Physician Assistant Cancer Education Program

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The specific aims of the Physician Assistant Cancer Education (PACE) project are to: 1) develop, test, and refine a Cancer Risk Assessment, Risk Reduction, and Management curriculum; 2) implement a faculty development program to promote adoption of effective curriculum components by PA faculty members; and 3) evaluate the effectiveness of cancer-specific curricular and faculty development initiatives using objective outcome measures; disseminating the results through several strategies (e.g., journal articles, conference presentations, online down-loadable resources). Novel strategies for preparing PAs to engage patients effectively in cancer risk management include: adapting the Case-based series in Population-Oriented Prevention for use with PAs; using motivational interviewing; and using a specialized training form of objective structured clinical examinations (tOSCE) to enhance PA skills in patient-centered cancer risk management across diverse cultural groups. Cancer content in 6 Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) PA courses (Behavioral Counseling, Clinical Genetics, Clinical Medicine, Cultural Competency, Physical Diagnosis, Women's Health) will be strengthened. Revised courses will be field tested at BCM in years 1-2 and adopted for use and refinement in years 3-5. Faculty development workshops will foster replication of PACE curriculum components in 6 PA programs in Texas (year 3) and 5 programs in other states (year 4). Over 5 years, some 900 students and 30 faculty will be directly affected by the PACE initiative. Multimodal evaluations of student and faculty performance will document learning in both quantitative and qualitative terms, including measures of clinical behaviors using the tOSCE and skills checklists, and cultural competency using a multicultural sensitivity scale. Results will be disseminated through presentations, publications, an online resource center, and other means. With large numbers of PAs pursuing careers in public health service settings, enhancing their readiness to provide high quality cancer risk assessment and management services is of utmost importance. Regardless of race, ethnicity, income level, or source of service, adults, and children at risk from cancer should have access to high quality patient- centered healthcare. The project is designed to ensure that PAs who pursue careers in public health care are prepared to deliver high quality cancer-related care to all patients.