Research Subgroup – Active Projects

Understanding the current position of Physician Associate educators and the opportunities for career progression within different HEIs
This project seeks to establish the current baseline of training and development for PA educators in the UK and provide guidance for HEIs on educator support. Joint with Birmingham, SGUL and Swansea.
Contact – Sarah Reeve
sarah.reeve@sheffield.ac.uk
PAs Themselves

Physician Associate post-qualification training in UK hospitals: experiences of newly qualified PAs and their employers
This is a doctoral research project exploring the experiences of different PA training models being used in secondary care. It has a qualitative case study design and involves analysing documents, interviews and rich pictures.

Yorkshire and Humber Physician Associate Cohort Study (PACS)
This is a prospective longitudinal cohort study involving surveys. It is exploring the experiences over time of physician associates from student to practitioner (2017-2025).

Factors influencing undergraduate Physician Associate outcomes (Project Reference HEALTH 0249)
The majority of PA training worldwide is through a postgraduate course lasting 2-3 years. At UCLan, we created the first undergraduate-entry PA course that can be completed in four years post-Level 3 education (such as A Levels). This project will analyse student performance data (such as qualification on entry, interview results, module results, professionalism record) and demographic data (such as gender, ethnicity, age, First Generation Student status, Widening Participation factors, Disability status) held by the university to identify factors influencing undergraduate Physician Associate outcomes.
Contact Emyr Bakker
ebakker@uclan.ac.uk