title: Factors influencing physician assistant program choice among pre-physician assistant students.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that are most important to the pre-physician assistant (PA) student when choosing among two or more PA programs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy-four pre-PA students completed a survey that assessed the importance of 33 decision factors pertaining to program selection.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The five decision factors with the highest importance score were quality of faculty and staff, quality and availability of clinical rotations, tuition, morale of faculty and staff, and a positive interview experience. Additionally, this study showed that specific decision factors are more important to specific groups of pre-PA students, based on gender, marital status, and age.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Knowing what decision factors are important to pre-PA students may empower PA programs to modify program characteristics to retain more accepted students.
authors: 1Brigham Young University-Idaho; 2,3A.T. Still University; 4Brigham Young University-Idaho.
authors: Greg L
authors: GL
authors: Klingler
authors: Mary Beth
authors: MB
authors: Kaylor
authors: Mark
authors: M
authors: Johannsson
authors: Brian
authors: B
authors: Schaat
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003479:Curriculum; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010823:Physician Assistants / Q000193:education*; D013336:Students, Health Occupations / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult