Physician Associates’ contribution to collaborative secondary care

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  An exploration of Physician Associates’ contribution to collaborative secondary care and their integration into the multidisciplinary team - A mixed methods study

• IRAS ID

  263045

• Contact name

  Susanne Lindqvist

• Contact email

  s.lindqvist@uea.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  UEA

• Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

  N/A, N/A

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 0 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  The Physician Associate (PA) role is new in the UK and to date very little research has been carried out in secondary care (hospital) settings.

  Given the significant funding going into extending the PA role, it is of value to understand how the role is evolving in secondary care. This study aims to investigate patient and staff perceptions about the PAs' contribution to patient care and how they fit into the multidisciplinary team (MDT).

  The Faculty of Physician Associates (2017) cites “ensuring a level of continuity and added value at ward level” as a rationale for employing a PA in secondary care. This study aims to go some way towards answering the question whether this intention is being effectively met in secondary care settings in the Eastern region. The views of patients, other members of the healthcare teams (including administrative staff) and PAs themselves will be sought from three different National Health Service (NHS) hospital trusts in the eastern region.

  Views will be sought on the following:

  i. Impact of the role of the PA on patients/patient care
  ii. Impact of the role of the PA on the healthcare team
  iii. PAs’ views of their role within the collaborative healthcare team

  Eligible participants will include:
  - patients who have had a PA involved in their care
  - all of the PAs employed at the three sites at the time of the study
  - other healthcare and support staff who work with the PAs

  There are two stages to data collection.
  Stage 1 - all PAs, all staff working with PAs and all patients treated by PAs will be invited to complete a questionnaire.
  Stage 2 - all PAs will be invited to join focus groups. Staff and patients will be invited for interview.

  It is anticipated that the data collection stage of the study will run from September 2019 - December 2019.

• REC name

  Wales REC 7

• REC reference

  19/WA/0280

• Date of REC Opinion

  7 Oct 2019

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion