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Equitable Admissions in a Physician Assistant Program: Redefining Merit for the 21st Century Medical Provider

Graff, Susan (2024) Equitable Admissions in a Physician Assistant Program: Redefining Merit for the 21st Century Medical Provider. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Increasing the diversity of the physician assistant (PA) profession can mitigate the effects of systemic health inequities, but PA programs face challenges in recruiting and matriculating cohorts with social identity diversity. As the Program Director for the University of Pittsburgh Physician Assistant Studies Residential Program, I aim to “matriculate a class, who will, as [physician assistants], address the diverse healthcare workforce needs of the United States” (Fancher et al., 2022, 21:14). This inquiry examined the effects of removing a higher-level chemistry course and a higher-level psychology course as program requirements through the following questions: (1) To what extent did dropping the higher-level chemistry and psychology courses change the social identity diversity in the application pool? (2) To what extent did dropping the higher-level chemistry and psychology courses affect the science and overall GPA of applicants who identify with one or more historically URiM groups? (3) To what extent did dropping the higher-level chemistry and psychology courses influence applicants who identify with one or more URiM groups in their decision to apply to the University of Pittsburgh Physician Assistant Studies Residential Program?

I employed a pragmatic parallel mixed methods design to explore my inquiry questions using pre-existing quantitative data from the Centralized Application for Physician Assistants (CASPA) and qualitative data from semi-structured interviews of current physician assistant students. The key findings show that removing these prerequisite courses did not significantly increase the social identity diversity of the applicants, nor the prerequisite science grade point

average pre- and post-intervention, highlight that the path to PA school is challenging and expensive, and identify that this PA program’s lower threshold for eligibility to apply and program goals that center diversity, equity, and inclusion are key factors influencing URiM students’ decision to apply. This inquiry argues that higher-level chemistry prerequisites are harming URiM prospective PA students without significant academic benefit, that removing higher-level chemistry courses will likely only achieve positive outcomes years after their removal, and that a combination of removing barriers, like prerequisites, and creating invitations, like diversity, equity, and inclusion programming, work synergistically to increase the number of URiM applicants.


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Details

Item Type: University of Pittsburgh ETD
Status: Unpublished
Creators/Authors:
CreatorsEmailPitt UsernameORCID
Graff, Susansgg16@pitt.edusgg16
ETD Committee:
TitleMemberEmail AddressPitt UsernameORCID
Means, Darrisdarris.means@pitt.edudrm122
Ross, Sharonseross@pitt.eduseross
Beck, Daviddbeck@pitt.edudbeck0000-0003-3905-6071
Date: 28 August 2024
Date Type: Publication
Defense Date: 2 July 2024
Approval Date: 28 August 2024
Submission Date: 5 August 2024
Access Restriction: No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately.
Number of Pages: 103
Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Schools and Programs: School of Education > Administrative and Policy Studies
Degree: EdD - Doctor of Education
Thesis Type: Doctoral Dissertation
Refereed: Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords: physician assistant, PA, admissions, medical education, underrepresented in medicine, prerequisite, organic chemistry
Date Deposited: 28 Aug 2024 15:40
Last Modified: 28 Aug 2024 15:40
URI: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/46842

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