The Increased Need for the PA
How many times have you gone to the walk-in clinic or emergency room, genuinely concerned about yourself or someone close to you, only to have to wait for hours before help can be arranged? Imagine the good that can be done and the number of lives saved if more people had access to medical attention. While our testing, diagnosis’, and medicine is constantly improving many still do not have the attention they need when they need it. This is where use of the Physician Assistant can make all the difference.
PA’s receive shorter schooling than a normal physician and yet can practice medicine in many of the same capacities; “The basic idea was to create a new type of care provider who would take on many of the
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This is something that every field of medicine could use and several have begun to measure the effect that PA’s can have on wait times.
Several studies have gone about this in different ways, understandably as many different field of medicine have been observed to see a PA’s effect. For example, the group of researchers for the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery conducted their study largely as an informational research paper. Examining exactly what PA’s and nurse practitioners are then showing how their skill set can provide solutions to some of the current problems that that industry is facing (Boden, 2016). Comparatively the work done by Roderick Hooker, David Klocko, and G. Luke Larkin was a literature review of the varying studies conducted observing PA’s working in emergency medicine units (Hooker, 2010). Both studies done by professionals reveal valuable data and insights about the specific impact PA’s have on decreasing the time it takes for a patient to be seen. For our review it becomes valuable to include multiple types of research data from so many others interesting in examining the role of the PA and the concepts of why PA’s create would fill certain needs well.
For example, the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery researched filling the need for more musculoskeletal medical care professional with PA’s. In regards to wait times they found that when PA’s
Both Nurse Practitioners (NP) and Physician Assistants (PA) are two very important professionals in the field of medicine. They both work under the supervision of a licensed physician, and their functions are also quite similar with very minor differences between the two. Due to such similarities it has become very difficult for the general population to differentiate between these two professionals (Nurse Practitioner School, 2015). The nurse practitioners are registered nurses who have gone on to earn a master's or doctorate degree in a specialty area of nursing, such as family practice, adult practice, pediatrics or women's health. Their duties include diagnosing and treating acute and chronic conditions, prescribing medication,
I have had the opportunity to work with many health professionals, but my experience with PAs has solidified my path to becoming a PA. Devoting over 200 hours to shadow PAs of various specialties had allowed me to learn about pulmonary diseases and read CT scans in pulmonary, watch in awe at an ingrown toenail removal in urgent care, and observe patience and individual care in pediatrics. Although I was at the clinics for observation, I eagerly wanted to assist the PAs and care for the patients. I was fully immersed in the topics that were taught to me and found myself lusting for the knowledge and skills to become a PA.
There is a growing trend where physicians are choosing different specialties instead of choosing primary care, primarily due to the low reimbursement rate in primary care. According to Iglehart (2014),” the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) still projects a shortage of 130,000 physicians by 2025, split almost equally between primary and specialty care” (para. 1). With this decline comes an answer, an increase in the number of nurse practitioners providing patient care, reported 154,00 in 2012 and growing every year (Iglehart, 2014). This increase in nurse practitioners’ helps fill that gap, allow greater health care access to the community, especially special populations. By gaining access to healthcare were a nurse practitioner is the provider not only with the special population have high quality affordable health care, a trusting long lasting relationship will develop. This relationship will break the barriers of; lack of trust, lack of health care education and discrimination. Nursing is a trusted profession that provides education and care that no other health care professional
ACNPs have been propelled to the forefront as health care providers for the acute & critically ill as a response to a mandated eighty-hour weekly work limit for physician residents. The Accreditation Council
More than 39.4 percent practice in hospital settings and 40 percent work in group practice or solo-physician office. Medicare patients are generally satisfied with the quality of health care they receive. They offer great financial benefits to their employees. Job activations for general PAs increased by forty-eight percent. PAs can prevent disease outbreaks after a natural disaster by working as part of a mobile health clinic. If you are going to be a PA, you have to be caring, observant, patient, calm during emergency situations, and emotionally and physically strong. PAs are very important and have a huge impact on our lives.
The health care industry is experiencing a surge in the number of baby-boomers needing health care and increased demands on the physicians providing the care. This trend has made the role of Advanced practice providers more important (cite). It is imperative to understand the differences and similarities in the advanced practice provider roles as it pertains to healthcare. This paper will identify specialty nursing roles including advanced practice registered nurses (APRN). It will further compare and contrast the advanced practice nurse (APN) and physician assistant (PA) roles in practice.
While the demand of healthcare need increasers the United States facing a physician shortage. In recent years the number of nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) has significantly increased and they are taking the part in providing healthcare cervices to the majority of patients. I believe nurse practitioners and physician assistants can practice independently from doctors and be free of oversight. Expanding the scope of NPs and PAs is essential to overcome the healthcare crisis we are facing; it will increase patient satisfaction and stabilizing the healthcare economy.
Physician assistant job description is stated to be able to practice medicine under the supervision of physicians and surgeons. PA 's are properly educated to offer diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive health care services, as authorized by a physician. They record medical histories, examine and treat patients, order and interpret laboratory tests and x-rays, and make diagnoses (“Physician assistant job description,” n.d.). However, PAs may be the primary care providers in rural or inner city clinics where a physician is present for only one or two days each week. PAs may also make house calls, round in hospitals, and go to nursing care facilities to check on patients. In such cases, the PA consults with the supervising physician as needed and as required by law.
Expansion of Physician Assistant (PA) programs across the United States occurred rapidly during the 1970s following the introduction of the profession in the 1960s. According to Hooker et al. (2010), the first era of the development of PA programs was followed by a decline in the 1980s. This was due in large part to a belief by the Graduate Medical Education Advisory Committee that there would be a surplus of physicians in the 1990s. Contrarily, there was a still a large discrepancy in the number of accessible providers and providers themselves which continues to this day. Many saw the cost effective advantage of training PAs and seized the opportunity
The biggest challenge that Physician Assistances face is when a patient questions their competency or their ability to care for them. PA’s are one of the youngest allied health fields and some people are unaware of the role of a physician assistant. The best way to reassure the patient that they are being properly taken care of is to educate the patient on the topic of Physician Assistant. The first Physician Assistant program started in 1960 in the military, to help with the growing need for primary care doctors (Mittman). Physician Assistance must first obtain a four year degree with a competitive GPA of 3.6 or
With the passing of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 approximately 32 million more people will be insured throughout the United States. The need for healthcare workers and providers will be in drastic demand to provide care to these insured Americans. The 2010 IOM report details out how the advanced practice nurse can be a valuable asset in primary, chronic and transitional care and their skill set should be used to promote better healthcare across the nation (IOM, 2010). This impact of this report should help progress advanced practice nurse’s ability to practice without individual state regulation and be governed under one body to server in and outside of the hospital setting
A physician assistant provides patient services under the direct supervision and responsibility of physicians and directly assists the doctors as needed (waytogori.org). A typical work day for a PA would include visiting patients on hospital rounds, aiding the physician during surgery or intricate medical procedures, and prescribing therapy or medication with a physician’s consent. They may also perform therapeutic procedures,
As resistant as some states’ legislative and regulatory bodies are to grant APNs autonomy of practice, the damage being done by over-regulation is clear (Safriet, 1992). Physicians are forced into a position to either supervise the APN’s practice or be constantly consulted for approval of their practice decisions. Safriet (1992) described that in and of itself, this constant supervision may appear to patients that the APN is not competent to provide adequate or care equivalent to that of a physician. If the role of the APN is to bridge gaps in health care by relieving the medical establishment of some of the patient load by performing the same function as a physician in a primary care setting, it seems wholly unnecessary to restrain their scope of practice in those areas. This type of restrictions affect cost and patient care accessibility (Safriet, 1992). This was a problem stated in the article, however 25 years later, populations of patients remain unseen or cared for and APNs continue to be underutilized (Safriet, 1992). Rigolosi and Salmond (2014) cite the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) when they state that not utilizing nurse practitioners due to practice restrictions costs $9 billion annually in the US (p. 649).
Physician Assistants are also known as a PA’s; they practice medicine under the direction of physicians and surgeons. They formally trained to examine patients, diagnose injures and illness, and provide treatment. Physician Assistants also evaluate and treat patients under the supervision of doctors and surgeons. A Physician Assistants is a graduate of an accredited Physician Assistant educational program who is nationally certified and state- licensed to practice medicine with the supervision of a physician. Core tasks of a Physician Assistant are they take medical histories and examine patients. They Interpret lab test and make diagnoses, Treat minor injuries with stitches, splints, casts, and prescribes certain medications, The
Following the methodology section, this chapter is going to present the main findings of the PPP test and relevant information, graphs and tables will be shown as well. The purpose of this part is to provide key results of testing for PPP in order to facilitate the following detailed discussions. It is no doubt that this section can be viewed as the core of the whole project because it depends on a variety of econometric tools to evaluate the financial data. The findings consist of two major aspects: the one is on the examination of the strong version of PPP, namely APPP; the other is on the test of RPPP, also known as the weak form of PPP.