used by postgraduate programs to improve or modify current selection criteria to enhance the quality of trainee selection. Further research is needed to examine correlations between applicant attributes, selection criteria, and trainee success in completing postgraduate training.


Author(s):  
Simeon J. Yates ◽  
Jordana Blejmar

Two workshops were part of the final steps in the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) commissioned Ways of Being in a Digital Age project that is the basis for this Handbook. The ESRC project team coordinated one with the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (ESRC-DSTL) Workshop, “The automation of future roles”; and one with the US National Science Foundation (ESRC-NSF) Workshop, “Changing work, changing lives in the new technological world.” Both workshops sought to explore the key future social science research questions arising for ever greater levels of automation, use of artificial intelligence, and the augmentation of human activity. Participants represented a wide range of disciplinary, professional, government, and nonprofit expertise. This chapter summarizes the separate and then integrated results. First, it summarizes the central social and economic context, the method and project context, and some basic definitional issues. It then identifies 11 priority areas needing further research work that emerged from the intense interactions, discussions, debates, clustering analyses, and integration activities during and after the two workshops. Throughout, it summarizes how subcategories of issues within each cluster relate to central issues (e.g., from users to global to methods) and levels of impacts (from wider social to community and organizational to individual experiences and understandings). Subsections briefly describe each of these 11 areas and their cross-cutting issues and levels. Finally, it provides a detailed Appendix of all the areas, subareas, and their specific questions.


Author(s):  
Pete Dale

Numerous claims have been made by a wide range of commentators that punk is somehow “a folk music” of some kind. Doubtless there are several continuities. Indeed, both tend to encourage amateur music-making, both often have affiliations with the Left, and both emerge at least partly from a collective/anti-competitive approach to music-making. However, there are also significant tensions between punk and folk as ideas/ideals and as applied in practice. Most obviously, punk makes claims to a “year zero” creativity (despite inevitably offering re-presentation of at least some existing elements in every instance), whereas folk music is supposed to carry forward a tradition (which, thankfully, is more recognized in recent decades as a subject-to-change “living tradition” than was the case in folk’s more purist periods). Politically, meanwhile, postwar folk has tended more toward a socialist and/or Marxist orientation, both in the US and UK, whereas punk has at least rhetorically claimed to be in favor of “anarchy” (in the UK, in particular). Collective creativity and competitive tendencies also differ between the two (perceived) genre areas. Although the folk scene’s “floor singer” tradition offers a dispersal of expressive opportunity comparable in some ways to the “anyone can do it” idea that gets associated with punk, the creative expectation of the individual within the group differs between the two. Punk has some similarities to folk, then, but there are tensions, too, and these are well worth examining if one is serious about testing out the common claim, in both folk and punk, that “anyone can do it.”


Author(s):  
Joanna Balcerek ◽  
Evelin Trejo ◽  
Kendall Levine ◽  
Paul Couey ◽  
Zoe V Kornberg ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives Serologic testing for antibodies to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in potential donors of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) convalescent plasma (CCP) may not be performed until after blood donation. A hospital-based recruitment program for CCP may be an efficient way to identify potential donors prospectively Methods Patients who recovered from known or suspected COVID-19 were identified and recruited through medical record searches and public appeals in March and April 2020. Participants were screened with a modified donor history questionnaire and, if eligible, were asked for consent and tested for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (IgG and IgM). Participants positive for SARS-CoV-2 IgG were referred for CCP collection. Results Of 179 patients screened, 128 completed serologic testing and 89 were referred for CCP donation. IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 were detected in 23 of 51 participants with suspected COVID-19 and 66 of 77 participants with self-reported COVID-19 confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The anti–SARS-CoV-2 IgG level met the US Food and Drug Administration criteria for “high-titer” CCP in 39% of participants confirmed by PCR, as measured by the Ortho VITROS IgG assay. A wide range of SARS-CoV-2 IgG levels were observed. Conclusions A hospital-based CCP donor recruitment program can prospectively identify potential CCP donors. Variability in SARS-CoV-2 IgG levels has implications for the selection of CCP units for transfusion.


Author(s):  
Gesa Busch ◽  
Erin Ryan ◽  
Marina A. G. von Keyserlingk ◽  
Daniel M. Weary

AbstractPublic opinion can affect the adoption of genome editing technologies. In food production, genome editing can be applied to a wide range of applications, in different species and with different purposes. This study analyzed how the public responds to five different applications of genome editing, varying the species involved and the proposed purpose of the modification. Three of the applications described the introduction of disease resistance within different species (human, plant, animal), and two targeted product quality and quantity in cattle. Online surveys in Canada, the US, Austria, Germany and Italy were carried out with a total sample size of 3698 participants. Using a between-subject design, participants were confronted with one of the five applications and asked to decide whether they considered it right or wrong. Perceived risks, benefits, and the perception of the technology as tampering with nature were surveyed and were complemented with socio-demographics and a measure of the participants’ moral foundations. In all countries, participants evaluated the application of disease resistance in humans as most right to do, followed by disease resistance in plants, and then in animals, and considered changes in product quality and quantity in cattle as least right to do. However, US and Italian participants were generally more positive toward all scenarios, and German and Austrian participants more negative. Cluster analyses identified four groups of participants: ‘strong supporters’ who saw only benefits and little risks, ‘slight supporters’ who perceived risks and valued benefits, ‘neutrals’ who showed no pronounced opinion, and ‘opponents’ who perceived higher risks and lower benefits. This research contributes to understanding public response to applications of genome editing, revealing differences that can help guide decisions related to adoption of these technologies.


1988 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 422-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. McNulty ◽  
Jay M. Mirtallo

Senior Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) students were surveyed by questionnaire to glean information about academic training, and residency, fellowship, or practice positions sought after graduation. There were 227 (27 percent of total surveys) responses. Of those responding, 71 percent were Bachelor of Science graduates, 29 percent were Pharm.D. primary degree students, and 18 percent completed a residency either before or during Pharm.D. training. Fifty percent had an average of three years of clinical services work experience prior to their Pharm.D. education. There was strong interest in postgraduate education by respondents: 41 percent for residencies and 26 percent for fellowships. Of resident candidates, 18 percent and 49 percent, respectively, considered research essential and important to the program. Areas of greatest interest in residencies were general medicine, infectious disease, and pharmacokinetics. Important to the selection of a fellowship was the research proposal and concurrent clinical practice. Pharm.D. students are interested in postgraduate training as residents (60 percent), fellows (38 percent), or both (2 percent). Desired activities are research and clinical practice independent of residency or fellowship interest.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1960 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-320
Author(s):  
Nathalie P. Masse

The results of international postgraduate education are difficult to assess; the various questionnaires, evaluation sessions, personal contacts between delegates and the teaching body and information on the development of services in the countries, may give some indications of the efficacy and usefulness of the efforts made by the different agencies who devote themselves to this work. From the information we have gathered, our efforts in this field seem to have contributed to the stimulation of interest in the medico-social problems of the child, to improvement to some extent of the standards of work, and to the promotion of international co-operation.


Author(s):  
Stan Renard ◽  
Gianluca Zanella

Although there has been a proliferation of metrics to evaluate arts incubators, the academic field is still developing. Different models and methods of education are applied to the complex phenomena of arts incubators; therefore, it is crucial to measure the effectiveness of education programs from many different perspectives. Our aim is to propose a metric that can estimate the effect of each incubator activity based on the geospatial distribution of its participants. This GIS-based metric will provide a descriptive measure for the quantity and density of the geographical communities affected by the incubator’s activity as well as a socio-economic and demographic benchmarks. Our study investigates 14 US-based arts incubators that offer entrepreneurial training to their associated 1,087 incubatees. The goal of this study is to provide a metric that can assist arts incubators, program directors, arts administrators, and university programs assess program growth as well as funding and marketing efforts.


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