PAEA Genetics Survey Shows Many Programs Are Considering New Approaches

A survey of PA programs undertaken by PAEA in February shows that while programs are currently incorporating genetics into a variety of courses and using a variety of instruction methods, many programs perceive a need to enhance their teaching of genetics and are considering new approaches.

The Web-based survey was sent to all 134 PAEA member programs in February. One hundred programs responded, for a 75% response rate. Preliminary results of the survey were presented at a meeting hosted by the National Human Genome Research Institute in March. Among the results presented were the following:

• The teaching of genetics in PA programs is generally integrated into other courses, rather than as stand-alone courses.
• PA program core faculty have the majority of teaching responsibility — 72% of responding programs used PA program faculty to teach genetics.
• Lecturing is the most common instructional modality used — 97% of responding programs reported using lectures to deliver material, followed by case-based teaching (32%) and Web-based tutorials (29%).
• A number of core genetics concepts — including genetic diagnostic testing, pharmacogenetics, and genetic counseling, are not currently taught by a significant percentage of PA programs.
• A large majority of programs (82%) perceive a need to enhance their genetics curricula and 62% plan to change their approach to teaching genetics in the near future.
• The main barriers to enhancing the teaching of genetics are an already overcrowded curriculum and lack of time to develop resources.
• Programs perceive a wide variety of genetics resources as helpful in developing curriculum: 10 of 14 listed resources were indicated to be “very helpful” or “quite helpful” by at least 80% of responding programs.

Complete results of the survey will be reported in volume 18, number 2, of the Journal of Physician Assistant Education, scheduled to be published in July.