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Training Physician Assistant Students to Provide Evidence-Based, Holistic, Patient-Driven Care: a Novel Curriculum

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Abstract

Lifestyle and behavior modifications are the primary preventative strategies to mitigate the growing morbidity, mortality, and cost of chronic disease in the USA (Trilk et al., American Journal of Preventive Medicine 56:e169–e175, 2019); hence, there have been multiple calls to train all healthcare professionals in lifestyle medicine (LM). This paper describes and evaluates the implementation of a novel Whole Health/lifestyle medicine (WH-LM) education initiative for physician assistant (PA) students embedded within a clinical rotation at the VA Boston Healthcare System (VABHS). Students demonstrated increased knowledge of WH-LM principles and increased self-efficacy in utilizing these principles following training.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

LM:

Lifestyle medicine

WH:

Whole Health

PA:

Physician assistant

PM&R:

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

VABHS:

Veterans Administration Boston Healthcare System

VA:

Veterans Health Administration

References

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Vanessa D’Orio, former fellow at VA Boston, and Beth Buyea, and Fernando Ona of Tufts University School of Medicine, for their assistance on the project.

Funding

Funding for payment of non-VA faculty (culinary and health coaching) was provided by the following:

Preventive Medicine Residencies Training Grants

Funder: Health Resources and Services Administration

Grant No.: D33HP26994

Grant Period: 07/01/2017–06/30/2018

Site PI: Haq Nawaz, MD, MPH

Physician Training Award in Cancer Prevention

Funder: American Cancer Society

Grant No.: 124289PTAPM0408113PTAPM

Grant Period: 01/01/2013–06/30/2018

PI: Haq Nawaz MD, MPH

Preventive Medicine Residencies Training Grants

Funder: Health Resources and Services Administration

Grant No.: D33HP31664

Grant Period: 05/01/2018–04/30/2023

Site PI: Victoria Costales, MD, MPH

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. VA Boston Healthcare System, 1400 VFW Parkway, Boston, MA, 02132, USA

    Edward M. Phillips, Susan M. McGlynn & David R. Topor

  2. Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA

    Edward M. Phillips

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

    Susan M. McGlynn

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA

    David R. Topor

  5. Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

    Claire M. Stauffer

Authors
  1. Edward M. Phillips
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  2. Susan M. McGlynn
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  3. David R. Topor
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  4. Claire M. Stauffer
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Contributions

Curriculum designed and implemented by Edward Phillips, Susan McGlynn, and David Topor. Program evaluation conducted by Edward Phillips, Susan McGlynn, and David Topor. Quantitative data compiled and analyzed by Edward Phillips, Susan McGlynn, David Topor, and Claire Stauffer. Editing and writing done collectively by Edward Phillips, Susan McGlynn, David Topor, and Claire Stauffer.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Edward M. Phillips.

Ethics declarations

This project has been reviewed according to VA Boston Healthcare System procedures and has been determined to be non-research; oversight by VABHS Research Committees is not required.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Disclaimer

The contents of this paper do not represent the views of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States Government.

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Phillips, E.M., McGlynn, S.M., Topor, D.R. et al. Training Physician Assistant Students to Provide Evidence-Based, Holistic, Patient-Driven Care: a Novel Curriculum. Med.Sci.Educ. 31, 319–323 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-020-01150-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-020-01150-5

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