One of the few differences between PAs and NPs relates to an area that is poorly defined as supervision. In the most rudimentary form, PAs require it, NPs don’t. When people hear this word, supervision, most think of a taskmaster folding his or her arms while the PA kneels submissively caring for their patient. The reality of the word supervision is that it implies that the PA is not an independent practitioner, but is one joined at the hip to a physician. This relationship is loosely called the physician/PA team. By definition it infers that the PA has access to a physician by some manner, whether in person, by telephone, or by some other means of communication.

Senior PAs are often contacted when former students find themselves in “practice problems.” This communication is an example of a practice problem and a solution. A former student has been working for a physician group for the past three years and is obliged to work at two practice locations seeing thirty patients at each. The PA has been instructed to spend no more than seven minutes on each patient, and this is only one of her problems.

From 1999 to 2004, I served as the Liaison to the American College of Surgeons representing the AAPA. Part of my job was to attend all general meetings of the College and particularly to be present at the Allied Health meetings as this is where APCs were discussed and decisions were born. This particular year…

In my personal diverse reading program, I am presently engaged in devouring Ian McEwan’s Solar. This novel centers on a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who is fast approaching 60. Although he is no longer an academic titan, his reputation allows him to collect huge speaking fees and impassively head a government program to battle global warming….