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PA Faculty Suggestions
Invited for HRSA Projects under Development
By Anita Glicken, MSW
HRSA Project Director
In September of 2001, APAP received a 3-year contract
from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Bureau
of Health Professions, to develop, implement, and evaluate three priority
projects in faculty development. Work on this contract, Physician
Assistant Faculty Development Education and Practice, is a collaborative
effort on the part of APAP and PA faculty from member programs. The
three projects include
- Eight articles to be published in Perspective on Physician
Assistant Education, APAP’s peer-reviewed journal, describing
outcomes of HRSA-funded educational projects;
- Development of a management/reimbursement curriculum for PA faculty
and students;
- Development of a faculty resource manual of educational learning
objectives corresponding to core competencies for practice.
Project Leader Don Pederson reports that, beginning
with the Winter 2003 issue of Perspective, two articles in
each of four consecutive issues will address important outcomes of
HRSA-funded educational projects, such as minority recruitment/retention,
care of the medically underserved, palliative care, women's health,
HIV/AIDS, geriatrics, and distance learning.
Work on the practice management curriculum continues
under the leadership of Project Leader Drew Morton and Project Assistant
Theresa Johnson, who are looking for creative, interactive learning
exercises PA programs have used with students to enhance student instruction.
I extend an invitation to faculty to e-mail examples to me at anita.glicken@uchsc.edu.
At this time several modules have been drafted, including a comprehensive
unit on the health care environment. This resource will provide faculty
and students with a standardized curriculum of the latest information
on health systems’ financing, billing, coding, and documentation,
a review of various practice models typically found in today’s
integrated health delivery systems, attempts by payers to affect health
care practitioner behavior, and other payment policies. This curriculum
will also include issues related to PA practice in the managed care
environment, including managed care contracting, prior authorization
requirements, utilization review, capitation, and other payment policy
issues, risk assessment, and the use of patient satisfaction and quality
assurance data.
Educational learning objectives are always a challenge!
Project Leader Mike Huckabee and Project Assistant Wallace Boeve are
creating objectives for a manual with a user-friendly format that
will serve as a resource for member programs. Examples of some of
the ways programs have implemented learning objectives into their
curriculum will be included. I welcome your ideas or suggestions on
these, as well as the active participation or feedback from faculty
who are interested in these projects.
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