APAP Committee Report, September 24, 2004

Committee Name: APAP Research Institute

Committee Chair: Rick Dehn

Current Activities:

--Review of survey instruments utilized for surveying APAP member programs, faculty, or students. (ongoing by Research Review Subcommittee).

--Peer-review of the APAP Research Institute small grant program applications as needed per grant cycle (ongoing by NCCPA/APAP Research Grant [April], AAPA/APAP Research Grant [February], and RI Research Grant [August] Subcommittees).

--Peer-review of proposals for faculty research presentations for fall conference as needed (ongoing by Presentation Review Subcommittee).

--Peer-review of proposals for research poster presentations for fall conference as needed (ongoing by Presentation Review Subcommittee).

--The Research Institute will again conduct the student writing competition this year (ongoing by Student Research Affairs Subcommittee).

--Advisory role to publication of Perspectives of Physician Assistant Education (ongoing by Publication and Endowments Subcommittee).

--Development, organization, and implementation of research curriculum for faculty development, such as the add-on-day research workshop at the last three fall meetings (ongoing by Faculty Development Subcommittee)

--The restructuring of APAP's committee system has progressed during the first year of integration of the Research and Review Committee into the Research Institute. The Research Institute Advisory Board was streamlined this year, resulting in downsizing the size of the board. The RI activities and responsibilities have been delegated to smaller task-focused subcommittees as listed in the following table:

Subcommittee Name	Subcommittee Charge
Research Review	Review and approve research on PA education (surveys)
Publication and Endowments	Oversee APAP Publications Oversee RI Endowment
Student Research Affairs	Oversee Student Awards
RI Research Grant	Administer Small Grants Process
NCCPA/APAP Research Grant	Administer NCCPA Grants Process
AAPA/APAP Research Grant	Administer AAPA Grants Process
Faculty Development	Oversee Research Conference and Workshop Curriculum
Presentation Review	Oversee Presentation of Original Faculty Work at Conferences

The subcommittees listed above have been filled and each subcommittee is now up and running.

Completion dates: As above

Accomplishments/Success Stories:

--RI mission statement and objectives/tasks were created by the RI advisory board in collaboration with the board liaison, and revised and approved by the APAP BOD.

--The process of approving survey instruments, delegated to the Research Review Subcommittee, is ongoing and appears to be working smoothly. Approved surveys are posted on committee's web site at http://paprogram.medicine.uiowa.edu/randr. The process of reviewing surveys is intended to avoid duplication in surveys, improve the quality of research done on the PA education system, and to prevent "survey burnout" that would negatively impact all of our research efforts. Since April 1,2004, 12 surveys have been approved with several others currently in suggested revisions. The rate of survey submission over the last year has held at a steady rate. The Research Review Subcommittee is currently considering revisions to the policies and procedures for survey approval that can be implemented by the end of this year.

--The Research Institute has been providing feedback on unsuccessful proposals to the grant authors beginning with the Spring 2001 cycle. This process was made available again for proposals from the Spring 2004 cycle. Anecdotal observation supports that this is well received by the PIs, and likely has made a contribution to the maturation of the research community. The RI has developed a systematic process for providing feedback to PIs across all APAP research grant processes.

--The RI Research Grant Subcommittee, consisting of chair Meredith Davison and members Dennis Blessing, Michelle Heinan, Tony Miller, Martha Peterson, and Mary Warner, received 20 proposals submitted for the Fall 2004 cycle, which is the largest number ever submitted to an APAP grant cycle. Grants will be awarded at the November APAP Educational Forum.

--The NCCPA/APAP Research Grant review Subcommittee, consisting of co-chairs Emil Petrusa and Pat Kelly, and NCCPA members Ruth Ballweg and Dan McNeill, and APAP members David Asprey and Rick Dehn, reviewed the ten proposals submitted for the Spring 2004 cycle. Carla Kilgore, MSW, LCSW, Saint Louis University Department of PA Education, St. Louis, Missouri, was presented a NCCPA/APAP Research Grant in the amount of $18,329, for “An Analysis of Psychosocial Issues in Primary Care PA Practice.” The RI thanks NCCPA for support of APAP reseach.

--The RI will again present a full-day research-oriented workshop at the 2004 APAP fall meeting. Such workshops have been presented at the last two fall meetings and have been very successful and well attended. Planning for this workshop has been tasked to the RI Faculty Development Subcommittee, which chose “The Graduate-Level Faculty Member’s Toolbox: Skills for Successful Teaching at the Graduate Level” as the workshop topic.

--Recent restructuring of the RI has led to an infusion of new members, which has subsequently led to increasing the gender diversity of the RI. Currently two of eight members (25%) of the Research Institute Advisory Board are female. In total, 21 individuals make up the combined RI Advisory Board and RI subcommittees, and eight of these 21 (38%) are new this year to RI service, and nine of the 21 (43%) are female.

Concerns:

--The RI is concerned that there are no good venues for the dissemination of student scholarly work. Discussion is progressing on the establishment of an APAP-supported Internet journal for PA student scholarly work. A proposal has been generated for the APAP BOD for consideration, and it appears that funding is a major hurdle at this time.

--The RI has long support the establishment of an award to recognize excellence in student research. Discussion on this topic continues within the Student Research Affairs subcommittee. Funding appears to be the biggest barrier.

--The RI would like to transfer its web site, currently maintained by its chair, to the APAP staff. This will need to be planned and implemented carefully, as access to the information about the survey approval process should be maintained during the move. The RI is not aware if APAP staff has budgeted for this process.

--NCCPA apparently has decided to stop supporting the spring NCCPA/APAP research grant cycle, however has agreed to contribute $10,000 annually to APAP’s research grant processes. The RI will consider reconfiguration of the current three grant cycles into two beginning this year, with the addition of the $10,000 to the fall RI small grants program cycle. The fall 2004 cycle attracted 20 proposals, making it a likely place where additional funding could be effectively used.

--The APAP Writing Competition has grown into a large operation over recent years (over 200 entries were received last year), and the time has come to consider that the contest be managed by APAP staff rather than by volunteer faculty and staff. The Student Research Affairs subcommittee shall investigate along with APAP staff possible models for integrating many of the contest operations into APAP staff operations, with the goal of implementing the new process for the 2005-2006 writing contest.

--Differences exist between the APAP research grant processes. Some of these are by design, as outside organizations funding these processes have been given representation to set the grant guidelines. However, as much as possible, the differences in submission guidelines between these grant cycles should be minimized. With one of the cycles ending this year, it becomes more likely that the two remaining processes can be managed more systematically. The APAP subcommittee members of the two remaining processes will examine submission requirement differences with the goal of advising each committee to standardize as much as possible.

Budget Issues:

--APAP staff administers the funding ($6000 from JAAPA) for the J. Peter Nyquist Student Writing Contest. APAP Staff should confirm the continuation of this funding for 2004-2005 by JAAPA’s new publisher before the contest materials go out this fall.

--$20,000 is required to fund the APAP Research Institute Research Grants fall 2004 cycle (allocated).

--If this fall’s RI add-on day workshop is successful, another research-oriented topic will be presented at the fall 2005 meeting in the same add-on day format. In the history of the last two years of research add on workshops, both as generated a profit.

Board Action Required: None

Respectfully submitted

Rick Dehn, Research Institute Advisory Board chair