Dive Brief:
- A new study has found that physician assistants tend to be flexible in changing specialties.
- The study, which comes from a survey of 16,000 American Academy of Physician Assistants members conducted last year, found that PAs who have practiced for at least 10 years are likely to have switched specialties at least twice. This trend, of course, increases the chances of finding PAs who can meet a specific need, as they are likely to have diverse experience or may be willing to tackle a new specialty.
- What's more, the PA field is expanding rapidly, with 34% growth in the past seven years and 100,000 currently practicing.
Dive Insight:
If there was ever a time to make sure the supply of primary care practitioners was adequate, this is it, with millions of new patients coming into the system courtesy of the ACA. While there's ultimately no substitute for a fully-trained physician, it's good to know that there are PAs with experience in multiple specialties out there filling some of the gaps.