The PA Profession: A Case Study

The physician assistant (PA) profession has been described as “one of the greatest innovations of the last half of the 20th century.”1(p1) The profession has been established for less than fifty years, but it has managed to develop and expand vastly within those years consisting of more than 105,000 certified physician assistants and more than 170 accredited physician assistant programs. Simply stated, a physician assistant is defined as a certified medical professional responsible for providing medical care and treatment under the supervision of a physician. In order to completely understand the role and importance of physician assistants in the medical field, the history of the profession must be acknowledged.

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 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

deficiencies that appears in the United States has placed the spotlight on the advanced practice nurses, involving nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) to make up for the insufficiency physicians (Kleinpell, Ward, Kelso, Mollenkopf, & Houghton, 2015). With the NPs and PAs coming into the for forth to provide patients with high-quality healthcare at reduce costs. The PAs and NPs continue to inform patients on new medical advancement and treatment pertaining the patients? health conditions to ensure patients continue up-to-date knowledge and to encourage

Advanced practice nurse practitioners (APRNs) have been attempting for many years to eliminate barriers that prevent full practice authority nationwide. Each state has its own licensure and regulates APRN practice roles. APRNs benefit health care by addressing two pertinent needs: the lack of available physicians; and, the increase in patient comorbidities (Gray, 2016). Florida is about to experience a shortage of medical practitioners. According to the Physician Workforce Annual Report of 2014, statistics state 13.4% of medical providers are expected to retire within the following five years after 2014 due to an increase

With increasing number of Physicians choosing not to go into primary care and increasing number of baby boomers crossing 65 years by the 2030, there is a very high demand for APRNs to fill up those gaps. The consensus model, which was first initiated in 2004, has been revised many times and finalized in 2008. It helps to regulate APRNs with licensure, accreditation, certification and education (Stanley, 2012).

A Physician Assistant (PA) is typically and mainly the person whom patients see primarily. PA 's assess patients, request tests, prescribe therapy assessments for the patient to undergo, and many more medical activities. PA 's do most of the patient care all under the supervision of a Physician, hence the term Physician Assistant. To become a highly involved, medical assistant typically a Masters level of education is required. As described previously, the occupation is a physically and mentally draining responsibility in a fast-paced environment. Although the career is a demanding one, the pay of $97,000 a year makes it worth it, along with helping patients in need. Depending on the severity of helping a patient in need, may result in a depressing state of mind which could be challenging for new PA 's not used to the mentally draining aspect of the occupation. As an aspiring PA, availability in the northwest region of North Carolina is high, fulfilling my wishes.

The APRNs Regulatory Model specializes roles and titles and population foci within a regulatory framework (Hamric, Hanson, Tracy, & O'Grady, 2014). This was implemented to resolve the issue of inconsistent rules, policies and standards of care across states. APN practice is faced with many barriers or obstacles put in place with notion of regulating practice and provision of quality and safe care. This have led to reviewing of the regulations to broaden the spectrum of APN practice as health care is fast evolving. Diverse regulatory criteria like variable accreditation standards, licensing requirements, inconsistent population foci and scopes of practice, represent barriers to optimize APRN function within today’s complex health care system

APRN’s have been practicing formally, providing primary care, since the 1960s. The importance of APRN’s role has increased over the years with the shortage of primary care physicians plus the increase demands of accessible and affordable care. It’s important to differentiate and understand APRN’s roles, and the purpose of this interview. Further, to develop my opinion and formulate a recommendation.

In 1965, due to a scarcity of primary care providers, the first educational program for Physician Assistants (PAs) was established in the United States (Bodenheimer & Cramback, 2009). The initial role of PAs was to improve and expand health care at a primary care level. Nonetheless, over the years, the function of PAs in health care evolved drastically. Currently, the demand for PAs continues to rise at a national and international level. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the differences and similarities of PAs education, barriers, recognition, and scope of practice and health care delivery in other countries.

The first major point that I would like to address is the APRN’s scope-of-practice that currently varies among the states. For instance, a majority of the states require the APRN to practice under the physician supervision while other states do not. Due to the restricted prescriptive authority, the authority to order, interpret tests, diagnose and treat diseases, without physician supervision or collaboration, the APRN is only able to provide their care to the extent that is dictated by political verdict (IOM, 2011). However, that can greatly limit knowledgeable and trained APRNs in providing care to their full extent. Also there is no evidence showing that the APRN less capable than physicians to give safe, effective, and efficient care.

In primary care, it has been shown that the average cost of an NP visit is 20% less than a visit with a physician. Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rate for mid-level providers is 85% of what physicians receive for the same medical services. Due to these lower percentages of reimbursement, studies indicate that fully utilizing NPs could decrease primary care costs by 20%. This decrease would offer an annual national savings of up to $8.75 billion. Additionally, it is believed that the reserves obtained from increasing the percentage of mid-level providers in primary care will compliment the lower compensation-to-visit ratio in family practice. Overall, these findings illustrate significant revenue from increased use of NPs and PAs (Hooker

In the article "PA Education in an Evolving Health Care", they discuss modern PA education. PA education is known for its adaptability. Adaptability, I feel, is an important quality in a program. Why? This is important since times change, so do the needs of people. It is also known for being able to change based on society. The average program length, is 26 months (Glicken 17). One question proposed in the article was if the PA programs were actually preparing people. The curriculum needs to challenge students, and also teach them. Schools only want the best education possible. I like that education is a concern. I like how they want an excellent education. Within courses, PAs have the opportunity to provide checkups under supervision. We need more programs with hands-on opportunities.

As the healthcare system in America is overhauled, advanced practice nurses are going to increasingly assume the role of primary care providers. Many states have kept up with the evolving expansion of