Scholarly Productivity and Occupational Stress Among Physician Assistant Educators

Abstract

Purpose Academic scholarship continues to challenge physician assistant (PA) educators in the United States, who typically enter academia with little experience in research or publication. Consequently, difficulty with navigating the promotion process might be expected to impact both job satisfaction and retention of PA faculty. Providing reasonable benchmarks for scholarship is one focus of this project, along with exploration of relationships among publication success, gender, job stressors, program support, and intent to leave academia. Methods Deidentified data from the online 2017 Faculty & Directors Survey was obtained from the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA), including gender, academic rank, program role, degree, publication numbers, and variables measuring program support, stressors, and intent to leave the institution or academia. Individual response rate was 60.3%, N = 1009. SPSS-v25 was used for data analysis. Results Respondents were 65% female. The mean number of total publications was 2.7 (down from 4.2 in 2010); the median was zero with 50.6% reporting no publications during their career. Almost half (45.5%) of PA faculty were stressed by research or publishing demands; 53.6% were stressed by the promotion process. Physician assistant educators stressed by promotion were more likely to consider leaving their institution or academia as a whole (Fisher's exact, P < .001 for both). Conclusion This study updates publication benchmarks for PA educators. Scholarship levels have dropped since 2010, likely related to the recent influx of junior faculty. Navigating the promotions process is a significant occupational stressor for PA educators and is associated with faculty intent to leave academia.

An Analysis of the Selection Criteria for Postgraduate Physician Assistant Residency and Fellowship Programs in the United States

“…Moreover, these non-cognitive characteristics may serve as more reliable predictors of success in PA postgraduate training as it does in physician graduate medical education (4). Some thoughts on research and advocacy: According to published research, 36% of physician residency programs cited "demonstrated involvement and interest in research" as a factor when granting applicants an interview (5); however, our study demonstrated a lower importance on research/publications of PA postgraduate education applicants, which serves to highlight the scant contribution of PAs to the eld of medical research that has been previously observed. In fact, one study reported a precipitous drop in PA scholarship activity over the last decade, which may be related in part to recruitment practices (6).…”

Finding Success in Scholarship: How Physician Assistant Educators Can Overcome Barriers to Publication

“…3 At that time, a little over 50% of PA faculty had never produced a single publication in their entire career. 4 Scarcity of PA faculty scholarly publications can have significant consequences. With their voices missing from the academic literature, the PA profession is less visible.…”

“…4 A lack of support for scholarly work and the stress of the academic promotion process have been linked to faculty members' intent to leave their institutions or leave academia altogether. 3,4 Several major barriers stand between PA educators and publication. PA faculty are primarily tasked with educating PA students and find the vast majority of their time dedicated to teaching duties, leaving little time for scholarly pursuits.…”

Assessing Demand for Doctoral-Prepared PA Faculty: A Five-Year Longitudinal Study

“…It is also interesting to note that while the percentage of PA educators holding doctoral degrees has increased in the past decade, levels of scholarship have dropped over the same period. The mean number of total publications was 2.7 (down from 4.2 in 2010); the median was zero with 50.6% reporting no publications during their career, a nding that was attributable to the recent in ux of junior faculty [15].…”