Higher levels of self-efficacy and readiness for a future career among Spanish-speaking physician assistant students after their volunteer work at a student-run free clinic in the United States

Shannon Weaver, Zainub Hussaini, Virginia Lynn Valentin, Samin Panahi, Sarah Elizabeth Levitt, Jeanie Ashby, Akiko Kamimura

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Volunteering at a free clinic may influence career choice among health profession students. The purpose of this study was to explore knowledge, skills, attitudes, self-efficacy, interest in future work with the underserved, and interest in primary care among physician assistant (PA) students through an analysis of demographic characteristics of PA students at a student-run free clinic in the United States. Data were collected from 56 PA students through a quantitative survey in October 2018 after their participation at a student-run free clinic in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the intermountain west region of the USA. Out of the 3 sub-scales (attitudes, effect, and readiness), students responded most positively to items exploring the effect of their experiences of volunteering at the free clinic. Students who spoke Spanish showed higher levels of self-efficacy and readiness for a future career than non-Spanish speakers.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberjeehp-16-27
JournalJournal of educational evaluation for health professions
Volume16
DOIs
StatePublished - 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Korea Health Personnel Licensing Examination Institute This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Keywords

  • Medically uninsured
  • Physician assistants
  • Primary health care
  • United States
  • Volunteers

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • Health Professions (all)

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