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Physician Assistant Assessment

Physician Assistant Assessment

The Physician Assistant Assessment Program is a 5-day comprehensive program incorporating a variety of evaluation methods to provide an overall picture of the Physician Assistant's skills, knowledge, and physical health.  The P.A. Assessment Program includes the following components:

Every P.A. is required to complete a number of self report forms prior to scheduling the assessment. Including, but not limited to: practice profile tool, personal intake inventory, physical/mental health questionnaires.

Participants provide a random sample of redacted chart entries which are assessed for overall quality, organization, legibility, proper documentation, and billing/coding.

The participant's clinical knowledge and judgment are evaluated using hypothetical scenarios related to the participant's field of practice.

Participants will take two written multiple-choice question exams created by the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME). Topics covered may include: Ethics and Communication, and an exam specific to the participant's field of practice.

Participants are evaluated performing a history and physical exam on a mock patient.

Participants will be asked to complete 4 encounters on patients who have been trained to represent various clinical entities. History taking, physical examination, development of an assessment and plan, physician-patient interaction and communication, and information sharing will be assessed.

Evaluation of the participating physician's physical and mental health by way of self reported forms, physical exam and computerized cognitive screening program.

Depending on the participant's specialty, he/she will spend 3 days participating in clinically-based education activities on the inpatient wards, in clinic, in the operating or procedure suite, and/or other clinical settings of the UCSD Medical Center and UCSD Medical Group. All participants are required to keep detailed notes about the types of patients seen and conferences and lectures attended.

Although the participating P.A. is not able to perform "hands-on" medicine, he/she will be integrated into the day-to-day clinical education activities of his/her specialty.

Physicians may be asked to complete an Evidence-Based Medicine Project. In some cases they will choose the topic themselves and in others, a topic will be assigned to them.
At the conclusion of the assessment week, a multidisciplinary staff meeting is held to determine if the P.A. has completed the program, or if more Clinical Education or other remediation is necessary.