Healthcare Career: A Case Study

The Physician Assistant (PA) and Nurse Practitioner (NP) career fields were the medical fields’ response to the physician shortage that began in the 1960s, but the shortage still exists today. As the population continues to grow, the gap continues to grow as well. Medical schools were having a hard time producing as many doctors that were needed to fill in the gaps in a timely manner, leaving the medical field looking for ways they could have health care providers diagnose and treat patients, but educated in half the time of a doctor. The PA program was then born out of the military. Medical doctors watched as military doctors and medics came back, but they had no formal training except for on-the-job training. The NP program was derived from previous midwifery program. Currently, as the physician shortage is still impending more and more PAs and NPs are being hired to fill in the gaps. This is causing many questions to arise: Are they qualified?, What kind of education do they have?, and Should I feel safe?. Patients want to know that they are getting excellent care, and that their medical providers are qualified to diagnose and treat patients accurately.

According to Health Resources and Services Administration If the system for providing primary care in 2020 were to stay fundamentally the same as today, there will be an estimated shortage of 20,400 primary care physicians ("Projecting the Supply and Demand for Primary Care Practitioners Through 2020," n.d.). In addition this projection doesn’t include the decreasing number of people perusing the medical degree and the baby boomers retiring form this filed of science. In the hand we are experiencing a significant increase in NPs and PAs. Considering this projected shortage, which is actually a very frightening situation the increasing number of NPs and PAs, can effectively be integrated; we could reduce the number of physician shortage by over 69 percent in 2020.

Physician assistant (PA) is a career that allows an individual to work independently to treat patients. While the physician is available to reference if any questions or concerns arise about patient care issue. The position of PA is diverse, and the delegated duties may range from surgical assistant to family practice. If a PA chooses to specialize then their knowledge and training is revered to be desired by employers. The career is fast growing and beneficial as a mid-level practitioner for physicians.

The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of the physician shortage in Unite State of America. This is more exactly delineate as a gap between the population’s demand for primary care services and the capacity of primary care, as currently delivered, respond to the demand. According to Nile (2015), physician is person trained and licensed to practice medicine or an individual with a Doctor degree in medicine. Physicians play a central role in health care delivery. Although now, physicians are sharing patient care responsibility with a team of Physician assistant (PA) and Nurse Practitioner (NP), especially with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act implementations. The PA and NP are alternative to medical doctor or physician

Day by day, the demand of a medical profession is increasing. In every era or any situation, we need someone to help us for our health. As stated in bls.gov, employment of physician assistants is projected to grow 30 percent from 2014 to 2024; it is much faster than the average for all occupations. As demand for healthcare services grows, physician assistants will be needed to provide care to patient.

One of the important acts that brought in the role of the Physician Assistants is the Affordable Care Act--ACA, passed by Congress in 2010 which created a value for the PA profession. Thus now there is a "formal recognition of PAs as providers of patient-centered, team-based primary medical care." (Hanson, Physician Assistants: Recognized, Valued in Healthcare Reform) Physician Assistants are now one of the vital parts of healthcare professionals in the U.S, and they are now integrated into newly established models of coordinated care. PAs are indispensable

Physician Assistants can be used to fill these voids for primary medicine and insure healthcare facilities are able to meet their demand at any given time. Should the need for any specialty ever arise at a healthcare facility, whether it be cardiology, dermatology, orthopedics, emergency medicine, surgery or any other specialty, on staff physician assistants can be trained into those roles. Naturally this creates a high demand for this profession and it continues to increase. This is what the creators of the PA profession had in mind when they developed it in the 1960’s. They believed generalist-trained assistants who worked closely with physicians and would require a shorter period of training would enable them to respond to the marketplace demand of various surgical and medical roles.

Recent changes in health insurance coverage and the changing face of the patient population have converged to create a unique healthcare marketplace, rife with opportunities not only for patients but for providers as well. With the passing of the Affordable Health Care Act, 32 million Americans who previously could not afford health care insurance coverage became eligible to purchase affordable healthcare. These patients, therefore, will be able to receive services they have perhaps needed but were previously unable to afford. (Furlow, 2012) The American population includes 75.4 million Baby Boomers, who will be enjoying the retirement years but will be managing chronic health conditions such as COPD, heart disease, and diabetes. (American Hospital Association, 2007) While this increased patient population seeking healthcare services is causing concern for a problematic shortage of physicians, (Raines, 2014) it also heralds new and exciting solutions which include opening doors for midlevel providers, such as Nurse Practitioners and Physician’s Assistants, to succeed as primary healthcare providers in the world of a rapidly changing healthcare system.

In recent years, there have been increased efforts to improve the state of healthcare in the United States. Despite spending much more than any other high-income countries on healthcare each year, the United States is behind many other countries when it comes to overall health status (Squires & Anderson, 2015). There have been several new policies set forth to improve patient outcomes while also cutting costs. In addition to excess spending, there are also concerns regarding the increased demand for healthcare as the baby boomers continue to age (Song & Ferris, 2018). To address these challenges, officials are working toward utilizing advanced practice nurse practitioners (APRNs) to act as healthcare providers for the growing population of

The physician assistant profession has come a long way of / for the time of Buddy Treadwell . PAs have continued to earn respect and further increase awareness about the profession to the public . According to Research on the PA profession : The medical model shifts the measure of the overall clinical efficiency , with the addition of a PA , was found to be 76% . In addition to improving overall clinic experience , PAs are an extremely cost-effective addition to a practice . This is supported by evidence that dates back to the early 2000's .

According to the U.S News & World Reports, physician assistant rank number four on the ranking of best jobs of 2016. Why? It is because the unemployment rate is 0.2 percent. This is very low compared to national unemployment rate of 5.0 percent as of September, 2016 (Bureau of Labor Statistic, 2016). One of the factor accounted in this is because due to the vast population of United States of approximately 300 million people. With a tremendous number of people, there will also be a tremendous amount of health problem related as there are correlation relationship between peoples’ health and jobs. As a result, half of Unites States fastest growing jobs will be in health care. In addition, American life expectancy has increased drastically from 50 to 80; also, advance medical technical to help with serious chronic treatment helped contribute to this job growth (Anne and Victoria, 2012, Pg. 9).

practice among different specialties. This is similar to PAs in India, who started in the cardiology field but, now practice among numerous disciplines (Sundar, 2014). In the Netherlands an estimated 75% of PAs work in hospitals (Driesschen et al., 2014). Equally, in South Africa, PAs mainly work supporting supervising physicians in the hospital setting (Couper, 2014). In several countries, PAs duties include conducting physical evaluations, providing surgical procedures, taking medical histories, diagnosing illnesses, and providing treatment and patient education. Nonetheless, while the scope of practice is not limited for PAs in other nations, in the United Kingdom, PAs do not have the ability to prescribe medicine (Gerrie et al., 2013). Notwithstanding, PAs across the globe have been overall positively

Somewhere during the last two years of my college courses, I was introduced to physician assistants. The thing that appealed to me the most is how much flexibility there can be within the career. There are a lot of options after graduation to work in a hospital, as a first assist, and in various clinics. Also, as a PA, you have the ability to create a plan of action for your patients, but you also have the potential to work as a team to create efficiency. There are also so many opportunities that other healthcare fields do not have. PAs have options to work in different specialties while MDs have to do additional residency work in order to go into a different field. Living in Mississippi for the past five years, I have also seen the demand for PAs grow. A lot of people did not know what a PA was, some even thinking it was a certificate program, but I have steadily seen more people growing accustomed to them and realizing they are a vital part of health care.

The overall health care industry has undergone fundamental change over the last decade. Most of the changes have occurred within the underlying business operation of the healthcare industry. Legislation in particular has had a profound impact on the health care industry. First, due to the Affordable Care Act of 2010, the nursing profession is undergoing a fundamental shift in regards to the patient experience. The U.S. health care system is now shifting the focus from acute and specialty care to that of primary care which requires a shift in business operations. Also, due primarily to that aging of the baby boomer generation, the need for primary car overall is shifting and will be needed heavily in the future. The last 10 years in particular has seen an increasing influx of retiring baby boomers that subsequently need care. A positive impact on the ACA legislation is that more individuals are now insured. As such, the need for primary care will also increase over subsequent years, particular within the minority population. This patient centric approach will require more care predicated on specific communities in a seamless manner. Furthermore, primary care physicians will be in high demand over the coming years.

Healthcare has many different areas one can go into if interested in this field. I have chosen two that have always been an interest to me; Nursing (particularly registered nursing) and an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician). Both jobs are very demanding and extremely important. Both are respected jobs and require a tremendous amount of caring for others.