Physician assistant
[1] The educational model was initially based upon the accelerated training of physicians in the United States during the shortage of qualified medical providers during World War II.
[1][2] In the US, PAs may diagnose illnesses, develop and manage treatment plans, prescribe medications, and serve as a principal healthcare provider.
The role has been adopted in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, India, Israel, Bulgaria, Myanmar, Switzerland, Liberia, Ghana, and by analogous names throughout Africa, each with their own nomenclature and education structure.
PAs may practice in primary care or Health Sciences specialties, including emergency medicine, surgery and cardiology.
Eugene A. Stead of the Duke University Medical Center assembled the first class of physician assistants in 1965, composed of four former US Navy Hospital Corpsmen.
[17][18] He based the curriculum of the PA program on his first-hand knowledge of the fast-track training of medical doctors during World War II.
[19] Two other physicians, Richard Smith at the University of Washington, and Hu Myers at Alderson-Broaddus College launched their own programs in the mid-late 1960s.
Advisors for this program included UNICEF, American physicians, and Agnes N. Dagbe, MS, RN, a Liberian nurse educated in the US.
It can now be found in Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, Germany, Ghana, India, Israel, Liberia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom.
As a profession, physician assistants have greatly influenced the theory and conceptualization of socially accountable health professional education.
[23] In 2011, Health Workforce Australia began developing the role of physician assistant throughout the country culminating with registration and a PA Program based out of James Cook University.
[25] Despite all initial indicators showing that the new profession would be successfully integrated into the health care system, in 2013 it was reported that the progress had floundered resulting in the majority of PAs in Australia being unemployed.
[27] The first formally trained physician assistants graduated in 1984 from the Canadian Forces Medical Services School at Borden, Ontario.
Physician assistants are labeled under the federal government national occupational classification code 3124: allied primary health practitioners.
Physician Assistants (PA) are academically prepared health care professionals who provide a broad range of medical services.
[38] Physician assistants outside of the Canadian Armed Forces practice usually in the public health care system in the provinces of Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Alberta.
[citation needed] Israeli PA education is modeled after United States' and Netherlands' approaches, and has focused on former paramedics with bachelor's degrees.
While PA scope of practice includes many emergency procedures, Israeli PAs are not currently allowed to prescribe or administer medicine in non-emergency settings.
[14] In February 2015, Health Workforce New Zealand completed a Phase-2 trial of PAs who worked for a period of two years (2013–2015) in four clinical settings.
In July 2023 a motion was brought forward for discussion by the British Medical Association to rename PAs as Physician Assistants in the U.K. to avoid role confusion with Physicians and for them to be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council, however, the British Medical Association is a trade union for doctors and is not a regulatory body; it therefore has no statutory power to set a scope of practice, rename the profession or decide on a regulatory body.
[71] During training, PA students are designated PA-S.[citation needed] The use of "PA-C" is limited to certified PAs who comply with the regulations of the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants and who have passed PANCE.
The campaign has been heavily criticized by physicians, but advocates argue that the revised title more accurately reflects the clinician's role on the patient care team.
[90] During the COVID-19 pandemic, several state governments changed regulations regarding PA scope of practice, including: The first employer of PAs was the then-Veterans Administration, known today as the Department of Veterans Affairs.
[98] The US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics report on PAs states, "...Employment of physician assistants is projected to grow 37 percent from 2016 to 2026, much faster than the average for all occupations..."[99] This is due to several factors, including an expanding health care industry, an aging baby-boomer population, concerns for cost containment, and newly implemented restrictions to shorten physician resident work hours.
[100] The remainder were employed in public health clinics, nursing homes, schools, prisons, home health care agencies, and the United States Department of Veterans Affairs[101] Fifteen percent of responding PAs work in counties classified as non-metropolitan by Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture;[102] approximately 17% of the US population resides in these counties.
[104] According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2020 the median pay for physician assistants working full-time was $115,390 per year or $55.48 per hour, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $162,470.
[citation needed] They provide primary care to US government employees and their families in American embassies and consulates around the world.
They serve as the "front line" of Army medicine and along with combat medics are responsible for the total health care of soldiers assigned to their unit, as well as of their family members.
[citation needed] PAs also serve in the Air Force and Navy as clinical practitioners and aviation medicine specialists, as well as in the Coast Guard and Public Health Service.
A certificate of registry is granted through The United States Coast Guard National Maritime Center located in Martinsburg, West Virginia.
