Abstract
Objective:
Physician Associates (PA) graduation rates from the 217 accredited Physician Associate (Studies) programs are increasing while 20 new programs are in development (https://www.ajmc.com/view/physician-assistants-associates-at-6-decades). The research reporting on how academic health sciences libraries serve these programs is minimal. The purpose of this mixed methods exploratory study is to examine the practices and perceptions of librarians/information specialists who are or will actively support PA programs.
Methods:
This study is being conducted in two phases. First, librarians or information specialists who are or will actively support PA programs will be surveyed. Descriptive statistics will be used to evaluate the survey results. The survey includes an invitation to participate in semi-structured interviews. Second, the persons who respond ‘yes’ to the semi-structured interview request will be contacted and will be virtually interviewed until saturation is reached.
Results:
Upon acceptance of this abstract for a lightning talk, this section will be updated with our preliminary survey results.
Conclusions:
This study’s results will expand the knowledge of what resources and services PA programs utilize and how libraries can best collaborate with them. These findings will assist both librarians/information specialists already working with PA programs and those at institutions developing new PA programs.