UKPA01 Posted June 16, 2011 Share Posted June 16, 2011 Hi everyone, I'm Neil and I qualified as a PA in the UK a few months ago and I am about to start working in emergency medicine. I am open to any tips you may have on working in emergency med and how to survive my first PA job. PAs are new to the UK, my class was only the second full class to graduate and I am one of three new PAs starting this job. I have started a blog, mostly about all things PA in the UK but wider healthcare issues and science and politics. If you would like ot take a look, just click here Thanks for reading this and please feel free to leave comments on my blog if you take a look. Best wishes, Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxbowiexx Posted June 16, 2011 Share Posted June 16, 2011 Hi Neil, glad to see you joined the forum and also proud of you for being the trailblazer for the field of PA in UK. I will also start working in ER as my first job soon as well. Lets hope we'll leave a good impression and represents our profession well in the working world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Swennerb Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 Hi Neil, Congrats on becoming one of the first PA's in your country! Better to be a leader than a follower, Good luck! Although you might feel alone over there, your not- the profession is growing enormously. I bet there are many Americans that would be happy to come over there and work, so let us know how things are going- we appreciate your perspective and thoughts and support your hard work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kittryn Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 I'd love to hear how things are going. and I've linked to your blog. there is always a chance my husband's job could take us to the UK (or australia, where things are just starting for PAs!), so this is a very iteresting subject for me! thanks for posting, neil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medic25 Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 Congratulations Neil. I'm an emergency medicine PA who is originally from Belfast, and it's great to hear about all of the progress back in Europe. As far as advice, there is a lot of good information on the EM sticky messages here. The best advice I ever got as a student was to treat your first 3-4 years after graduation as if you are still in school. Get some good emergency medicines textbooks and always push yourself to read every day. If you read a little something about a few conditions you see each day, it eventually all starts to stick in; good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKPA01 Posted June 17, 2011 Author Share Posted June 17, 2011 Hi guys, Thank you for all of your replies, good wishes and advice. It's a very exciting time here for PAs, but not without some concern over regulation and prescribing which is having a knock on effect in job creation. We are against well established nurse practitioners that can prescribe. I am fortunate that I will be working with a very experienced PA from the US and I have much to learn. I'm currently setting up a CME network in my region, a sort of corporative where we will teach each other through our experience in practice and own research etc. Has anyone tried this sort of thing in the US? Best wishes, Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andersenpa Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 Thanks for contributing your experiences here on the forum. I think we are all eager to hear how your progress goes there- positives and negatives. What has your personal experience been re: the reception by physicians, nurses, NPs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKPA01 Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 Hi, Reaction to PAs over here has been mixed, but improving. NPs are realtively new and so the idea of a non-doctor practicing medicine is still taking shape. Some have been dissimissive and patronizing and think that PAs are the "dumbing-down" of medicine. Some think we are here for technical purposes, not the actual medicine, with some rather akward moments in clinical placements where they realise the mistake. Junior docs have either embraced the idea or panic as they thought we are are after their jobs. Often they have made these assumptions knowing NOTHING of the PA role or education or supervision requirements but still arrogantly insisting that they "know all there is to know about PAs". They usually embarrass themselves in such arguements. There are also die-hard medical school wannabes that see becoming a PA as a means to getting into medical school or that the PAs will mean the Med schol places will dry up and htey will never get in. NPs also tend to be suspicious and think that they are going to loose jobs etc. On the other hand, there has been some very supportive voices in the medical profession and some NPs who see the difference between PAs and NPs and where PAs can slot into the team. Oftern misconceptions arise by an assumption that we are "between and doctor adn a nurse" which as you will all know is simply not the case. Other comparrisons to existing grades of doctor may be useful at times as shorthand, but long termt ehy create barriers to achieving full potential and cause confusion later on, so at the moment its trying to find the right description to stick to, especially with patients. BW, Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.