Training Physician Assistant Students to Provide Evidence-Based, Holistic, Patient-Driven Care: a Novel Curriculum.

Lifestyle and behavior modifications are the primary preventative strategies to mitigate the growing morbidity, mortality, and cost of chronic disease in the USA (Trilk et al., American Journal of Preventive Medicine 56:e169-e175, 2019); hence, there have been multiple calls to train all healthcare professionals in lifestyle medicine (LM). This paper describes and evaluates the implementation of a novel Whole Health/lifestyle medicine (WH-LM) education initiative for physician assistant (PA) students embedded within a clinical rotation at the VA Boston Healthcare System (VABHS). Students demonstrated increased knowledge of WH-LM principles and increased self-efficacy in utilizing these principles following training. © This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply 2021.