Moving Professionalism Pedagogy in Physician Assistant Education Toward Intersectional Professional Identity Formation

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: The Role of Context in Addressing Bias in Professions Education (Table 11)

Abstract

Recently, physician assistant (PA) organizations advocated for action to address the lack of diversity in the profession. Through this study we implemented a professional development (PD) workshop for PA educators focused on professionalism pedagogy, and professional identify formation (PIF) as it relates to underrepresented in medicine students. Our goal was to increase awareness of PIF as a pedagogical framework and to integrate intersectionality into the PIF framework. Using survey data, interviews, and workshop exit questions, we determined our PD workshop contributed to an increased likelihood of PA educators integrating PIF and prioritizing sociocultural factors into professionalism curricula. Further, our workshop changed perspectives regarding professionalism definitions in PA education to include recognition for how professionalism is influenced by students’ sociocultural factors.

Authors

• Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, Arizona State University

• Jennifer Feirstein, Northern Arizona University