Advanced Practice Role: Physician Assistant (PA)
A Rural-Urban Comparison of Patterns of Physician Assistant Practice
Access to primary care continues to be a concern in rural areas. The deficit of primary care providers in rural environments has the potential to increase the role of physician assistants (PAs) in the system of rural health care delivery. Little is known about the conditions, sites, and patterns of practice of PAs and their […]
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A History of the Alaska Physician Assistant, 1970-1980
The introduction of physician assistants (PAs) into Alaska began in 1971 with seven MEDEX Northwest students, who were paired with physician preceptors for 12 months. Scores of PAs were recruited as health officers on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System starting in 1974, and by 1977 the state had 200 PAs. In 1979, the Alaska Board of […]
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The Feminization of the Physician Assistant Profession
Although the physician assistant profession has historically been male-dominated, women now comprise over sixty percent of physician assistants (PAs) in the U.S. This paper explores the reason for the increase of women into the physician assistant profession in recent decades and whether gender differences exist in how PAs are utilized. Twenty-one qualitative interviews with male […]
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An Analysis of Job Satisfaction among Physician Assistants in Taiwan
The physician assistant (PA) is a relatively new medical specialty that developed to manage the shortage of resident physicians and to ensure that patients receive high-quality health care in today’s increasingly complex and demanding medical environment. PAs in Taiwan are not governed by laws and regulations, and the absence of legislation to define their roles […]
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Globalizing the PA Profession
US physician assistants (PAs) have long been working in other parts of the world. Recently, several countries in Western Europe have begun to investigate whether the PA concept can help their own predicted health provider shortages. The author, who was the first PA to work internationally with the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, reviews the […]
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National Estimates of Physician Assistant Productivity
Analysis of productivity data from a nationally representative sample of physician assistants (PAs) showed that PAs performed 61.4 outpatient visits per week compared with 74.2 visits performed by physicians, for an overall physician full-time equivalent (FTE) estimate of 0.83. However, productivity of PAs varies strongly across practice specialty and location, with generalist PAs performing more […]
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The Contribution of Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants to Generalist Care in Washington State
Objective. To quantify the total contribution to generalist care made by nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) in Washington State. Data Sources. State professional licensure renewal survey data from 1998–1999. Study Design. Cross-sectional. Data on medical specialty, place of practice, and outpatient visits performed were used to estimate productivity of generalist physicians, NPs, and […]
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