Physician Assistant Competencies DRAFT
- Practice patient-centered and relationship-based care.
- Recognize ways in which relationship-centered care facilitates healing.
- Demonstrate and practice respectful communication skills and interactions of patients' interpretations of health, disease, and illness that are based upon their cultural beliefs and practices.
- Incorporate the practice of self-reflection of patient encounters, including personal bias and belief, to facilitate relationship-centered care.
- Obtain a comprehensive health history which includes mind-body-spirit, nutrition, and the use of conventional, complementary and integrative therapies and disciplines.
- Demonstrate patient-centered history taking using a biopsychosocial approach that includes inquiry of conventional and complementary treatments.
- Collaborate with individuals and families to develop a personalized plan of care to promote health and well-being which incorporates integrative approaches including lifestyle counseling and the use of mind-body strategies.
- Collaborate with patients in developing and carrying out a health screening and management plan for disease prevention and treatment using conventional and complementary therapies when indicated.
- Demonstrate skills in utilizing the evidence as it pertains to integrative healthcare.
- Evaluate the strengths and limitations of evidence-based medicine (EBM) as it applies to conventional and complementary approaches and its translation into patient care.
- Locate and use EBM resources, including those related to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), at the point of care.
- Identify reputable resources on conventional and complementary approaches.
- Demonstrate knowledge about the major conventional, complementary and integrative health professions.
- Discriminate the common complementary medicine therapies, including their history, theory, proposed mechanisms, safety/efficacy profile, contraindications, prevalence, and patterns of use.
- Recognize the national and state standards related to training, licensing, credentialing, and reimbursement of community CAM practitioners.
- Facilitate behavior change in individuals, families and communities.
- Facilitate health behavior changes in patients using techniques such as motivational interviewing or appreciative inquiry.
- Work effectively as a member of an interprofessional team.
- Demonstrate respect for peers, staff, consultants, and CAM practitioners who share in the care of patients.
- Understand the roles and responsibilities of CAM practitioners as members of an interprofessional team.
- Collaborate with community CAM practitioners and other healthcare specialists in the care of patients and recognize legal and practice implications and appropriate documentation issues.
- Engage in personal behaviors and self-care practices that promote optimal health and wellbeing.
- Integrate and incorporate self-care practices to improve personal health, maintain work-life equilibrium, and to serve as a role model for patients, staff, and colleagues.
- Incorporate integrative healthcare into community settings and into the healthcare system at large.
- Identify strategies for facilitating access to Integrative Medicine services for their patients, including low-income populations.
- Compare and consider different reimbursement systems and their impact on patient access.
- Recognize and support the principles of designing a healthcare setting that reflects a healing environment.
- Incorporate ethical standards of practice into all interactions with individuals, organizations and communities.
- Recognize the importance of ethical behavior as an integral part of the work and culture of healthcare.
- Develop and demonstrate ethical principles and moral reasoning.
Competency Development
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