ThatStudentGalVal Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Hello PAs! I am practicing for an upcoming interview, and am having trouble with this question. As someone who is aspiring to be a PA, I know there are more current, important answers out there than the two I've come up with: 1) increase public knowledge/awareness of the PA role and help improve understanding about everything that PAs do. Changing the name from "Assistant" to "Associate" would be a start, but would need a plethora of publicity/community education before the public perception of the role would change notably. 2) Increasing access to PA programs to better help combat the provider shortage. However, the difficulty in increasing the number of PA programs is how to do that without negatively affecting quality of PAs produced, or overwhelming the sites used for clinical experience year(s). Both of these sound entirely too generic/overly simplified to me, so I would LOVE some insight from the pros (that's you all!). If you could change one thing about the PA profession, what would it be? Thanks in advance for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LKPAC Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 I would change the name to associate physician, if I had the power to do it. You can keep the initials PA and PA-C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newton9686 Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Do away with the legally responsible supervising physician . As healthcare teams become more horizontal, the idea of the supervising physician is an antiquated hold over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NLRP3 Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 I will be the voice of dissent and say that we should not increase access to programs, or at the very least slow the rate of increase of accredited programs. This year there will be almost 200 accredited programs, which is a significant increase from the 168 programs that were accredited as of Dec 2012. We need more PAs, but you don't want to saturate the market. You also want to ensure high quality rotation sites and clinical experiences for students, otherwise our real, as well as perceived value will decline, and we will truly live down to our name "assistants". I am just a student, but I am always dismayed at the lack of our legislative lobbying power, especially when compared with our colleagues, NPs. Now granted we don't have the weight of two professions behinds us (in the case of NPs, RNs+NP = nursing lobby), however we could do a much better job organizing and advocating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newton9686 Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 more programs = more PAs = more lobbying power. I do get the fear about the market saturating, however I do not see that happening for a very long time. There is just too much demand, especially in rural areas and primary care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MT2PA Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 more programs = more PAs = more lobbying power. I do get the fear about the market saturating, however I do not see that happening for a very long time. There is just too much demand, especially in rural areas and primary care. Unfortunately the majority of PAs don't practice in primary care, at least new grads aren't pursuing it (AAPA). Maybe if there was less pay discrepancy between primary care and specialties or more incentive to practice rurally (*ahem* something to change about the profession) the increase in PAs could really be justified. Granted, with the way healthcare is changing I think the increase *is* justified but if we continue the exponential growth, we will hit a ceiling eventually. Personally it might end up like lawyers a few years ago: everyone flooded to the profession, it became difficult to find jobs, so people quit going to law school and things eventually evened out. As long as there are jobs, it's all good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatStudentGalVal Posted October 15, 2015 Author Share Posted October 15, 2015 Wow, thank you to everyone for your feedback! It has given me much to think about- especially the ideas of changing the SP role and of providing incentives/motivation to increase the traction of PAs practicing in rural areas. That being said, I can't wait to (hopefully) join such a great group of APPs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmj11 Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 If we were paid at 100% rather than 85%, my company would be thriving rather than scraping by to survive. Whoever thought that this was a good idea, years ago, were nuts and set us on a path as being seen as inferior. I would have said not tied to an MD after 10 years of good performance and name change but those have been taken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpackelly Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Name change. "PA" has good name brand recognition now so I would finally make the big legal move to "physician associate" working with "collaborating physicians" in all 50 states. It's not half as controversial as independence like NPs are advocating. Getting rid of the words "assistant", "dependent" and "supervision" would go a long way towards cementing our identity with the public, insurance companies and governmental health policy bodies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reality Check 2 Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Ok - 25 yrs in two states as a PA. It is hard to pick just ONE thing I would change. Will a name change actually change anything? Would independence actually happen? I have my doubts - too many egotistical Docs and NPs (sorry guys) who would object to our position despite years and years and years of evidence and good medicine. So, would I change something in our profession or is the problem the US Health System? I am betting the US Health System - I am a proponent of nationalized medicine (put down the rocks, please) and see that even in somewhat messed up systems like England and even Canada there is overall better health. Germany has one of the best nationalized health systems and better overall health and survival rates for disease. Their approach to Ebola was awesome, in my opinion. So, our profession is awesome and our knowledge base is great. Our name is an impediment. However, the powers that be HAVE to recognize the dilemma in the US Health System and be willing to see what the people NEED instead of their egos in order to give us the independence we deserve. my very old 2 cents........................................ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evolute Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Simple question, complex answer. My first thought, knee jerk response was "change our f#$king name!!!!!! After thinking about it, changing our name, in effect, changes nothing (I do however agree with and want a name change). but in the end we are still "dependent", thus limiting our progress. I would make us independent providers. Independent of any other license... after all how many of us already work without direct supervision? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterallsummer Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 Full autonomy in every level to point of NP or ideally far beyond besides surgical after a selected number of years consecutive in a specialty. Would be fine even if this required a reasonable fellowship and additional exams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delbert Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 I too will be a PA at 24. For someone who claims to defend the profession, you ignore a lot of the advantages of it. There are many reasons I chose PA over med school, and none of them had to do with my age. What about lateral mobility, for example? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator ventana Posted October 21, 2015 Moderator Share Posted October 21, 2015 full Independence after 5 years of clinical practice and scoring about 90% on PANRE (optional to take at Yr 5) only for Primary care - IM/Peds/Geri No more assignment of benefits, no more co signs, no more having a doc on file, no more supervision... just let me do my job please.... (again for PCP fields) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbrsmurf Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 The pay. Give me close to a MD salary and you can call me whatever you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceBanner Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 more programs = more PAs = more lobbying power. I do get the fear about the market saturating, however I do not see that happening for a very long time. There is just too much demand, especially in rural areas and primary care. Market saturation is already a reality in some areas, and mark my words it will only increase. I think it's one of the bigger problems the profession faces in the next 5-10 years. More programs = more PAs = more inexperienced "entry level" providers scrambling for whatever jobs will hire a new grad (not usually the jobs people want). It drives salary down (for everyone) and increases competition in desirable areas such that practices favor only established PAs. There will always be a demand for rural providers and PCPs. Most graduating PAs are either already married or soon-to-be married, and need to work in a metro or suburban area. People don't tend to make sacrifices like moving to the middle of nowhere and uprooting their spouse unless there is a necessity. Beyond that, primary care practices almost unilaterally want experienced providers (unless they are rural and underserved), so that precludes most new grads, and because of poorer reimbursement they dont pay as well. One could argue that saturation will "push" PAs into rural/undserserved care, but I just dont think most people will opt for this unless they have no other choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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