APAP Supports PA Faculty Scholarly Activities in
Several Ways

By Rick Dehn, MPA, PA-C
APAP Research Institute Chair

Now that a majority of PA programs are offering an entry-level graduate degree, an increasing number of PA faculty are finding that their job has new expectations. As PA faculty become graduate-level instructors, they often enter the professorial positions traditionally held by graduate-level faculty. Along with the title of “professor”and some degree of respect within the institution come the expectations of activities that in the past have not been commonly expected of PA faculty. Most of us in professorial appointments will have to demonstrate some level of scholarly activity to be promoted, and some of us may not be able to stay in our current jobs if we don’t succeed in gaining promotion. Fortunately, APAP has taken the problem of our profession’s scholarly activity seriously, illustrated by APAP’s mission statement, which specifically lists “Facilitate Research and Scholarly Activities”as one of five core goals. Towards this end, APAP provides faculty several different ways to present scholarly work to a national audience.

APAP meetings are an ideal place to present your work for several reasons. First of all, since a large majority of programs attend APAP meetings, PA educators representing programs of all types and from all regions will see your work. Second, after presenting at an APAP meeting, you are likely to receive feedback and an opportunity for discussion with peers that I have found to be one of the most rewarding experiences of being an educator. Third, presenting your work at an APAP meeting will add a highly respected entry to your academic portfolio. Combined, these factors will help our profession communicate our ideas and research, will help inspire our creative processes to begin new scholarly projects, and will strengthen our programs and PA education by helping faculty to succeed in seeking promotion and tenure within their institutions.

APAP currently has three processes dedicated to the presentation of scholarly work at APAP meetings: (1) presentations of papers and abstracts at the fall meeting; (2) poster presentations at the fall meeting; and (3) workshops, roundtables, panel presentations, and pearl sessions at both the fall and spring meetings. The presentation of papers and abstracts is designed for authors of original work to briefly present a 10-15 minute summary of that work. In past years these sessions have been well attended, and the projects are listed in the conference syllabus for referencing. Poster presentations have been a part of the APAP fall conference for several years, and have become an increasingly popular way to present scholarly projects. My impression is that a larger audience views poster presentations more attentively than either of the other two processes, as the posters are displayed for several days and they can be viewed at times when there are no scheduling conflicts or other distractions. Abstracts of APAP posters are currently published in Perspectives on Physician Assistant Education. Workshops, roundtables, panels, and pearls have historically been a staple of APAP conferences, and they continue to become increasingly competitive as more faculty submit proposals in response to institutional pressures for promotion. All three APAP processes call for proposals and then move them through a peer-review process.

Which of these three processes is the best one for you? Well, that depends upon the nature of your scholarly work, the promotion and tenure expectations of your institution, and your personal preferences for method of delivery. Some institutions, particularly those with an emphasis on independent scholarly activity or original research, may not recognize the presentation of workshops, roundtables, panel presentations, or pearl sessions as scholarly work, but instead view them as a teaching activity. It is important to talk with your program director or dean to clarify your institution’s expectations, as your choice of process may be influenced by your institution’s definition of scholarly activity.

Typically, paper and abstract presentations as well as poster presentations are considered original scholarly activity by most institutions. Although many faculty consider as their first option presenting a workshop, many topics might be better suited for presentation as a paper or abstract presentation or as a poster presentation. This is particularly true of topics primarily aimed at describing a specific teaching process, presenting a creative approach to a specific problem, presenting data to support use of a specific educational method, or the presentation of any educational process that includes data analysis. Most scholarly activities in these areas would make very effective poster presentations, and in this form would likely attract a bigger and more attentive audience than if done as a workshop. Some of these activities would also be very effective if presented as a paper or abstract, particularly if publication of a manuscript was one of the author’s goals. Because the submission deadlines for paper or abstract presentations and poster presentations is later than the deadline for workshops, roundtables, panel discussions, and pearl sessions, authors not selected in the earlier deadline should consider the option of revising and resubmitting their project as a paper or abstract presentation, or as a poster.

As scholarly expectations for PA faculty have increased in recent years, APAP has responded by increasing the opportunities for faculty to present scholarly work at APAP conferences. Peer review systems help us select the best work for each of our three distinct processes, and encourage recognition by institutions of the value of a scholarly presentation at an APAP conference. As the number of proposals has increased, APAP has increased the resources allocated to supporting scholarly activity, in accordance with our fundamental organizational goals. As our faculty become aware of increasing expectations of scholarly activity from their institutions, APAP will continue to provide a supportive environment for presentation of your scholarly work.