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Inaccurate depiction of PA Role


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Hello everyone,

I know this is a difficult time for all, as we are dealing with the coronavirus and I don't want to add to the stress, however I wanted all of you to be aware of inaccurate comments made on the 3/27th Fox News show called Harris Faulkner Outnumbered Overtime.  A colleague of mine told me about this, as I had never heard of the show.  I watched it today, and the host starts talking about "physician's assistants" about 17 minutes into the show.  The host was discussing the lack of supplies currently faced by many hospitals and went on to say she had spoke with many PAs from all over the US .  She said PAs have told her "I'm oftentimes the person behind the doctor or the nurse who is tasked to count the things" (referring to taking inventory).  She then goes on to say "administratively a lot of those people are working from home" and finally, references us as "the bean counters if you will".  I know this lady is totally ignorant of our role, however I felt you all may want to know about this.  I have emailed Fox News and the AAPA about this.  Be safe and stay strong everyone!

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I hope you are talking about winning a title change and gradual independence..  It is not FOX's fault, could have just as easily been another reporter or news station.  The problem is the title.  Why do 50% of PA's want anything to do with PA, physician assistant or associate.  I seriously doubt anyone would have been confused or assumed a Medical Care Practitioner was the helper behind doctors and nurses to stock and count supplies. 

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An MA at the clinic I work at has her title in her email as "Physician Practice Assistant." Good grief.

A patient the other day asked if I was the surgeon's personal nurse (who works with just him). Really? I'm getting kind of tired of having to explain what my role is and why they should care. Maybe my bedside manner should be more sterile so as to not confuse myself with a caring nurse? I don't know how many of you guys have done it for as long as you have. 

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19 minutes ago, Sed said:

Maybe my bedside manner should be more sterile so as to not confuse myself with a caring nurse? I don't know how many of you guys have done it for as long as you have. 

My solution is to be a slightly to moderately overweight graying guy.  I don't LOOK like a nurse.  I have no idea how our younger female PAs put up with it.

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10 hours ago, rev ronin said:

My solution is to be a slightly to moderately overweight graying guy.  I don't LOOK like a nurse.  I have no idea how our younger female PAs put up with it.

If only I was a slightly overweight graying guy... Haha. I guess I will just put up with it and keep expecting those responses but instead maybe take them as compliments? 

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1 hour ago, SedRate said:

If only I was a slightly overweight graying guy... Haha. I guess I will just put up with it and keep expecting those responses but instead maybe take them as compliments? 

They're not compliments; they're ignorant statements based on patient assumptions.  You don't have to *like* them to put up with them. 😞

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18 hours ago, Reality Check 2 said:

It's Fox News - an entertainment show.

I am not surprised at all.

 

50 minutes ago, cinntsp said:

What's the problem?  Everyone knows assistants count the inventory and stand behind the docs and nurses.

Fox News Network and Fox Entertainment separate entities, just like opinion versus news shows, people need to think and pay attention to the differences. Kinda like Medical Assistants and Physician Assistants they both work in medicine but are clearly different unless someone is pretty obtuse. Rant and sarcasm font secured@

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Just as a positive counter point to this, I had a wonderful interaction today.  For background I recently transitioned to ortho from FM, so am still doing a mixture of seeing patients myself and "shadowing" my surgeon.  But, with the almost complete halt of clinic and any elective surgeries am pretty much just shadowing.

But anyway, had clinic this morning and shadowed on a fracture case.  After the surgeon completed his evaluation, I went back in to cast him and he innocently asked if I was an athletic trainer.  Before I could answer he saw my badge and said, "Oh, you're a PA!  Sorry...you guys don't get the respect you deserve!"

This both showed that we have made progress in the decades that our profession has existed, but furthermore shows that we still have progress to make and I believe that progress will be made so much more easily with a QUALITY name change.

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10 minutes ago, Joelseff said:

Broken record but we need:
1.NAME CHANGE (been screaming this for over 10 years)

2. INDEPENDENCE (Graduated or not but I prefer graduated)

3. PR campaign.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 

Completely agree with #1...no question about it, and this should be first in order as well.

But, #3 will need to come before #2 unless in some fashion we are able to show during this pandemic our quality and utility during a time of crisis without supervision and able to translate that to more normal times.  Seems slimy to utilize a crisis like that, but it is what it is...

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Completely agree with #1...no question about it, and this should be first in order as well.

But, #3 will need to come before #2 unless in some fashion we are able to show during this pandemic our quality and utility during a time of crisis without supervision and able to translate that to more normal times.  Seems slimy to utilize a crisis like that, but it is what it is...

Agree somewhat. Reason I made it #2 is that we can push for it legislatively without necessarily a huge (expensive) national PA (or new title) recognition campaign. But I think these are things that need to be in EVERY AAPA and state chapter meeting agendas.

 

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

 

 

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24 minutes ago, Joelseff said:

Agree somewhat. Reason I made it #2 is that we can push for it legislatively without necessarily a huge (expensive) national PA (or new title) recognition campaign. But I think these are things that need to be in EVERY AAPA and state chapter meeting agendas.

I would almost say that if #2 is achieved (which I think would ONLY be predicated on a name change), I don't even know if #3 is really needed.  Maybe if NPs become more militant toward us...right now I think they ignore us on the national stage because our leaders aren't vocal enough that they need to worry about us, and why bring us into the conversation?  That would actually be counter productive for them...

Edited by mgriffiths
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Hello everyone,

I have good news from the AAPA.  They replied today and said they were already aware of the remarks Harris Faulkner made on her Fox news show.  The AAPA apparently sent a comment to her yesterday morning via twitter (which I will paste below).  This prompted Harris Faulkner to contact the AAPA VP of Communications and apologize for what she had said.  She also invited the AAPA to have a PA do an interview on her show, which they are now working on. 

I realize that we are all beyond frustrated with our title and it must be changed, and I agree it's time that we start practicing independently.  I'm sure most of you feel as I do, in that I'm fed up with being mistaken for a medical assistant.  I'm also tired of being considered a provider that "requires physician oversight"; this makes us appear less capable than an NP (or doctor).   I'm sure my current job is like most of yours, where I do the same work as the doctors, except get paid a lot less (which is not how things were supposed to be).

I have been a PA for 14 years and have heard discussions about getting our title changed since I started in this profession.  I think at this point, it's going to take each and every one of us uniting to push for not only a title change, but also in becoming independent practitioners.  

I know right now, however, our priority is to work on helping as many as we can in fighting this horrible virus!  Once things start to return to normal, we must revisit this and start to work on getting things done. 

Be safe and stay strong everyone!

thumbnail?appId=YMailNorrin&downloadWhenThumbnailFails=true&pid=2

 

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7 hours ago, pacctexas said:

Hello everyone,

I have good news from the AAPA.  They replied today and said they were already aware of the remarks Harris Faulkner made on her Fox news show.  The AAPA apparently sent a comment to her yesterday morning via twitter (which I will paste below).  This prompted Harris Faulkner to contact the AAPA VP of Communications and apologize for what she had said.  She also invited the AAPA to have a PA do an interview on her show, which they are now working on. 

I realize that we are all beyond frustrated with our title and it must be changed, and I agree it's time that we start practicing independently.  I'm sure most of you feel as I do, in that I'm fed up with being mistaken for a medical assistant.  I'm also tired of being considered a provider that "requires physician oversight"; this makes us appear less capable than an NP (or doctor).   I'm sure my current job is like most of yours, where I do the same work as the doctors, except get paid a lot less (which is not how things were supposed to be).

I have been a PA for 14 years and have heard discussions about getting our title changed since I started in this profession.  I think at this point, it's going to take each and every one of us uniting to push for not only a title change, but also in becoming independent practitioners.  

I know right now, however, our priority is to work on helping as many as we can in fighting this horrible virus!  Once things start to return to normal, we must revisit this and start to work on getting things done. 

Be safe and stay strong everyone!

thumbnail?appId=YMailNorrin&downloadWhenThumbnailFails=true&pid=2

 

It would be great if1) someone like Dave Mittman was the one interviewed, or a  Progressive PA with a doctorate and residency training. You know, the kind with all the letters like nurses tend to always show off. .2)somehow, hopefully MCP title change was voted on and and it was discussed  nationwide during interview .

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Latest report where Pence answered good portion of questions, over all he did a good job. However, right at the end he talked about the doctors, nurses and medical assistants working on front lines. I obviously do not know his intention, but  wry likely he was talking about PA’s, seldom would a medical assistant be a front line position. Good grief people, meaning AAPA, change the title!!! Please make fast forward future with kudos to physicians, “practitioners“ and nurses. 

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On 3/29/2020 at 8:28 PM, Hope2PA said:

I hope you are talking about winning a title change and gradual independence..  It is not FOX's fault, could have just as easily been another reporter or news station.  The problem is the title.  Why do 50% of PA's want anything to do with PA, physician assistant or associate.  I seriously doubt anyone would have been confused or assumed a Medical Care Practitioner was the helper behind doctors and nurses to stock and count supplies. 

Agreed. It is not their fault to called us Physician's assistant. It is natural to use the aprostrophe S. The problem is not them, is our title.

The problem is not only assistant but also physician. If we have physician in front of our name, there will ALWAYS BE an apostrophe S. 

Please join the new Facebook page Pa for Medical Care Practitioner https://www.facebook.com/paformcp/  Lets get together, discuss and educate the rest of us, not just within this forum. 

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