corpsman89

That was certainly depressing to read those comments.

After the run of disingenuous articles I figured I would post this article from MedScape. Its actually pretty decent. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/895312?nlid=121968_429&src=WNL_mdplsfeat_180424_mscpedit_fmed&uac=179069PK&spon=34&impID=1615392&faf=1

Wow. This seems like a great opportunity and it seems like they really VALUE PAs. Also, its a good sign that you are paid hourly.

I have a hard time fighting the online debate because deep down, I prefer it myself--strictly for class material, not hands on training that we do weekly. I only make the argument because of its consequences with practice advancement. I think MDs need to make the move first, you know make it kosher.

Thank you! Someone gets it.

Yeah, I feel quite bad doing it, but I can get a whole lot more done if I just study from home.

I was attending class 100% of the time for the first 2 months, but like you I simply cannot learn in class. I have learned via PA school that the best way for me to learn is to plug my headphones into my ipad and walk around my house while I study the material. After the first several months I cut attending class to about 50%. Now, I hate to admit that I only attend class if it is required. So I end up going to school about 1 or 2 days a week only for 1 or 2 classes. I will say that my test scores have improved and I am MUCH happier and feel MUCH more prepared for tests.

Well we can no longer educate them that PAs are required to attend in-class training. We also can no longer educate them that PAs are required to have a certain amount of experience before entering the profession. But yes, I agree, we do need to educate them about how we have much higher standards than NP education, and we have far more training hours than NPs, but with <3% of PAs voting in their own election, and hardly any PAs contributing money to their own PAC I don't see any legitimate education going on in the near future. Unlike our NP counterparts who are spending tons of $$$ to support their own profession, and to suppress the fact of their much lower standards in education. My main point is that PAs can't afford what NPs can afford as far as lower perceived standards in education.

I know the topic has been discussed here multiple times, but I think it helps not to lose sight of such an important subject and I wanted to add something about it. I think the majority of PAs would agree that the title of Physician Assistant does NOT represent our current scope of practice. That the title of Physician Assistant does NOT help our legislative progression. And that the title of Physician Assistant does NOT allow the public to view us as an equal provider to Nurse Practitioners. To me it is perfectly rationale for policy makers and patients to view PAs as inferior to NPs simply because of the “assistant” in our title. Which is why we need this change so much right now. Basically, in order to achieve our legislative goals we HAVE to have our title changed, because if we don’t, law makers, NPs, as well as MD/DOs have the very best argument against us—we’re just assistants. Now on to something a bit different. One gripe I currently have is that AAPA does virtually no advertising about PAs. I am not sure what AAPAs budget is and what they can and cannot do as far as advertising but I have seen none what so ever. No information to public about how our education is so much more superior (on average) and standardized compared to NPs. Nothing about how we test (currently) every 10 years, no information about our prior experience before PA school. No information about how many hours of training we get while in school. Where am I going with this? I think that if we as a profession finally banded together and decided to change the name of the profession we would begin to get a lot of traffic in the news. This obviously would not be all good, but I really think the majority would be positive. At the very least, it would create a conversation about what PAs role are in healthcare. If we were able to get this passed and PAs agreed on a title we would generate a much greater discussion on who we are as PAs and that discussion would be based on our role in health care, our knowledge, and our scope—all things we desperately need the public and lawmakers to understand right now. What do you think?