Assessment-Driven Research Opportunities Volume 5: Strategies for PA Faculty Tenure and Promotion, Part 2

In today’s newsletter, we conclude our series on assessment-driven research opportunities for PA faculty.  In our previous edition, we discussed the point system used to determine tenure and promotion among university faculty members. As promised, I now present a typical chart of point values used, with some suggestions below on how the activities within can be adjusted and applied to PA faculty.

Point Values for Assessment

PA faculty are encouraged to become familiar with the required points and select specific aspects to tackle each year. Finally, clarify whether a doctoral degree is required. In many cases a master’s degree is the terminal degree. If a doctoral degree is required, any projects required for the degree can be maximized by disseminating this in journals and presentations, etc.

For your PA faculty, when dealing with a point system such as the one outlined above:

• Clarify the definition of a peer-reviewed journal as well as the manuscript citation record. In many cases faculty are not required to publish in a high impact journal. This means that although it is notoriously hard to get a manuscript published in journals with high “impact factor,” this may not be required. Clarify how many points are required of the total for a research article in a journal.
• Volunteer to be a minor contributor in a colleague’s journal article. Points can be garnered for both major and minor contributor status.
• Jump on opportunities to be an author in a clinically based book. Many publishing companies are looking for PA faculty to contribute specific chapters in areas of expertise.
• Apply for grants whenever possible. Often, multiple categories of grant applications qualify for scholarship points.
• Podium presentations count for scholarly activity. State and regional meetings also count.
• Item writing for PAEA, PACKRAT, EORE committees also count for substantial points.
• Non-peer-reviewed articles can also count for a minor number of points.

Summary and Conclusions

Once more, I extend credit to the book Learning to Love Data which I co-authored with Helen Martin, CHSC, PA-C, DFAAPA, which served as basis for most of the subject matter of this series on scholarship in the PA education environment. I hope that the information and examples that I have included will allay the fears of many PA educators when it comes to the “publish or perish” paradigm. 

Remember that Massey & Martin, LLC is available to assist your PA program with this and many of the other issues that confront PA educators today. We welcome you to contact us for a consultation, or to attend one of our (always free) webinars.