Aiming to Improve Social Inclusion in Physician Assistant Students’ Classroom Experience Through Partnership

Pedagogical partnership programs often facilitate collaborations between students and faculty to bolster inclusive instructional methodologies and equitable opportunities for classroom engagement. Improving equitable learning experiences for students is of particular importance within physician assistant (PA) education given the efforts toward increasing diversity within the profession. We began to explore ways to increase social equity and inclusion in a PA program by incorporating a student–faculty partnership, which was established between an undergraduate student and a graduate PA program faculty member. The partnership included classroom observations, syllabus/lecture review, and mid-semester feedback from the student partner, as well as weekly meetings between the student partner and faculty member to iteratively revise approaches to course instruction and student engagement. At the end of the course, we gathered survey data on the partnership’s impact on PA students’ perceptions of classroom climate and the PA program in general. Student responses indicate that students experienced a sense of improved classroom climate, open communication, trust, and support because of the partnership.