Archives: Articles
Neonatal Nurse Practitioners: Past, Present, and Future
The advanced practice nursing role in neonatal intensive care enjoys an almost 40-year history. The 1970s and the 1980s were fraught with growing pains, including what to call these providers, and role clarity that was defined in most settings by community need. With the birth of NANN, 25 years ago, the neonatal nurse practitioner (NNP) […]
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Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners: The United States Experience
Physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) were introduced in the United States in 1967. As of 2006, there are 110 000 clinically active PAs and NPs (comprising approximately one sixth of the US medical workforce). Approximately 11 200 new PAs and NPs graduate each year. PAs and NPs are well distributed throughout primary care […]
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The Extension of Rheumatology Services with Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners
The development and deployment of physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) began in the late 1960s. This has been a social phenomenon that has spread to a number of countries. The original intention was to extend the role of the busy general/family practitioner in providing access and offloading some of the workload in primary […]
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Trends in the Supply of Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners in the United States
In 2001 an estimated 103,612 nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) were in clinical employment in the United States. The roles of PAs and NPs in providing comparable physician services are similar; they differ in that NPs are predominantly in primary care, while PAs are divided between primary and specialty care. PA and NP […]
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Career Flexibility of Physician Assistants and the Potential for More Primary Care
In part because of their core generalist education, physician assistants can change clinical specialties over the course of their work life. This is known as career flexibility. Using medical care providers who can adapt quickly to new opportunities could help alleviate medical workforce shortages in primary care. We studied annual surveys undertaken by the American […]
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Physician Assistant and Nurse Practitioner Prescribing: 1997-2002
Context: Physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) have licensure to practice in all states and they have prescriptive authority in 47 and 40 states, respectively. However, there have been no published studies from a national standpoint comparing urban and rural settings. Purpose: The objective of this study was to describe the characteristics of providers, […]
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The Contributions of Physician Assistants in Primary Care Systems
Shortages of primary care doctors are occurring globally; one means of meeting this demand has been the use of physician assistants (PAs). Introduced in the United States in the late 1960s to address doctor shortages, the PA movement has grown to over 75 000 providers in 2011 and spread to Australia, Canada, Great Britain, the […]
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Use of Physician Assistants in a Managed Health Care System
Kaiser Permanente Northwest Region is a prepaid group practice health maintenance organization. Among the employed are 65 physician assistants (PAs) who work in primary care and in certain subspecialties. Kaiser Permanente was one of the first managed health care systems to use PAs and has contributed to the historical documentation of their effectiveness. An interest […]
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Emergency Department Uses of Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners: A National Survey
A study was undertaken to determine the extent to which physician assistants (PAs) and/or nurse practitioners (NPs) are a source of health care delivery in emergency departments (EDs) in the United States. The National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Survey (NHAMCS) uses a multistage probability sample that examines patient visits within EDs. The sample included 437 hospitals […]
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