Certified PAs: Unsung Warriors in the Battle to Improve Healthcare

By Dawn Morton-Rias, Ed.D, PA-C

Politicians, employers, physicians, industry leaders and patients are all searching for solutions to the myriad of healthcare challenges in America today. From access, to quality, to cost, to the golden ticket of engaging patients as partners in their own health, there are obstacles to overcome. 

Certified Physician Assistants (PA-Cs) have been working on these challenges for 50 years and are on the frontlines of healthcare, in every setting and specialty, including working in surgical units, busy urban ERs, small rural clinics and serving in the armed forces. 

 Even so, many, even those in the healthcare industry, aren’t fully aware of who we are, what we do or how far the profession has come. To solve the challenges faced in healthcare today, it’s important to better understand the roles PAs can and should be fulfilling in healthcare delivery.

Today’s PAs are critical members of healthcare teams — one of many reasons why U.S. News and World Report ranks physician assistant (PA) as #3 on the list of top 100 jobs. 

For those who want to practice medicine, the PA profession is very appealing. Certified PAs provide most of the services ordinarily provided by physicians, following a shorter but very intense graduate curriculum. The career offers tremendous professional satisfaction as well as favorable work/life balance. In addition, the average salary of a Certified PA tops six figures.

Couple the allure of the profession with the escalating healthcare demands of the nation, and PAs are in high demand. Like physicians, PAs are licensed by state medical boards and certified at the highest levels in healthcare; regulations that assure patients of a high standard of care. 

PAs assess patients, treat acute and chronic illnesses, order and interpret lab tests, prescribe medicine, perform procedures, collaborate with physicians and work side by side with surgeons in the operating room. Pure and simple, PAs practice medicine.

What Sets Certified PAs Apart

PAs are educated and certified as generalists and have a broad-based core knowledge that is used in all specialties. Thus, being a PA provides the opportunity to help meet health care needs in a variety of settings and disciplines throughout ones career, which is unique from other health care providers, who are often educated and certified in single specialty. 

For those who want to practice medicine with flexibility to work in different specialties, being a PA is an option that allows us to evaluate the whole patient and play a key role in early detection and prevention. While PA salaries are competitive, integration of PAs into a practice is cost effective, enabling employers to hire more providers for direct patient care. Indeed, Certified PAs are one of the best values in medicine today.

How the Profession is Changing

In 2017, as the profession celebrates its 50th anniversary, PA demographics and practice patterns are changing. 

Fifty years ago, the first three PAs graduated from Duke University. In the early years, it was an almost exclusively male profession, as military medics coming back from Vietnam were the first to be educated as PAs. Today the profession is 67% female. For 30 years, most PAs entered the profession as a second career. Today, college students and others are choosing the PA profession first, as their sought-after career. Unlike other health professions, the average age of PAs is under 40.

While the profession’s roots are in primary care, and about 30% of Certified PAs work in this high need area, 70% of PAs now practice in medical and surgical specialties and sub-specialties , and recruitment in these specialty areas remains high.

According to the 2016 Statistical Report of Certified PAs from the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) PAs work in every specialty including over:

• 18% in surgical specialties
• 13% in emergency medicine
• 4% in dermatology
• 3% in hospital medicine
• 2% in pediatrics

Certified PAs also work in every clinical setting. Although the majority of PAs are based in office-based practices or a hospital, we also work in community health centers and rural clinics, at urgent care centers, government facilities like the VA and Bureau of Prisons, and in nursing homes and rehab centers. Certified PAs even work at the White House, in national parks, and in natural disaster zones.

Preparing the Next Generation

The ripple effects of the profession’s continued growth include heavy competition from college graduates to gain admittance to PA programs that accept only a small percentage of their highly qualified applicants.

The number of PA programs is also increasing, from 218 to 270 by 2020, which will add some growth to the pipeline of future providers.

The just released 2016 Statistical Report of Recently Certified PAs offers comprehensive data on the almost 8000 recent graduates who were certified as PAs last year. This report provides definitive proof that the job market is strong -- with 77% of new PAs reporting multiple job offers and 27% reporting four or more.

In addition:

• 20% of newly-certified PAs were offered a signing bonus.
• Many were given additional recruitment incentives, including income guarantee, reimbursement for continuing medical education and flexible hours.
• 15% were provided with relocation expenses.
• 13% were offered education loan repayments.

Moving Forward

The nation continues to grapple with how to best serve the healthcare needs of a growing population, especially when expectations for quality healthcare are intertwined with the American Dream.

CMS only recognizes four types of professionals to practice medicine as primary care providers: physicians, PAs, nurse practitioners, and clinical nurse specialists.

As 11,000 senior citizens join the Medicare rolls every day and people live longer, the demand for these services will continue to grow exponentially. 

This creates a clarion call for those who can deliver cost-effective, quality care in every specialty and clinical setting. Certified PAs are medical providers who do that today, have proven themselves for 50 years, and will continue to be highly sought after in the years to come.