ADVANCE for Physician Assistants

According to a list compiled by CareerCast.com , physician assistant ranks in the top eight most-stressful jobs in the country, along with newspaper reporter, general practice physician, real estate agent, advertising account executive, photojournalist, commercial airline pilot and surgeon. An article in the NY Daily News explained how CareerCast.com came to its conclusions: The job-search Web site's "2009 Jobs Rated Report" considered 21 stress factors, including deadlines, life-and-death situations...(read more)

AAPA president Stephen Hanson has published an opinion piece, " 'Make more of them' isn't the only solution to America's physician shortage ," in The Bakersfield Californian endorsing PAs as an integral part of the solution to a growing physician shortage. A Bakersfield resident, Hanson explains how PAs are primed to "bridge the gap" while doctors remain scarce: PAs are amassing in the medical work force faster than physicians and are already playing a role in offsetting the physician shortage. This...(read more)

A recent article in The New York Times discusses how " Primary Care's Image Problem " is leading the vast majority of med students into specialties over primary care and how the patient-centered medical home model could alter the course of this alarming trend. A decreasing number of primary care physicians has repercussions on the success of health care reform that even an abundance of PAs and NPs can't set right: According to one study published last year in The Journal of the American Medical Association,...(read more)