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Unsure what would prevent Canadian PA programs from being accredited by US authorities. Canadian med schools are already accredited by the LCME.

 

Apples and oranges...

 

MOST here would dispute the connection between "med schools" and PA programs... especially since MOST PA programs aren't remotely connected to "med-schools." Even if this wasn't the case, consider the complexity of licensing requirements the FMG/IMG status Americans who attend and complete Carib and Mexican medical schools MD graduates have to navigate. But somehow none of this should matter for PAs...????

 

Also... while I'm FAR from xenophobic... I'm not seeing the MUTUAL benefit in allowing Foreigners trained in Foreign schools (regardless of how westernized) entry into our job market... IF we can't go work in theirs...

 

If we allow Canadians trained at Canadian schools, then why not "Clinical Officers" from Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan... or even the graduates from Tubman National Institute of Medical Arts (TNIMA)

 

 

The Tubman National Institute of Medical Arts ( TNIMA) was established in 1945 through the effort and cooperation of the Liberian National Public Health services- now Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the United States Mission.

 

The school of Physician Assistant, one of four Schools in TNIMA, was established in 1965 under a joint venture between the Liberian Government, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization (WHO) to train mid-level health care professionals.

 

These health care professionals (pas) work independently, especially, at health posts, clinics and health centers that are usually several miles for the hospital or medical doctor using the basic concepts of primary health care (PHC) and the referral system. Additional, the Physician Assistant can also working Urban setting to enhance the patient’s management and the seriously ill. The program at present offered a three years period and a Diploma is award.

 

PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION

Physician Assistant program graduates are eligible to sit for the Physician Asst. National Certification Examination administered by the Liberia National Physician Assistant Examination Boards. The certification is only issued to successful candidates.

 

ACCREDITATION

The Physician Assistant program is fully accredited by the Liberia national Physician Assistant Association (LINPAA) and the Liberia medical & dental Association Board (IMDA). To legally practice medicine as a Physician Assistant in Liberia, the Physician Assistant must passed the State Board Exams administered by the Physician Assistant Association Board of Examiners & lice-sure and is licensed.

 

MANY ROLES OF THE PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS

 

Doctor’s substitute is areas where there is no medical doctors.

 

Provide emergency treatment to the injured.

Statistician: Records birth, morbidity mortality (Infant, and maternal etc) for the Ministry of health. Nutritionist: Adyises and demonstrates to the people of his community the important of a good balance diet. Recognizes the sign and symptoms of diseases related to malnutrition and under nutrition etc.

 

Midwife: where no trained midwife is available conducts a prenatal clinics, postnatal cares both mother and child etc.

Family Planning & Reproductive Health: Encourages families to space their children properly for better health of mother and child,

decides on the number of children to have etc.

Health Education: Helps the community to become aware and seek out the services of available health personnel teach the importance of vaccination etc.

 

PORFESSIONAL UTILIZATION & EDUCATION

 

The graduate Physician Assistant is used at every level of the health deliver system of Liberian and in countries with physician or medical assistant program. The physician Assistant can earn a diploma, Esc, MA, and can specialized in Emergency medicine,

Pediatrics, Surgery, Gynecology, Obstetrics, Geriatrics, Internal Medicine, etc.

 

The physician Assistant is the leader of the community health team. The Physician Assistant School has graduated hundreds of Liberian who are contributing immensely to the Health Care Delivery System of Liberia.

 

 

http://www.tnima.org/aboutus.html

 

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You can come work in ours. There are lots of American-trained NCCPA PAs working in Canada; you can come work here. I work side-by-side with an American-trained PA.

 

Apples and oranges...

Also... while I'm FAR from xenophobic... I'm not seeing the MUTUAL benefit in allowing Foreigners trained in Foreign schools (regardless of how westernized) entry into our job market... IF we can't go work in theirs...

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My thoughts (and those of several physicians I work with are)

 

 

Physicians can't really bill for what we do, we are unable to be responsible for our own actions, and we cannot order or prescribe medications (things that are necessary to do our job, indeed, this is part of our job description. NPs can do all of these things and, indeed, many physicians have said to me "I would rather have an NP" for many of those reasons.

 

The Government has created PAs without understanding what we are; healthcare professionals who practice medicine with negotiated supervision. Practicing medicine entails prescribing and order and without being regulated we cannot really do either. Doing so with medical directives means that SPs are still 100 per cent responsible and puts everyone on shaky legal framework. The Government has tied our hands and told us to clap.

PAs must be regulated.

docs can't bill for what we do and now we're unable to be responsible for our own actions. This government has no idea what to do with PAs or any understanding of how we're actually working!

 

 

This is essentially making PAs work like Clinical Clerks which makes having a PA around almost pointless.

 

This started out with the fact that there really is no "enabling legislation/government rules" that really allows PAs to BE real PAs in Ontario Canada (or BC) beyond the "pilot projects" and "free money/grants" and that its just a experiment...

 

So NO... the description you have given in the other posts in this thread makes me believe that PAs up there are basically "scribes" with less clinical scope than NPs and a little more than EMT-Ps/RNs... on a short tether and a limited time frame. Why would I wanna do that...???

 

So... what's the point of this thread if all is good and interchangeable in Canadian PA land... ???

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I said you can come work here, I didn't say you would be happy with the scope.

 

This started out with the fact that there really is no "enabling legislation/government rules" that really allows PAs to BE real PAs in Ontario Canada (or BC) beyond the "pilot projects" and "free money/grants" and that its just a experiment...

 

So NO... the description you have given in the other posts in this thread makes me believe that PAs up there are basically "scribes" with less clinical scope than NPs and a little more than EMT-Ps/RNs... on a short tether and a limited time frame. Why would I wanna do that...???

 

So... what's the point of this thread if all is good and interchangeable in Canadian PA land... ???

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I said you can come work here, I didn't say you would be happy with the scope.

 

By the way, spoke with a representative of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons when I was in Ottawa. He was at the meeting I was at, and he remarked that there were was some confusion about CME and how it would be logged, and would it be required in the PAs specialty or in primary care. That was apparently one sticking point. He thought that based on the amount of money the government has invested in PAs that they would get this fixed, but that it might take time.

 

There were researchers from Norway, the UK, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and the Netherlands....

 

There was definite excitement from the researcher from New Zealand about their new PA program, and the Australians seemed to be cautiously optimistic about PAs in Australia as well.

 

Just wanted to provide what little information I was able to get.

 

Mike

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CME for CCPAs is handled by the CCFP mainpro credits http://capa-acam.ca/paccc/continuing-professional-development-cpd/

 

By the way, spoke with a representative of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons when I was in Ottawa. He was at the meeting I was at, and he remarked that there were was some confusion about CME and how it would be logged, and would it be required in the PAs specialty or in primary care. That was apparently one sticking point. He thought that based on the amount of money the government has invested in PAs that they would get this fixed, but that it might take time.

 

There were researchers from Norway, the UK, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and the Netherlands....

 

There was definite excitement from the researcher from New Zealand about their new PA program, and the Australians seemed to be cautiously optimistic about PAs in Australia as well.

 

Just wanted to provide what little information I was able to get.

 

Mike

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CME for CCPAs is handled by the CCFP mainpro credits http://capa-acam.ca/paccc/continuing-professional-development-cpd/

 

I understand that, what I am saying is that, there was some concern that the credits would be in primary care only and not in the specialty in which they were working, or vice versa. The Royal College apparently had some concern over this. This is what I was told, and what I was able to find out.

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I understand that, what I am saying is that, there was some concern that the credits would be in primary care only and not in the specialty in which they were working, or vice versa. The Royal College apparently had some concern over this. This is what I was told, and what I was able to find out.

 

Does the royal college have some ideas for a solution?

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  • 4 months later...

So I'm a secondary teacher in Ontario and I'm sure you've all heard how terrible the job market is for teachers these days. I always wanted to get into medicine but due to a series of bad program choices that I greatly regret, that never happened. Now, I'm not saying I hate being a teacher because I don't. I love my kids and my colleagues, however I feel like I'm not learning anything new, and not really contributing anything other than to try and force a bunch of kids to sit in a room that they don't want to be in for 6 hours a day. I teach science, but my true interest was always medicine/healthcare. I managed to convince myself for a while that I'm OK with what I'm doing and now I feel spoiled for wanting a change, because I know I'm lucky to even have a job.

 

I am currently 28 years old, married, and just bought a house outside the GTA. I recently found out about the PA program at McMaster and am thinking of applying for September of 2014. However, based on what I am reading, I don't know if it would be worth the $25,000 program cost (which I would have to get OSAP for and borrow money from my parents) and not being able to work for 2 years (with a new mortgage) if there won't be any jobs when I graduate. I currently make around $60,000 as a teacher (before taxes) however 3 years out of school and I still have no permanent contract and never know where or if I will be working next semester.

 

The main questions I have are:

1) what is the job situation like in the GTA (not necessarily downtown Toronto but also Mississauga, Brampton, Milton, Vaughan, Oakville, etc.)

2) what is the typical salary and hours/schedule?

3) After reading the postings it seems like you guys aren't allowed to do a lot of the things you are trained for; has that been most people's experience?

4) Also is there anything else that has to be done after the program and board exam e.g. specialized training?

5) Do you have to relocate during the program at all for training?

 

Please let me know what you guys think. It's making me so frustrated to want to switch careers at this point and regretting that I didn't know about the program earlier before I went through a pointless M.Sc. program and my B.Ed.! My husband and I wanted to start a family in 2 or 3 years (about the time I would be graduating if I got into the program) but if there is additional training needed afterwards or it's difficult to find a job, that won't happen...

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the majority of graduating pas get jobs with ministry funding but there are no guarantees. there is no typical salary/hours because it depends on the job. i make about 100k doing 40 hrs a week of emerg. certain rotations in clerkship may mean travel/temporary relocation and as for getting to do stuff that depends on the job. medicine is lifelong training so there will always be cme stuff to do.

 

 

The main questions I have are:

1) what is the job situation like in the GTA (not necessarily downtown Toronto but also Mississauga, Brampton, Milton, Vaughan, Oakville, etc.)

2) what is the typical salary and hours/schedule?

3) After reading the postings it seems like you guys aren't allowed to do a lot of the things you are trained for; has that been most people's experience?

4) Also is there anything else that has to be done after the program and board exam e.g. specialized training?

5) Do you have to relocate during the program at all for training?

 

Please let me know what you guys think. It's making me so frustrated to want to switch careers at this point and regretting that I didn't know about the program earlier before I went through a pointless M.Sc. program and my B.Ed.! My husband and I wanted to start a family in 2 or 3 years (about the time I would be graduating if I got into the program) but if there is additional training needed afterwards or it's difficult to find a job, that won't happen...

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