A Novel Longitudinal Clinical Experience in Physician Assistant Education

Longitudinal integrated clerkships support robust patient-student and student-preceptor relationships, encourage patient advocacy by students, and foster continued humanism in professional practice. While such programs prevail in medical student education, little is known about the impact of longitudinal integrated clerkships on other health professionals' education. In 2018, the Cambridge Health Alliance collaborated with the Boston University Physician Assistant program to implement one of the first longitudinal integrated clerkships for physician assistant students. Data from 5 years of this program demonstrate that participants of the longitudinal integrated clerkship were as successful as their colleagues on their end-of-curriculum exams, and 100% of them passed the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam on their first attempt. Longitudinal patient follow-up fostered trust between students and patients and between students and faculty. As a result, students had increased opportunities for more in-depth patient counseling, with a focus on preventative medicine, as documented in their encounter logs. An additional benefit was the retention at Cambridge Health Alliance of half of the students in the program as they advanced into clinical practice. This longitudinal integrated clerkship expands upon the benefits of student-patient relationships, allows for continued clinical success, and enhances interest in continuing to care for diverse patient populations. This model fosters interprofessional education through shared preceptors and tutorials with medical students. Longitudinal integrated clerkships may also provide a way for the health care systems to recruit future employees and navigate provider retention.