Evaluation of a Whole Health-Lifestyle Medicine Curriculum for Physician Assistant Students: a Mixed Methods Analysis.

There is increased urgency to train healthcare professionals in lifestyle medicine (LM) to mitigate the impact of lifestyle factors on chronic disease (Trilk et al. in Am J Prevent Medic. 2019:e169-e75, 2019; Polak et al. in Am J Lifestyle Med. 2015;9:361-7, 2015). This training addresses physical activity, nutrition, stress management, sleep hygiene, relationships, tobacco cessation (Lifestyle medicine in ACLM Home, 2020), and self-care. Several studies have evaluated the impact of this training on physician assistant (PA) students (Keyes and Gardner in Clin Teach. 2020, 2020; Phillips et al. Med Sci Educ. 1-5). The current paper extends previous quantitative findings from Phillips et al., 2021, revealing positive qualitative changes in PA student language and approach to clinical vignettes after completion of a novel Whole Health/lifestyle medicine (WH-LM) curriculum.