Overview
The PA Clinical Doctorate Summit was held on March 25-27 in Atlanta, Georgia. The 45 participants represented a diverse group of practicing PAs, PA educators, PA students, physicians from allopathic and osteopathic medicine, workforce experts, and representatives of physical therapy, nursing, and other professions. The summit participants were charged to address the question, “Is the clinical doctorate appropriate to the profession as an entry-level degree, as a postgraduate degree, or not at all?”
The group proceeded from a set of core values for the PA profession, including the overarching importance of patient care, diversity in all aspects of PA education and practice, and the value of the physician/PA team.
The summit participants came to consensus on the following set of recommendations.
- The PA profession endorses the master’s degree as the single, entry-level, and terminal degree for the profession.
- The PA profession opposes the entry-level, PA-specific clinical doctorate.
- The PA profession supports advanced professional development and education, including the option of non-profession-specific postgraduate doctorates.
- The PA profession should explore with physician education groups the development of a model for advanced standing for PAs who desire to become physicians (sometimes called a “bridge program.”)
In preparation for the summit, participants reviewed a variety of materials, including research summaries of other health professions, commentary from PAEA’s Web site, and results of an on-line survey completed by over 5,000 physician assistants, students, and educators.
The summit was financially supported by AAPA and PAEA but the activities of the summit were independent of either organization. The summit was facilitated by Innovation Labs, a consulting firm with a wealth of experience in using creative and interactive activities to produce deliverables from group discussion processes.
Summit participants went through a series of activities designed to examine the issues from a variety of perspectives. They heard presentations about the doctor of nursing practice for nurse practitioners and the doctor of science in physician assistant studies by Baylor University and the U.S. Army. The group created a timeline of significant events for the profession and society. It explored scenarios for the future of the PA profession within the context of changes in health care. The group also explored clinical doctorates in other health professions and how those models might apply within the continuum of competence for the PA profession.
A detailed report of the summit will be produced and posted on the PAEA and AAPA Web sites within one week. The final recommendations will be sent to the PA professional organizations including AAPA, PAEA, NCCPA, APPAP, and SAAAPA for action. Highlights of the activities of the summit can be seen by following the navigation links to the left.
Real Time Record
This web site is a record of the event in Atlanta as it happened - captured in real time and presented here in this web site. The documentation of the session includes the assignments each group was asked to work on and the results they produced. There are photos of the white walls developed by the participants. To view these please click on the thumbnail to open a larger version. The large group conversations were documented in text and images as well. The documenation was captured throughout the course of each day of the session and is chronological (in the order that things happened). The text is not a transcription of the large group conversations. Rather, it represents the documentor's synthesis of what was being discussed.
This record is intended to be a reminder to the participants of the conversations that took place during the Summit, to serve as a stimulus for further conversation and to serve as an artifact of the group's work.
For anyone who was not present at the event reading this, you may lose some of the energy and creativity the participants expressed - and some of the ideas may not translate completely without that context.
Images
Photographs of participants and their work are included throughout the Real Time Record. To view a larger version of a marker board or poster, please click on the thumbnail image. The larger image will open in a new window.
If you have any questions regarding the material posted here please contact Ayeshia Ellington Pompey at (703) 548-5538 x 312 or Michael Kaufman at (510) 903-0652.