"I provide care equivalent to that of a physician"

[mgriffiths]

One of the questions in the "Title Change Survey" - maybe I'm just peeved by this survey since I've only answered one question so far that is at all pertinent ("Are you or have you ever been a physician assistant?"), but is this really our goal?  My history of physicians of I have worked with:

1. orthopedic surgeon - absolute jerk to me and her staff who was a complete control freak, but would jump through hoops for her patients IF she liked them.  If you irked her she would never see you again.  I was essentially a treasure chest for her, simply standing around in surgery doing NOTHING while she collected my surgical fee (one of many reasons I left after 4 months as I felt this was fraud).

2. family practice physician - awesome doc, patient's love him, but he has absolutely zero respect for patient's time.  He will sit and have conversations about his children, vacations, etc. with patient's for 30+ minutes, often getting 2+ hours behind which infuriated patients and while they enjoyed his personal nature they regularly told me how they didn't care about his vacations and children - and he regularly repeated stories.

3. family practice physician - a bit too homeopathic in my opinion, but some patients love him and others can't stand him.  He tries to be respectful of patient's time, but struggles with time management and therefore regularly ends up 1-2 hours behind per day.  I regularly "steal" patients from his schedule (with his blessing and thanks, and I am happy to do so...) so the patients don't walk out without being seen.

Is this what I am trying to emulate - each of the above has their strengths and weakness (don't we all)? My goal is to be the best provider possible, actively reading/learning about new treatments.  But, this does not equate to spending 1 hour+ with patients shooting the breeze while my waiting room fills up, treating employees terribly or even committing fraud, straying from established medical research for the "latest/greatest" maybe new, effective treatment with questionable (at best) research.

 

But, how do I answer this question?  Do I say 10/10 (completely agree) because I feel that the care I provide is equivalent to a physician, or do I answer 1/10 (completely disagree) because I'm NOT trying to be a physician!?!?!?!  What a terribly worded question that completely skews data and furthermore HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH POTENTIAL TITLE CHANGE!

 

I have never been more disillusioned with the AAPA.  I don't agree with the doom and gloom some post on here, but definitely agree that we need to start making a change...requires goal setting and then working to achieve those goals.  I thought this survey would be a step in that direction, but really appears to just be a massive waste of time and money.

 

P.S. I answered 10/10 because I believe the intent of the question is that physicians provide the gold standard of care (which is supposed to be true I guess) and I have confidence in myself, my education, my continued learning, and therefore the care I provide to patients.

[ArmyPA]

I think you may be reading into it too much...Im sure by care they are referring to level, quality and/or standard of care...are you as good as an average doc in your specialty  ?

[mgriffiths]

4 minutes ago, ArmyPA said:

I think you may be reading into it too much...Im sure by care they are referring to level, quality and/or standard of care...are you as good as an average doc in your specialty  ?

I know you are right, which is why I edited, adding the PS after posting.  But, this has nothing to do with our possible goal of name change, and I don't believe that we should make our goal to be "like" physicians.  We should be making a name for ourselves and if we are going to increase our "strength" in the "healthcare industry" (I hate that term) then we need to separate ourselves from NPs and MD/DOs...we should stand alone.  From what I have seen, NPs are not comparing themselves to MD/DOs - they are actually making the claim that they are better.  I am not suggesting we try to say we are better than MD/DOs, but what is different about us?  Why should a patient choose to see a PA over a NP/MD/DO?  What makes us a good option to choose, or are we just there as a secondary when the MD/DO (or even the NP) is not available?

[ArmyPA]

Other than primary care provider, patients almost never have to make that choice....at least for now and the forseeable future, PAs cannot perform surgery autonomously and even in the non surgical specialties there are alot of things that PAs dont do...e.g. if I ever need a cath Id prefer a cardiologist over a PA or NP...unless that PA was trained by a cardiologist and the PA had a few years of supervised experience themselves...sorry cards PAs. Remember, something like 70% of PAs ARE NOT primary care.

I think its more a choice for employers than patients...why hire a PA instead of an NP or MD. If you walk into an Urgent care you see the provider who is working, the choice is who does the UC hire ? ERs vary widely in how they use APPs so I wont go into that much. In the backwards ass state of KY they hire NPs or MDs because PAs STILL cannot prescribe controlled substances..the only state in the union. We obviously need better practice laws across the board and I do think that the Assistant part of our name is hurting us nationally and locally in many places.

Since we are trained in the medical model based on a fast track physician training program from WWII and the majority or PAs work in specialties...I dont see us separating from physicians anytime soon. I think the idea that some folks are advocating for that we are as different from physicians as NPs is a little short sighted and unrealistic.

[mgriffiths]

ArmyPA: I would agree with the vast majority of what you said.  But, honestly, any PR campaign, changing our name, etc. in my opinion is really for lawmakers and employers - patient don't care or as you said don't have a choice (honestly the vast majority of my patients call me Doc Mgriffiths - and after correcting them 2-3 times I just roll with it - I do NOT introduce myself that way).  So, while we are putting out there why we should be the patient's first choice...it's really, why XYZ employer should hire the PA first, or why KY (or any other state) should increase autonomy, direct billing, etc.

[VeryOldPA]

I have not received the survey yet but from what I’m hearing it sounds to me like the people who wrote the questions have no clue about what we are or what we do. I would not come down on the AAPA about this. They probably have no idea that the company they picked has no clue

[SoCal_PA]

7 minutes ago, VeryOldPA said:

I have not received the survey yet but from what I’m hearing it sounds to me like the people who wrote the questions have no clue about what we are or what we do. I would not come down on the AAPA about this. They probably have no idea that the company they picked has no clue

Check your spam folders. It ended up in there for most of us, it seems

[VeryOldPA]

38 minutes ago, SoCal_PA said:

Check your spam folders. It ended up in there for most of us, it seems

I have checked my SPAM folder several times today.

[karebear12892]

4 hours ago, VeryOldPA said:

it sounds to me like the people who wrote the questions have no clue about what we are or what we do. I would not come down on the AAPA about this. They probably have no idea that the company they picked has no clue

On the contrary, I think this was exactly what the AAPA intended to do -- choose an independent, unbiased research firm with no stake in the outcome whatsoever who would be viewed as an unequivocally objective third party.