When did we get rid of the 's

[PACali]

I am doing a presentation about PA titles, when did we get rid of the apostrophe S. If you have a reference that would be great. Thanks 

[PractitionerAwesome]

Not sure, but Duke archives have a lot of good historical letters:

https://medspace.mc.duke.edu/catalog?f[holding_entity_sim][]=Duke+Medical+Center+Archives&f[subject_sim][]=Stead%2C+Eugene+A.&locale=en&view=gallery

[ventana]

Happened state by state.  This is where most PA regulation is. 
 

unsure about AAPA.  

[CAAdmission]

As noted, there are different dates for different places. If you are looking for an "official" date, I'd look at archival material to see when AAPA changed over since they are supposed to speak for the profession. 

[kittryn]

On 1/12/2021 at 1:00 AM, PACali said:

I am doing a presentation about PA titles, when did we get rid of the apostrophe S. If you have a reference that would be great. Thanks 

There never should've been or should be an 's. The 's makes "Physician Assistant" a possessive, as if we belong to the physician. Our title has ALWAYS been, "Physician Assistant", When you see the 's, it is a grammatical/punctuation error. 

PS it also drives me MAD!!

[MediMike]

15 minutes ago, kittryn said:

There never should've been or should be an 's. The 's makes "Physician Assistant" a possessive, as if we belong to the physician. Our title has ALWAYS been, "Physician Assistant", When you see the 's, it is a grammatical/punctuation error. 

PS it also drives me MAD!!

Not correct.  The 's was part and parcel of our title early on.

https://pahx.org/period02/

[kittryn]

@MediMike:

Thanks for the reference, but I'm not sure I agree. Throughout the (very interesting!) history you cited, there are references to "Physician Assistant", "Physician Assistants", Physicians Assistants", and "Physician's Assistants":

1963

Hu Myers, MD, approaches the Alderson-Broaddus College Board of Trustees in Philippi, WV, about starting a four year degree-granting program to educate physician assistants similar to the degree granting nursing program that he had helped establish at the College in 1945. The Board turns him down.

1964

Eugene A. Stead Jr. , MD, disillusioned by organized nursing's rejection of the advanced nurse clinician program that he and nurse educator, Thelma Ingles, had developed, announces in a letter to Duke Hospital Administrator, Charles H. Frenzel, his intention to develop a program for the "physician's assistant", using former military corpsmen, modeled after the relationship between Amos N. Johnson, MD, and Henry Lee "Buddy" Treadwell, his assistant, that was well known in the North Carolina community.

1965

As announced by Stead, the nation's first "physician assistant" educational program is inaugurated at Duke University. The Program accepts four former Navy medical corpsmen. 

***

1968

The American Association of Physician's Assistants (AAPA) is established by Duke University PA students and alumni, and is incorporated in NC on May 20th, 1968. Its stated purposes are to encourage its members to render honest, loyal and efficient service to the medical profession and quality care to the public whom they serve. William (Bill) Stanhope, PA, is elected as the first president.

If you click on the AAPA link ^^above", it takes you to an image of this original certificate:

...which has no 's.

I suspect any of the 's in the history are typos as well, and I also suspect earlier uses of 's are grammatical/punctuation errors, too.

Just my 2...

PS Sorry but I can't rid of this 2nd image!

Edited January 14, 2021 by kittryn
duplicate image uploaded