I am working on physician assistants (PA’s) in physicians’ offices and need feedback as to if you have ever seen a PA and found any problems with the service they provide you during your care. And if there was a problem what was the cause of it.
I have personally had a PA as my provider and had no issues whatsoever. I believe that PAs and NPs are excellent providers. Moreover, most of the research comparing patients outcomes between physicians and physician extenders show no difference.
I have not seen a PA. I have no difficulty in seeing a PA, however, I have been in nursing for more than 30 years. I have found that my level of knowledge equals a general PA, and in some cases, surpasses it (when the PA is young or new). I do not mean to sound arrogant, that is not my goal, and I am truly not an arrogant person. If I needed a specialist PA, I really would not have any difficulty.
The group practice I use has both physicians and PAs. The care I've received there from a PA is at least the equal of that which I've gotten from physicians. The PA has taken more time to explain my treatment options and has been more insistent that I adhere with treatment (and diagnostic) regimens.
I am not sure what you can do with a few anecdotes about personal experiences. The observations that have been given already undoubtedly reflect what is likely given the literature which as Dr. Linden says generally indicates that physician extenders perform comparably to physicians in areas in which there are guidelines or that have been included in their education. I practiced general internal medicine in the 1980s with a nurse practitioner or a physician assistant who were both excellent (again an anecdote).
One thing that might be added is that PAs perform valuable clinical services in a variety of settings other than general fields. The organization in which I was working had excellent PAs doing office orthopedics and when I had an office orthopedic problem I was able to get specialty consultations from the PA which I did not differentiate from ones done by orthopedic surgeons. In inpatient settings, PAs do a lot of work that in the past was done by residents in surgery, e.g., they do admission histories and physicals, they perform as surgical assistants in the operating room, etc.
Thank you all for your input this has help lead me in the correct direction of rewording and addressing PAs in the field of healthcare, until i started doing more research i was unaware that there is only 30,402 PA's in primary care that is 43% and this number has only rose from 1975 when there was only 200 practicing PA's nationwide, i am looking at linking them to the state of Indiana state run healthcare program.
Good luck Debora! I think that more research is necessary to see how PAs (and NPs) perform in a variety of settings. Our health care system needs as much help as possible!
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