Why are Physician Assistants’ so misunderstood by everyone—even Physicians?

 

For all the accolades the PA profession receives from time to time in the print media, we, for all practical purposes still remain an enigma in many circles. And one can see this paradox very easily when we are misperceived or mischaracterized by the various media outlets; including reporters, writers, all disparaging us and referring about us with incorrect or very outdated information. So the question becomes this: why are PAs so misunderstood by everyone else including physicians? As a PA myself, I will try to explain these contributing factors objectively, however, it will become clear that these explanations are based on my experiences and observations acquired and developed over the past 30 years. Nevertheless, I will attempt to be objective & as factual as possible when dissecting this subject matter into its respective root causes listed below.

1.    A New Profession—As a profession, we just celebrated our 54^th anniversary this year. As a result, one can see that our “recentness” unlike other more established occupational fields such as medicine, nursing or engineering that ours is so new in the workforce that it can easily lead to misperceptions, or even gross mischaracterizations. Unfortunately, this becomes part of this problem when all the stakeholders are unaware or unfamiliar with who we truly are as a professional group.

                 2. A Misnamed Profession— Tragically our professional designation has not kept with the ever evolving healthcare industry. Painfully we [ the PA community ] have grappled with the name change game far too long. Moreover, our hesitancy and ambivalence have perpetuated this awful professional misnomer which continues to fail us in so many ways. For instance, it mischaracterizes our scope of practice to other stakeholders or it does not distinguish our concept from other less trained groups. This archaic inaccurate professional designation robs us of other stakeholders to clearly comprehend our role in the team-based model nowadays practiced nationwide.

              3. A Silent Profession—Collectively, we have become a timid, non-assertive group of healthcare professionals. In one hand  we’re professionally insecure, while on the other, as a community we have a sense of professional complacency. We seem to see ourselves as “I am just the PA”, this acquired an difficult to discard self-abnegation mindset makes us look powerless. It’s very obvious this psychological chain that bind us does nothing to help or advance our agenda, particularly when so many other kindred allied health professions  are feeling emboldened and empowered in advancing their agenda even if it ruffles others along the way.

 It becomes clear that this attitudinal behavior of ours is a significant barrier that must be discarded at once if we’re to move forward and not implode along the way. Resilient we must be, but truthfully without a “Darwinian outlook” (seeing ourselves as the fittest in the marketplace) then we will not.

                 4. Non-partnered Profession-- Symbiotic business relationships are very much needed if not a must. Nothing could be more detrimental than isolation or detachment from a business perspective. We have witnessed the meteoric ascension of the nursing profession (namely NPs) because of the open business community support. It has been very noticeable how these strategic business alliances have advanced their agenda and boosted their marketplace confidence. Three examples of this can be seen with their recent partnership with The AARP and their longtime associations with Johnson and Johnson, The Robert Johnson Foundation (a provider of corporate financial support of various nursing research projects throughout the years). This is one area where we have failed to pursue aggressively and miserably.

5. A Disrespectful Media— Sure we have all seen the titles: “PAs the hottest career” or “Fast track to a profitable career”, on the covers of Forbes or US News magazines.  But these are not the articles I’m referring to because they seek to provide a quick road map for thousands of graduating High Schoolers or college grads seeking potential objective information to aid them when making a final career choice.

I’m referring to the articles where PAs are bashed to the nth degree by insecure  virulent physicians or others trying to dissuade our significant industry contributions under the patient-safety rhetoric. This activity is inexcusable whether is mockingly done or the blatant inconsistent reporting which never ceases to amaze me. This media liberty taken upon themselves should be stopped because these negative descriptors of our profession does us a great disservice. How you may ask? When you hear, read these inaccurate pieces it becomes clear no fact checking has taken place. By showing a lack of basic understanding of our profession it does more harm to our name by delegitimizing our name or devaluing our credibility. Especially when our training, qualifications are questioned or minimized to the lay public. Sadly, with so much technology and availability it still boils down to ignorance and lack to exercise responsible reporting in my view.

                 6. Brandless Profession-- It continues to astound me to this date that we lack a strong professional identity (a distinctive brand). Thus, is it any wonder why so many stakeholders don’t get who we are or what we exactly do? How can they? Basically, the onus is on us—no one else, if we expect people to know our “brand” then we will need and could use some more name recognition but only if our leaders/community pursues a wide systematic marketing campaign across the country. Raising PA-awareness for all practicing PAs across all communities will bring us to the XXI-st century and create a connection with others who we work with—something so much needed, we’re not “doctors-wanna-be” or “glorified scut monkeys”. Let it be known that we’re accomplished professionals in our own rights (period). We no longer should be viewed as a subservient profession, we ought to stamp out this seemingly never-ending need to clarify or justify our industry role.

In sum & simply said, we need to be more vigilant, more active (engaging) with the world if we expect to be respected, recognized, appreciated and ultimately understood. The days of “I’m just a PA” should be over. Instead, we should be epitomizing/practicing the essence of this quote: “Change isn’t made by asking permission, but rather asking for forgiveness-- later” (Seth Godin, author of Tribes: We need you to lead us). Thus, misunderstanding of our profession would be much less…I would think.