PA House Officer

[BayPAC]

Anyone who would like to describe the pros and cons of working as a PA House Officer? Thank you!

[DizzyJ]

I knew one PA house officer and he basically did admission H&Ps all day.  I'm not even sure that he initiated any treatment other then basic order entry to get a patient to a room.  He didn't follow the patient's during their stay.  

The duties can very based on position from doing basic admit scut work to responding to codes/rapid responses and covering floor calls.  

[thinkertdm]

Plus you can say "PA in da house!".  Legit.

[ohiovolffemtp]

I guess I'm a bit biased as an ED PA, but when I follow up on my admitted patients I'm struck by how many H&P's are a simple cut'n'paste of my note.  The better hospitalists, whether MD/DO/PA/NP actually do their own.  Those are the H&P's which actually contain more information.  It should - they have  more time to dig deeply with the patient.

 

[lkth487]

Theoretically you do, but practically I often have less time on the floor to do histories than when I'm in the ED.   It's a different type of busy but oftentimes I don't have time to do the type of full H&P that I want.  When you have a service of 15-20 patients you're managing, there's lots of little things you have to keep on top of - labs and ins and outs and orders and vitals and consults and rapid responses - let alone the ridiculous amounts of paperwork and care coordination - and unfortunately that time has to come from somewhere (and a good ED note is appreciated in those circumstances :p).