Service-Learning in Physician Assistant Education: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Introduction: Service-learning (SL) is a pedagogy that can be used in healthcare education to develop students who are better prepared to address the various social determinants of health and to provide compassionate care to the diverse populations they will serve. Yet, an assessment of the quality and scope of the SL activities used in physician assistant (PA) education is not available. The purpose of this scoping review is to review the literature and identify and summarize articles about SL courses in PA education.

Methods: We performed a scoping literature search of 4 databases (CINAHL, PubMed, Embase, and Scopus) to identify peer-reviewed journal articles about SL in PA education. Studies that did not include PA students, were not a service-learning activity (but instead an interprofessional activity, simulation, or volunteerism), or were not a full article were all excluded.

Results: Nine articles were included in this scoping review after independent evaluation by 2 investigators based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. The most common reason for exclusion was lack of distinct learning objectives specific to the service learning and/or a lack of a structured, guided critical reflection that helped realize and demonstrate the desired learning outcomes.

Discussion: Although service-learning is considered to be a high-impact teaching practice, it is still an underutilized tool in PA education. Training faculty in the implementation of SL to align the hands-on activity with specific course learning objectives and in the effective use of structured critical reflection can create a more impactful and authentic SL educational experience.