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. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to describe the experience of minority PA faculty through a critical race theory lens. We used a phenomenological approach using structured interviews of minority PA faculty. Better understanding of the experience of minority PA faculty might lead to improved efforts at recruiting and supporting a more diverse faculty workforce. We conducted 13 interviews of PA faculty representing a variety of underrepresented minorities, geographic regions, types of schools, and stages of their careers. Major themes that emerged across the participants' experiences included opportunities for success in the form of both internal and external support systems and mentorship. As a corollary, barriers to the retention of minority PA faculty including a lack of institutional support, gaps in mentorship, and lack of a solid support network were cited.

Does perspective-taking increase patient satisfaction in medical encounters?

PURPOSE: To assess whether perspective-taking, which researchers in other fields have shown to induce empathy, improves patient satisfaction in encounters between student-clinicians and standardized patients (SPs). METHOD: In three studies, randomly assigned students (N = 608) received either a perspective-taking instruction or a neutral instruction prior to a clinical skills examination in 2006-2007. SP satisfaction was the main outcome in all three studies. Study 1 involved 245 third-year medical students from two universities. Studies 2 and 3 extended Study 1 to examine generalizability across student and SP subpopulations. Study 2 (105 physician assistant students, one university) explored the effect of perspective-taking on African American SPs' satisfaction. Study 3 (258 third-year medical students, two universities) examined the intervention's effect on students with high and low baseline perspective-taking tendencies. RESULTS: Intervention students outscored controls in patient satisfaction in all studies: Study 1: P = .01, standardized effect size = 0.16; Study 2: P = .001, standardized effect size = 0.31; Study 3: P = .009, standardized effect size = 0.13. In Study 2, perspective-taking improved African American SPs' satisfaction. In Study 3, intervention students with high baseline perspective-taking tendencies outscored controls (P = .0004, standardized effect size = 0.25), whereas those with low perspective-taking tendencies did not (P = .72, standardized effect size = 0.00). CONCLUSIONS: Perspective-taking increased patient satisfaction in all three studies, across medical schools, clinical disciplines, and racially diverse students and SPs. Perspective-taking as a means for improving patient satisfaction deserves further exploration in clinical training and practice.