Physician Assistant Program Director Opinions Regarding the Importance of Faculty Research and Publication

Abstract

Purpose: Over the last decade, rapid growth in the number of physician assistant (PA) programs has strained our profession’s ability to supply sufficient numbers of well-prepared faculty members. As the profession shifts towards an entry-level graduate degree, PA educators—generally recruited out of clinical practice—are feeling more pressure to be involved in traditional scholarship activities. The goal of this portion of a two-part study was to elicit opinions from PA program directors regarding the importance of, and barriers to, successful publication by their faculty members. Methods: A written survey instrument on various issues surrounding research and publication by faculty members was administered to directors of all accredited PA programs in May 2002. Results: PA program directors rated their priorities for faculty duties in the following order: (1) classroom teaching, (2) service and administrative duties, (3) clinical practice, and (4) research and academic scholarship. Program directors felt that faculty should ideally spend about 15% of their time on research activities. The factors felt to have the largest detrimental effect on publication success were: lack of time due to teaching or other responsibilities, lack of training in research design, and lack of previous experience with successful publication. Creation of set-aside time dedicated to research and writing was considered the most important factor for promotion of faculty scholarship. Conclusions: Although program directors consider research and publication to be compatible with institutional priorities and very important to the profession as a whole, these activities are generally given a lower priority than other faculty duties.