burnpac Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 Published today. http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/articles/2014/08/25/weigh-becoming-a-physician-assistant-instead-of-a-medical-doctor Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andersenpa Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 Lots of positve in this piece I like the use of collaboration instead of supervision. Slowly chipping away at that My hope is that every article like this says at least two things: 1) PAs practice medicine (instead of the laundry list of examine patients/prescribe meds/order and interpet tests/etc), and 2) emphasize HOW we get our training. E.g.in the article " A physician assistant can go from working in internal medicine to obstetrics and gynecology without getting additional training. " No true- we DO get training, only it is within our PA core education and then in the practice setting, as opposed to an ACGME residency program HOWEVER.... IN THE ARTICLE.... "Physician assistants may also have more flexible work days, says Howe. "They just pretty much work in the office, and then go home." ARE YOU KIDDING ME!??!?!!!!! This guy discredited himself with a LARGE contigient of PAs.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burnpac Posted August 25, 2014 Author Share Posted August 25, 2014 I totally agree with you on the last part. This guy should come spend a week with me on call and I will disabuse him of that notion. :-) all in all, I think this was a good article. One thing you have to remember about reporters is that they're never going to get it right, no matter how much information you give them. Their focus is entirely different than the PA profession. They're in the business of selling magazines and newspapers. In the grand scheme of things, I think this is a pretty positive piece. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whoRyou Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 I think you two need to contact Ms. Delece Smith-Barrow http://dsmithbarrow@usnews.com. Set her straight of who we are and what we do as PAs. (I would but I do not carry as much as weight as you two since I am a wanna be PA.) Hopefully she carries some weight in the media sector and then her and her colleagues will get their facts in order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burnpac Posted August 25, 2014 Author Share Posted August 25, 2014 I think you two need to contact Ms. Delece Smith-Barrow http://dsmithbarrow@usnews.com. Set her straight of who we are and what we do as PAs. (I would but I do not carry as much as weight as you two since I am a wanna be PA.) Hopefully she carries some weight in the media sector and then her and her colleagues will get their facts in order. Here is the deal. You have to pick your battles with "educating" the media. This reporter didn't wake up in the morning and say, "I want to piss off PAs today!" I can guarantee you that this reporter got a ton of info and input from the AAPA, and she wrote a story to try to relate this to her readers. As a person who was a public spokesperson for a major organization for 4 years, I can tell you that nothing that I commented on was done to my satisfaction. That is just a fact of life in media relations. The profession wants to be portrayed in a certain way, and the report is trying to interest his or her readers. Sometimes it works in our favor, and sometimes it doesn't. If you want to "set her straight", as an individual who is not yet a member of the profession, be my guest. I've learned not to antagonize reasonable folks with access to unlimited bandwidth, trying to do an honest job. Could the article been better and more accurate? Yes. However, to the average USNWR reader, it really doesn't make a difference. You have to pick your fights with care where the media is involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmj11 Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 I really don't have a dog in this fight. Maybe it could have been a little better . . . but it also could have been a lot worse. I'm happy with it and have no complaints. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted August 25, 2014 Moderator Share Posted August 25, 2014 pretty good overall except for the line about going to the office then going home. one of the better articles on PAs in the mainstream media. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHU-CH Posted August 26, 2014 Share Posted August 26, 2014 I would not pick a fight with the reporter - she was very pleasant to speak with. The scary thing to me is that as a health reporter for a major news outlet it was immediately apparent that she had never heard of a PA before. We still are still off the radar in a lot of circumstances. As Stephen noted, working with reporters is tricky. I spoke with her a good 25 minutes and she extracted five or six sentences from the conversation. They were certainly not my favorite sentences, but it put our profession in print before a decent sized audience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andersenpa Posted August 26, 2014 Share Posted August 26, 2014 I totally agree with you on the last part. This guy should come spend a week with me on call and I will disabuse him of that notion. :-) all in all, I think this was a good article. One thing you have to remember about reporters is that they're never going to get it right, no matter how much information you give them. Their focus is entirely different than the PA profession. They're in the business of selling magazines and newspapers. In the grand scheme of things, I think this is a pretty positive piece. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk the article is overall better than its predecessors But the quote is the direct wording of a PA medical director, not a journalist! I don't give him a pass just b/c he's a physician. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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