Project Work to Help Fulfill SAMHSA PRAC-ED-PA

The Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) will lead the Expansion of Practitioner Education-Physician Assistant (PRAC-ED-PA) project to (1) Increase the number of PAs delivering high-quality, evidence-based SUD treatment by 2021, (2) Expand the integration of SUD education into PA programs by 2020, and (3) Advocate to include SUD questions on PA certification exams before 2021. PAEA was founded in 1972 and represents all 242 PA education programs in the United States. We serve approximately 2,000 faculty along with approximately 26,000 applicants and more than 18,000 students split between didactic and clinical education phases in each year. The Association is responsible for leadership, program support, faculty development, advocacy, assessment and collecting and disseminating information on PA education programs. Our programs now graduate more than 9,000 new PAs each year who practice medicine in all specialties across every state, multiple territories, and the District of Columbia. PAEA strives to ensure quality PA education through the development and distribution of education services and products geared toward meeting the emerging needs of PA programs, the PA profession, and the healthcare industry. PAEA’s vision is Health for all. Its mission is Leadership, innovation, and excellence in PA education. The immediate population to be served will be 900-1000 students in 10 pilot programs whose knowledge will be enhanced through expansion of existing behavioral health and SUD curricula in 2020 and 2021. PAEA will employ a strategy requiring the 10 pilot programs to actively assist in the process of adapting existing SUD curricula into a 6-8 hour modular format that is suitable for programs to integrate as a stand-alone curriculum or to merge with other curricular components where SUD content is delivered. After piloting and modifying the curriculum, we will expand it to 10 additional programs and 400-500 more students will be impacted by 2021. Progress toward achieving the objectives will be measured and analyzed through scores on student pre- and post- assessments in addition to satisfaction scores and faculty evaluations to continuously improve the quality of the curriculum. The success of the advocacy goal will be measured through the acceptance by the National Commission on the Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) of the PRAC-ED-PA SUD curriculum as one resource for Test Item Writers and the continued inclusion of SUD questions into the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination (PANCE). The 6-8 hour PRAC-ED-PA curriculum will be made available to all PA programs. This expanded SUD treatment knowledge will be drawn upon by PA graduates to reduce stigma associated with SUD and impact the care they will provide to millions of patients over the course of their careers. These demographically diverse patients, and their families, constitute the ultimate population to be served by new graduates in every specialty and practice setting.