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Saturday, January 7, 2012

I like physician's assistants (PAs)

I love physician's assistants (PA).  They practice medicine under a licenced physician, yet often times they seem to be wiser than doctors.  Not always is this true, but quite often.  I think the reason is because they worked as nurses and RTs. 

PAs don't seem to order useless breathing treatments because they've worked at the bedside long enough, and with RTs, to know they don't do anything for all that wheezes and all dyspnea. 

Many doctors are completely oblivious to what really works for patients, at least when it comes to respiratory stuff, and so they tend to order whatever they were taught to order.  Sometimes they even order out of habit. 

PAs tend to assess and order therapies based on that assessment, and doctors tend to go down the list of procedures in their head and treat all patients with a given disease the same, kind of like an order set. 

Doctors tend to be more autocratic, and don't like to give autonomy to RTs.  PAs love to ask RTs what they think, and tend to be more a part of the team. 

What I write here is not always the case, yet it tend to be often enough.  PAs tend to be happier and nicer on the phone and in person.  They tend to be more open minded and friendlier in general.  Again, not always, yet quite often.


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