In 1965, physicians and educators recognized there was a shortage of primary care physicians in the United States. To help remedy this, Dr. Eugene A. Stead Jr. of Duke University Medical Center put together the first class of physician assistants. He selected four Navy hospital corpsmen, who had received considerable medical training during their military service. Stead based the curriculum of that P.A. program on his knowledge of the fast-track training of doctors during World War II.
The first class graduated from the Duke University P.A. program on Oct. 6, 1967.
In the 1970s, the P.A. concept gained federal acceptance and backing as a creative solution to physician shortages. The medical community helped support the new profession and spurred the setting of accreditation standards. Physicians helped establish continuing medical education requirements, standardized examinations and a national certification process.
Since its inception over 40 years ago, the physician assistant (P.A.) profession has strived to improve the quality, accessibility and cost-effectiveness of patient-centered health care.
In the U.S. there are more than 170 accredited physician assistant programs. Over 85,000 physician assistants are practicing medicine in this country. It is the fastest growing health care occupation in our country. It is commonly ranked as among the top five occupations in the U.S. Physician assistants are liked by their patients, respected by their peers and an integral part of America's health care team.
Physician assistants are trained to:
-- Take a medical history.
-- Conduct physical exams.
-- Diagnose and treat illnesses.
-- Order and interpret tests.
-- Develop treatment plans.
-- Counsel on preventive care.
-- Assist in surgery.
-- Write prescriptions.
-- Make rounds in hospitals and nursing homes.
Physician assistants practice medicine directly or indirectly under a supervising physician. They examine, diagnose and treat patients. Alaska physician assistants are practicing in almost every specialty under the guidance of their collaborating physicians. We have an expert dermatologist, outstanding cardiology specialists, surgical P.A.s who finish many operations, pediatric P.A.s whose patients will see no one else, pain management specialists, family medicine specialists and many more. We have a state in which the immediate past president of the Medical Board was a physician assistant. In Alaska, we have some of the finest physician assistants in the country.
I have practiced emergency medicine in Anchorage for over 30 years. I have taken care of bear maulings, sprained ankles, gunshot wounds, falls, cancer patients and every manner of medical emergency. When you come to the emergency department with crushing chest pain radiating down your left arm, shortness of breath and sweats, I might be there to take care of your acute heart attack. Along with myself there will be two to three expert nurses, a respiratory therapist, an X-ray technician, an EKG technician, a pharmacologist,a phlebotomist and a chaplain. There will be someone starting at least 2 IVs, giving you nitroglycerin, popping an aspirin into your mouth, placing you on oxygen, taking a chest X-ray, doing an EKG, calling the cardiologist and the cath lab. A team will be taking care of you.
In the oil fields of the North Slope there are at least 12 medical clinics where you might arrive with the same exact symptoms and the same exact heart attack. You will primarily be treated by the physician assistant staffing that clinic. He or she might be assisted by an occupational technician but frequently the only assistance is from a medical emergency response team that is made up of volunteer oil workers who have been trained primarily by the physician assistant. They will do all of the same interventions you would receive in a major hospital, save the cardiac catheterization, which might be replaced by a clot buster due to time constraints. They will do all the things I would have a large team to do. And, trust me, they will do it well.Your life will be in that P.A.'s hands. Likely you will survive.
I have worked with physician assistants for over 30 years in Alaska. It has been a pleasure and an honor to know these men and women. This is a shout-out to all physician assistants, and especially those who have made remote Alaska as safe as it is.
Dr. John Hall is the medical director of Beacon Occupational Health and Safety Services and a practicing emergency physician at Providence Alaska Medical Center. He wrote this piece to mark National Physician Assistants Week (Oct. 6-12). The Alaska Academy of Physician Assistants concludes its All-Alaska Medical Conference today at the Sheraton in Anchorage.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.