BUSM PA Program Director Honored for Research on PA Career Patterns
The American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) honored BUSM PA Program Director Mary Warner, MMSc, PA-C, with its PAragon Research Publishing Award for her exceptional research article “Career patterns of physician assistants: A retrospective longitudinal study.” The award was presented at AAPA’s annual conference in Boston in May.
The article—which received a Gold Medal for Best Original Research from the American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors—was published in the June edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants and takes a closer look at the education, training and practice patterns of PAs post-graduation. The authors pay special attention to the tendencies of PAs to move between different specialties throughout their career, given their flexibility to do so without additional training or certification. The information suggests that PAs are invaluable to addressing shortages of providers in both primary care and/or specialty medicine.
“The work we’ve done validates that the PA profession takes advantage of and values the ability to practice in multiple specialties over the course of a career,” said Warner who is also the founding director of the BUSM PA program and the lead author of the article. “This career flexibility is likely to be the primary reason physician assistants have such high job satisfaction rates. I am honored to be recognized by AAPA and hope that my work, and that of my colleagues, will serve as an incentive to pursue this career for the next generation of PAs.”
PAs are nationally certified and licensed to practice medicine in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and all U.S. territories, except for Puerto Rico. PAs are educated similarly to physicians and share diagnostic and therapeutic reasoning skills. PAs perform physical examinations, diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret lab tests, perform procedures, assist in surgery, provide patient education and counseling, and make rounds in hospitals and nursing homes, among many other medical services.