To describe didactic neuroscience and clinical neurology education in physician assistant (PA) degree programs.

Utilization of advanced practice providers (APPs) presents one viable strategy for improving access to neurologic care throughout the practice spectrum. To develop tools for integrating APPs into neurologic practice, the typical knowledge base of an APP entering practice must be understood. To our knowledge, the extent of neurology and neuroscience education in existing APP programs, including PA programs, has not been quantified.

Curricula of accredited PA programs with enrolled students as of fall 2021 were reviewed for content related to clinical neurology and didactic neuroscience education on official program websites. Data was analyzed using simple descriptive statistics.

A total of 260 accredited programs with enrolled students were identified. 255 of these programs listed information about didactic curriculum and 234 programs listed information about clinical curriculum. 53 program websites (20.8%) indicated the presence of a required neuroscience course, but 134 (53.5%) included no information about any neuroscience content. For programs with required neuroscience and cardiovascular courses, an average of 2.4% of total program hours were dedicated to neuroscience compared with 4.0% dedicated to cardiovascular courses (p < 0.0001). There was 1 program with a required clinical neurology rotation (0.4%).