Community-Based Physician Assistant Clinical Education: A Case Study on Motivations, Reinforcement, and Barriers for Recruiting and Retention

The purpose of this case study was to develop an in-depth understanding of community-based clinical stakeholders experiences with recruiting and retention. The theories guiding this study were B. F. Skinner’s operant conditioning and self-determination theory from Deci and Ryan. The methodology for conducting this research was a holistic multiple case study conducted with physician assistant clinical coordinators and community-based preceptors across the United States. Participants contributed to the research through interviews, providing relevant documentation, and in a focus group with clinical coordinators and community-based preceptors. Analysis of the data started with developing concept and pattern codes intra-case with the interviews, focus group and provided documentation. After the cases were complete cross-case synthesis compared the cases by cross-referencing these themes to all interviews, focus groups, documents, and reviewed literature.