RESUMO
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate first-year physician assistant (PA) students' attitudes towards an applied writing assignment in a basic biomedical course. METHODS: The assignment required the students to choose a physiology or pathophysiology-related article from a respected media outlet and to select a related original research article. The students summarized, compared, and contrasted the two articles. Finally, the students described how they would explain the media article and related research article to a patient in lay terms that the patient could understand. To evaluate the effectiveness of this assignment the students were given an anonymous survey. RESULTS: The majority of students agreed that this assignment was relevant to their career training, that the articles they chose were related to an interest of theirs, and that they learned new information about health and/or pathophysiology. Students' comments reinforced their perceived significance of this assignment to their career training and roles as future health care professionals. CONCLUSIONS: It can be inferred from this study that PA students found this type of writing assignment helpful for independently learning a course topic of interest and that they found the writing exercise applicable to their future careers.
