Should You Write Physician Associate or Physician Assistant on Your PA School Essay?

Comments

1. William Cornelison, PA says

   June 7, 2021 at 10:46 am

   The name physician associate is not the best choice for our name change for at least the following reasons:
   1. It does not describe who we are. A physician associate is someone who relates with physicians. This is a relational term, not a descriptive term. I am first and foremost a medical provider. I may work with physicians, but I also work with many other professions in the medical community. My identity is not tied to a physician as this name suggests.
   2. Any profession that defines itself by another profession will be seen as a secondary position to the public. Name a major independent profession that defines itself by another profession. Our profession needs to move towards the realm of independent practitioner. We are losing jobs daily because we are not independent practitioners.
   3. Similarly the name continues to tie us to the hip to physicians. The profession has matured and needs stand on its own merits. We should not depend on another profession even in our name. Physician associate continues to have a paternalistic nature as our current name.

   A better choice would be medical practitioner or clinical practitioner. Both names are descriptive and communicate who we are and what we do. We could think a little outside the box and further describe ourselves depending on our specialty, such as Clinical Practitioner of Internal Medicine, or Clinical Practitioner of Neurology, etc. We could even have our competency exams in each discipline instead of the one exam fits all. Our national organization could be Association of Clinical Practitioners, or if the PAs at large chose medical practitioner, we could be Association of Medical Practitioners.

   Either of these names would be descriptive of who we are and what we do, far more than physician associate. Over the years one questions from patients that have caused me grief is “what is a PA?” Or are you like a nurse? Both medical practitioner and clinical practitioner are terms clearly communicate our function, and are phrases that are familiar to the public We are medically trained and are we are providers. The name physician associate does not go far enough in describing who we are and is not worth the millions that will cost to change our name. Physician associate keeps us in some of the same dilemmas that we find ourselves in today. I don’t wish or want to chose that for the generations that are yet to come. We can do better.

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   • Stephen Pasquini PA-C says

     June 19, 2021 at 10:25 am

     Hi William! You certainly nailed it! It seems that as long as the word “physician” is in our title, we will be forever chasing our tails which is why I understand your reasoning for wanting to escape this completely.

     But a name change will always come with problems. The PA acronym is now recognizable to most patients (and has a positive association), and rebranding away from this acronym may only serve to further confuse matters. This is why I am not a big fan of medical practitioner or clinical practitioner as a name. Besides the fact that it seems oftly generic there are other considerations – I thought the PA doctor covered this beautifully in this article: https://thepadoctor.com/medical-care-practitioner/

     From that article:
     Can you imagine the conversations should PAs change their title to Medical Care Practitioner? Can you imagine the questions every front desk person would have to answer?

     “We have a 2:00 appointment with Mr. Jones, our MCP.”

     “What’s an MCP? Is that like an NP?”

     “No, it stands for Medical Care Practitioner.”

     “What is a Medical Care Practitioner?”

     “Oh, they used to be called PAs or Physician Assistants.”

     “Aren’t they all medical care practitioners?”

     “Yes, I suppose they are…”

     Or maybe it would go something like this:

     “We have a few appointments available today. Whom would you like to see? Dr. Smith, the NP or the Medical Care Practitioner?”

     “Well, I have no idea what that last one is, so I would rather just see the doctor.”

     The AMA just wrote an interesting article titled “PA rebrand as “physician associates” will deepen patient confusion” => https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/scope-practice/pa-rebrand-physician-associates-will-deepen-patient-confusion.

     In the article, they state that “The AMA will “actively advocate that the stand-alone title ‘physician’ be used only to refer to doctors of allopathic medicine (MDs) and doctors of osteopathic medicine (DOs), and not be used in ways that have the potential to mislead patients about the level of training and credentials of nonphysician health care worker.”

     Stephen

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2. Hung Nguyen, DMSc, PA says

   June 6, 2021 at 8:35 am

   I always wished for two things when I was a younger PA in clinical practice. The first thing is the profession’s name needed to change to “associate” from “assistant” to reflect who we are and what we do. Second, the PA needed to advance their academic level to the doctorate. When I went to the PA school in the early 1980s, my program name was the physician associate program. When I graduated, I became a physician assistant. Was that a switched and baited situation?
   It’s a step in the right direction for the profession to obtain the associate name and doctorate level, and now it’s time!

   Reply

   • Stephen Pasquini PA-C says

     June 18, 2021 at 9:35 am

     Thanks, Hung, for your thoughtful comment. I did not know that our name was originally “associate” and then changed to “assistant” until I wrote and researched this blog post. That must have been a bit of a shock when it happened at the time, and it makes sense why these would be the go-to name for our profession again moving forward.

     I have had mixed feelings about a name change, but coming to a consensus that everyone can be happy with moving forward will be good for our profession.

     Thanks again!

     Stephen Pasquini PA-C

     Reply