JMPAC Posted October 12, 2017 Share Posted October 12, 2017 Our EMR has recently had an update that allows the physicians to sign off on our charts with phrases that refer to the PAs and NPs as "physican extender" and my gut reaction to this is that I do NOT like it. I consider myself (and my colleagues) medical providers not extenders of physicians. Usually when I staff a patient with them it's because of a technicality in our rules like I have to staff anyone I order a CT on and I'm seeing my own patient, not extending care of a physician or whatever it is that that term implies. I'm already feeling a bit sensitive because scribes have just been implemented in our ER for the physicians only even though a PA will often see 25-30 patients in our fast tract and could really benefit from having one. When we asked why only the physicians were getting scribes, we were told we could hire our own if we wanted. [emoji52]Anyway, I'm here to rant and also get other perspectives on this because (like a previous post) I'm trying to gage if I'm overreacting or if I'm not completely off base in feeling slighted and disrespected, again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALC0313 Posted October 12, 2017 Share Posted October 12, 2017 Ugh "extender" is the worst. We have a physician in our practice who said she wanted to start utilizing me more as an "extender" when she's on call so that I do her tasks, finish her notes, sign off on results, etc rather than see patients. I told our office manager that if I don't have patients on my schedule those days I'm not coming in. Thankfully the other physicians in the group stood up for me and said I belong seeing patients not doing scut work. This is what happens when you use the wrong descriptive titles, people start taking it literally. But what do I know, I'm just a physician assistant... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMPAC Posted October 13, 2017 Author Share Posted October 13, 2017 Good news! I emailed the medical director and he and our site director got right to work on correcting that language in our EMR. It might seem like a small thing, but it made me feel good that they agreed that it was something that should be fixed and that we will not be using that term, here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMPAC Posted October 13, 2017 Author Share Posted October 13, 2017 Can we change PA to MP already? I think Medical Practitioner is so perfect, let's just make it happen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sk732 Posted October 14, 2017 Share Posted October 14, 2017 MP sounds like NP when many people speak...also, here MP = Member of Parliament (or Military Police)...keep PA, change the Assistant to Associate...your credentials don't change then and the PA Associations don't need to change their initials, just a word in their titles. Lastly, if you think you get a lot of four headed alien looks from people when you tell them you're a PA, imagine the bug eyes/WTF? looks you'll get when you tell them you're a "Medical Practitioner" that's not a doctor or nurse...they'll think you're into Traditional Chinese Medicine or something voodooish. $0.02 Cdn SK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMPAC Posted October 14, 2017 Author Share Posted October 14, 2017 MP sounds like NP when many people speak...also, here MP = Member of Parliament (or Military Police)...keep PA, change the Assistant to Associate...your credentials don't change then and the PA Associations don't need to change their initials, just a word in their titles. Lastly, if you think you get a lot of four headed alien looks from people when you tell them you're a PA, imagine the bug eyes/WTF? looks you'll get when you tell them you're a "Medical Practitioner" that's not a doctor or nurse...they'll think you're into Traditional Chinese Medicine or something voodooish. $0.02 Cdn SKAlas, I think there will be some confusion about our profession for years to come. People seem to understand NP, but are thrown off by PA for some reason. Physician associate doesn't quite work in my mind because that seems like it could be anyone. Lots of professions "associate" with physicians and it also reminds me of working in retail. Like, you're shopping at Target and they find an associate to get something from the back for you. Honestly, I'd be happy just getting rid of the "assistant" but we do practice medicine, so I feel like MP would be an accurate title. The fact that it sounds like NP might actually be kind of helpful for the general public. It would take a few years and some explaining, but people get used to anything with time. I wouldn't mind if people thought I'm a member of parliament, but I doubt they would with my American accent. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sk732 Posted October 15, 2017 Share Posted October 15, 2017 Depending on where you're from, we might not notice the accent ;-D SK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PACali Posted October 15, 2017 Share Posted October 15, 2017 We have the same "extender" language in our EMR. I am going to talk to my director as well. 17 hours ago, sk732 said: MP sounds like NP when many people speak...also, here MP = Member of Parliament (or Military Police)...keep PA, change the Assistant to Associate...your credentials don't change then and the PA Associations don't need to change their initials, just a word in their titles. Lastly, if you think you get a lot of four headed alien looks from people when you tell them you're a PA, imagine the bug eyes/WTF? looks you'll get when you tell them you're a "Medical Practitioner" that's not a doctor or nurse...they'll think you're into Traditional Chinese Medicine or something voodooish. $0.02 Cdn SK I don't think the patient will give me the "bug eyes/WTF" if I told them I am a Medical Practitioner. The term is very self-explanatory. The problem with our name is not only the "Assistant" but also the "Physician." Physician Associate is not any better in my opinion. We need a stand-alone name, especially with OTP movement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sk732 Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 Your opinion is noted...I just don't share it. Where I live and work, people have a hard enough time grasping all these other care providers outside of MD and RN, both allopathic and voodoopathic...frig, I have seen patients that consider their chiropractor as their de facto primary care provider. We're still a long way from OTP in Canada - however, for you folks in the US, if you're going to change your name, you have to think long and hard on the wording, since (especially in the US and especially in medicine), optics and wording mean a lot - like all the useless degree creep we've been seeing lately. The term "Medical Practitioner" can span a lot of ground and occupations, since there are many folks that would fall into that pool, including NP's (though many won't admit to it), MD's (yes, even surgeons), RT's, AA's, etc, ad infinitum. Honestly, I can foresee the full clout of the RN-NP brother/sisterhood launching a huge political counterattack simply because the initials and part of the name look/sound alike - and since the nursing world is a lot better at the political/propaganda game than PA's or even MD's, at best, the "new" PA's could come out looking like petulant little brats; at worst, they could come out looking for work. In the end, are our patients going to benefit any differently from us changing our titles? I doubt it, because if you're too busy in politics, you're too busy to deal with them...which I think is the greater problem for PA's in general in North America, since we're so few compared to nursing (as a for instance) that we can't do full time politics AND patient care - they have folks doing it for them, so they can concentrate on their "real" jobs. Again, just MY opinion and we're all allowed one...within site guidelines, constitutional law and common sense of course :-D. SK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kargiver Posted November 28, 2017 Share Posted November 28, 2017 Depends on where you work/live. Some states still have "physician extender" in their laws... as I am sure you are aware though, you are held to the same gold standard as they are. A good plaintiff lawyer always makes sure of that tidbit... G Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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