Validation of a clinical rotation evaluation for physician assistant students

BMC Medical Education

Table 2 Associations Between PACRE Scores and Student or Clinical Rotation Characteristics

Characteristic	Value^a (N = 118)	PACRE Score^b	P Value
Student characteristics
Gender			.01^c
Men	10 (8.5)	4.7 (0.4)
Women	108 (91.5)	4.3 (0.6)
Age, y	24.1 (1.8)	4.3 (0.6)	.07^d
No. of previous rotations	5.3 (3.0)	4.3 (0.6)	.24^d
Clinical rotation characteristics
Specialty			.006^c
General practice	30 (25.4)	4.6 (0.5)
Medicine subspecialties ^e	10 (8.5)	4.5 (0.4)
Medical specialties ^f	24 (20.3)	4.2 (0.6)
Pediatrics	9 (7.6)	4.2 (0.6)
Surgery	29 (24.6)	4.1 (0.5)
Other ^g	16 (13.6)	4.2 (0.6)
Type			.85^c
Required	84 (71.2)	4.3 (0.6)
Elective	34 (28.8)	4.3 (0.6)
Location			.46^c
Tertiary center	76 (64.4)	4.3 (0.6)
Health system	42 (35.6)	4.4 (0.6)
Length of rotation, wk			.39^c
4	115 (97.5)	4.3 (0.6)
6	3 (2.5)	4.6 (0.4)
My program adequately prepared me for this rotation ^h	4.2 (0.8)	4.3 (0.6)	<.001^d
This rotation prepared me for being a PA	4.4 (0.7)	4.3 (0.6)	<.001^d

Abbreviations: PA physician assistant, PACRE physician assistant clinical rotation evaluation
^aValues are No. of responses (%) or mean (SD).
^bValues are mean (SD).
^cWilcoxon rank sum test (2 groups) or Kruskal-Wallace test (> 2 groups).
^dPearson correlation.
^eCardiology [9], Endocrinology [1].
^fDermatology [5], Emergency Medicine [7], Neurology [2], Psychiatry [10].
^gGeriatrics [1], Hematology/Oncology [4], Infectious Disease [4], Interventional Radiology [1], Pain Management [2], Urology [2], Vascular Medicine [1], Women’s Health [1].
^hPearson correlation coefficient, 0.32.
ⁱ Pearson correlation coefficient, 0.57.

ISSN: 1472-6920