Skip to main content

A novel curriculum to train physician assistant students how to write effective discharge summaries.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Zietlow, KE; Gillum, M; Hale, SL; Stouder, A; Blazar, M; Hudak, NM; Ming, D
Published in: Med Educ Online
December 2019

Background: Physician assistants (PAs) are an integral part of inpatient care teams, but many PAs do not receive formal education on authoring discharge summaries. High-quality discharge summaries can mitigate patient risk during transitions of care by improving inter-provider communication. Objective: To understand the current state of discharge summary education at our institution, and describe a novel curriculum to teach PA students to write effective discharge summaries. Design: Students completed a pre-survey to assess both knowledge and comfort levels regarding discharge summaries. They wrote a discharge summary and received feedback from two evaluators, an inpatient provider (IPP) familiar with the described patient and a simulated primary care provider (PCP). Students completed a post-survey reassessing knowledge and comfort. Results: Prior to instituting this curriculum, the majority of students (92.9%) reported rarely or never receiving feedback on discharge summaries. Eighty-four of 88 (95.5%) eligible students participated. There was discordance between IPP and simulated PCP feedback on their assessment of the quality of discharge summaries; simulated PCPs gave significantly lower global quality ratings (7.9 versus 8.5 out of 10, p = 0.006). Key elements were missing from >10% of discharge summaries. Student response was favorable. Conclusion: Clinically relevant deficiencies were common in students' discharge summaries, highlighting the need for earlier, structured training. IPPs and simulated PCPs gave discordant feedback, emphasizing differing needs of different providers during transitions of care. This novel curriculum improved students' knowledge and confidence.

Duke Scholars

Altmetric Attention Stats
Dimensions Citation Stats

Published In

Med Educ Online

DOI

EISSN

1087-2981

Publication Date

December 2019

Volume

24

Issue

1

Start / End Page

1648944

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Writing
  • Transitional Care
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Physician Assistants
  • Patient Discharge
  • Humans
  • Formative Feedback
  • Curriculum
  • Communication
  • 4203 Health services and systems
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Zietlow, K. E., Gillum, M., Hale, S. L., Stouder, A., Blazar, M., Hudak, N. M., & Ming, D. (2019). A novel curriculum to train physician assistant students how to write effective discharge summaries. Med Educ Online, 24(1), 1648944. https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2019.1648944
Zietlow, Kahli E., Megan Gillum, Sarah L. Hale, April Stouder, Melinda Blazar, Nicholas M. Hudak, and David Ming. “A novel curriculum to train physician assistant students how to write effective discharge summaries.Med Educ Online 24, no. 1 (December 2019): 1648944. https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2019.1648944.
Zietlow KE, Gillum M, Hale SL, Stouder A, Blazar M, Hudak NM, et al. A novel curriculum to train physician assistant students how to write effective discharge summaries. Med Educ Online. 2019 Dec;24(1):1648944.
Zietlow, Kahli E., et al. “A novel curriculum to train physician assistant students how to write effective discharge summaries.Med Educ Online, vol. 24, no. 1, Dec. 2019, p. 1648944. Pubmed, doi:10.1080/10872981.2019.1648944.
Zietlow KE, Gillum M, Hale SL, Stouder A, Blazar M, Hudak NM, Ming D. A novel curriculum to train physician assistant students how to write effective discharge summaries. Med Educ Online. 2019 Dec;24(1):1648944.

Published In

Med Educ Online

DOI

EISSN

1087-2981

Publication Date

December 2019

Volume

24

Issue

1

Start / End Page

1648944

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Writing
  • Transitional Care
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Physician Assistants
  • Patient Discharge
  • Humans
  • Formative Feedback
  • Curriculum
  • Communication
  • 4203 Health services and systems