{"id":68,"date":"2015-11-04T17:44:37","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T17:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/frontlines-clinical-medicine\/?p=68"},"modified":"2015-11-04T17:44:37","modified_gmt":"2015-11-04T17:44:37","slug":"what-should-pa-stand-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/frontlines-clinical-medicine\/2015\/11\/04\/what-should-pa-stand-for\/","title":{"rendered":"What Should &#8220;PA&#8221; Stand For?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"authorPic\">\n<p><span class=\"authorPixHome\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"[php] bloginfo('template_url'); [\/php]\/images\/AU000_bbelcher.jpg\" alt=\"Bianca Belcher, MPH, PA-C\" width=\"125\" height=\"150\" align=\"left\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bianca Belcher, MPH, PA-C, practices neurosurgery in Boston, MA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In the past few years, the charge to rename our profession from \u201cphysician assistant\u201d to \u201cphysician associate\u201d has gained momentum. Although a name change would not alter the scope of what PAs do on a day-to-day basis, the argument is that it might better inform our patients\u2019 and colleagues\u2019 perceptions of what we do. Groups for and against the idea sit adamantly on their respective sides. At this time, some accredited PA programs \u2014 e.g., the Yale School of Medicine and the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine \u2014 have already renamed their programs using the new physician associate title.<\/p>\n<p>If you are a practicing PA with an unformulated opinion on this issue or a prospective applicant to PA school, you may want to be aware of the basic arguments on each side. Here they are:<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/frontlines-clinical-medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2015\/10\/physicians-assistant-small.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-71 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/frontlines-clinical-medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2015\/10\/physicians-assistant-small-300x150.jpg\" alt=\"Physician Assistant Profile \/ Licensure Verification\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/frontlines-clinical-medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2015\/10\/physicians-assistant-small-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/frontlines-clinical-medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2015\/10\/physicians-assistant-small.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Arguments for keeping the name \u201cphysician assistant\u201d:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Regardless of what \u201cPA\u201d stands for, patients will still need to be educated on what a PA does. Whether a patient is asking, \u201cWhat is a physician assistant?\u201d or \u201cWhat is a physician associate?\u201d the answer is the same. A name change will not replace patient and colleague education.<\/li>\n<li>The field has grown quickly with the current name, and changing it now could lead to confusion.<\/li>\n<li>Changing the name is costly. First, it takes financial and volunteer resources to lobby legislators to change current legislation. These are resources that could be used to further the PA profession in other tangible ways, such as eliminating practice barriers. Secondly, PA programs and other supporting organizations will need to purchase all new materials with new branding.<\/li>\n<li>Medical literature database searches would become more complicated, e.g., requiring use of both \u201cphysician assistant\u201d and \u201cphysician associate\u201d as keywords.<\/li>\n<li>Every state would have to reopen all legislation containing the term \u201cphysician assistant\u201d to revise it to \u201cphysician associate.\u201d This process could inadvertently lead to reduction of practice privileges established in those bills that PAs have worked so hard to gain.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Arguments for changing the name to \u201cphysician associate\u201d:<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/frontlines-clinical-medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2015\/10\/ReBrand-blue-300.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-74\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/frontlines-clinical-medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2015\/10\/ReBrand-blue-300-300x201.png\" alt=\"ReBrand-blue-300\" width=\"236\" height=\"158\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The term \u201cassistant\u201d is a misnomer and downplays the role of the PA in patient care. PAs work as an integral part of the medical team.<\/li>\n<li>Patients confuse physician assistants with medical assistants.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cAssistant\u201d denotes a technical job, not a professional one.<\/li>\n<li>The role of a PA has evolved since the profession\u2019s inception, and the name should reflect that evolution.<\/li>\n<li>As the PA profession is expanding internationally, it is important to develop a name that better encompasses our role and is understood beyond our borders.<\/li>\n<li>PAs are held to the same medical and legal standards as physicians, yet the term \u201cassistant\u201d suggests a lesser standard.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Despite the current debate over what the \u201cA\u201d in PA should signify, I think we universally agree that the use of the possessive apostrophe \u2018s\u2019 after physician (physician\u2019s assistant\/associate) makes us cringe. Regardless of our name, PAs will undoubtedly continue to focus on practicing high-quality, team-based medicine and educating their patients about who they are and what they do.<\/p>\n<p>Which side of the debate do you fall on?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bianca Belcher, MPH, PA-C, practices neurosurgery in Boston, MA. In the past few years, the charge to rename our profession from \u201cphysician assistant\u201d to \u201cphysician associate\u201d has gained momentum. Although a name change would not alter the scope of what PAs do on a day-to-day basis, the argument is that it might better inform our [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1259,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,32,35],"tags":[189,192,186],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-physician-assistant","category-policy","tag-legislation","tag-practice-privileges","tag-professional-title"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/frontlines-clinical-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/frontlines-clinical-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/frontlines-clinical-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/frontlines-clinical-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/frontlines-clinical-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/frontlines-clinical-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/frontlines-clinical-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/frontlines-clinical-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/frontlines-clinical-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}