Resources
Below is a collection of resources for PA program faculty. While there is a vast amount of information available, we decided to select specific material that we found helpful for new faculty in PA education.
Social Media
Follow us on Instagram for motivational quotes regarding leadership, teaching and team-building.
Follow us on Facebook for brief summaries of articles from PA education, medical education and higher education.
Follow us on Twitter for Did You Know facts about education, leadership, accreditation, and medicine.
Follow us on LinkedIn for Blog posts on topics in PA Education.
Websites
Physician Assistant Education Association
The Physician Assistant Education Association is a great resource for new programs, educators, program directors. It offers many educational workshops throughout the year and a large conference (Forum) in the fall every year. Explore their website to find resources like the preceptor handbook, end-of-rotation exams, and CASPA (national application system). It is a great organization for networking with other PA educators.
The ARC-PA is the national accrediting body for physician assistant education. The website has important documents like the Standards, accreditation manual, information of site visits, applications, self-study report, program change forms. The organization provides information to programs several times annually with the Notes to Programs which covers current updates and accreditation changes.
Faculty Focus publishes articles on effective teaching strategies for the college classroom, covering both on-campus and online teaching. It also has a free newsletter that you can sign-up for.
Journals
Journal of Physician Assistant Education
This journal is produced by PAEA and is published four times annually. It is a journal specifically for PA educators and subscription is available through your institution joining the organization.
Academic Medicine
This is the journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges. Your institution library will probably carry a subscription. It has many great articles specifically geared toward medical education.
International Journal of Education in the Health Sciences and is open access. It is addresses the needs of teachers and administrators throughout the world involved in training for the health professions.
Journal of Graduate Medical Education
This journal is published by the American College of Graduate Medical Education and it is free access. It covers many topics regarding resident training which can apply to physician assistant graduate training.
This journal provides an interdisciplinary academic forum on issues in teaching and learning at the undergraduate or graduate level. Your institution library will probably carry a subscription. The website is: www.tandfonline.com
Books
There are a lot of resource books out there for teaching strategies, engaging students, learning styles, etc. and most are very good books. Faculty new to education need to first learn the basics and then branch out into specialty areas. The two books listed below are just that. A great place to get started.
McKeachie’s Teaching Tips (14ed.) by Svinicki & McKeachie, 2013. Cengage Learning. ISBN -13: 978-1133936794
Tools for Teaching (2nd ed.) by Barbara Gross Davis, 2009. Jossey-Bass. ISBN -13: 978-0787965679