PAThe Challenges in Recruiting and Retaining Physician Associate Clinical Preceptors and Sites for Clinical Coordinators

Authors

• Tara Milligan, University of LynchburgFollow

Specialty

PA Education

Advisor

Dr. Blake Rogers

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Clinical education for all medical learners is at a crossroads. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the critical state of need for preceptors in clinical education, notably physician associate (PA) education. A comprehensive database search was performed using PubMed, Google Scholar, JPAE, and MEDLINE to identify topics such as barriers to decreased clinical preceptors and sites, shortages, PA clinical education issues, clinical clerkships, and practical solutions. During the last decade, the number of medical learners from all programs has seen expansive growth.  A significant decline of eligible preceptors cite retirement, administrative burden, changes in healthcare, personal burnout, lost productivity, and reduced mental health. Motivators for the decision to precept students are innate feelings of mentoring the future generation, teaching appointments, maintaining medical knowledge, and financial compensation. Clinical coordinators and other stakeholders, such as accrediting organizations, advocacy groups, large health centers, community providers, PA schools, faculty, patients, and students, all play an integral role in the outcome of clinical PA education. Novel ideas have been presented to try to combat this problem, such as telehealth models, academic service partnerships (ASPs), utilizing community health fairs, longitudinal integrated clerkships (LICs), and the idea of a single coordination center to act as a repository for preceptors and programs to network.  None of these proposed solutions has addressed the main problem this conundrum is causing, which is a decreased pipeline of clinicians left to teach a growing number of students. Several research briefs and informational articles have been published about this major issue, but none have provided sustainable answers to the problem. If this is not resolved in the next few years, major negative outcomes will predominate in the healthcare system in the United States.

Recommended Citation

Milligan T. PAThe Challenges in Recruiting and Retaining Physician Associate Clinical Preceptors and Sites for Clinical Coordinators. University of Lynchburg DMSc Doctoral Project Assignment Repository. 2026; 8(1).