Abby asked what to do when a patient says they'd rather see the doctor.

It's going to happen. It happened to me plenty. And the instinct is to get defensive, because it feels like a judgment on whether you're good enough. It usually isn't. Most of the time the patient genuinely doesn't know what a PA is or what we're trained to do.

So answer the question they're actually asking. Explain your training, explain how you work with your supervising physician, explain what you can handle. Then let them decide. Most people relax once they understand.

This also comes up in interviews, by the way. "How would you explain the PA role to a patient who wants a physician?" is a real question that gets asked, so it's worth having an answer ready before you're standing in a room.

What I cover:

• What to say when a patient asks for the physician
• Explaining PA training without getting defensive
• How the PA-physician relationship actually works
• Educating patients as part of the job
• Why this question shows up in PA school interviews
• Getting comfortable describing your own role

Resources:

PA School Interview Guide: https://www.thepaplatform.com/physician-assistant-school-interview-guide

Mock interview: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/mock-interview

Free application timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

Pre-PA counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Mentioned in this episode:

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Welcome to episode 92.

Today I'm going to be answering a voicemail question for the Prepa Club podcast from Abby.

And I think this is something that's very relevant for if you are doing interviews soon and if you want to work as a PA in the future.

Welcome to the Pre PA Club podcast.

If you want to learn how to become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

Hey guys, thanks so much for tuning in.

This is Savannah.

I'm the creator of the PA platform and the Prepa Club podcast.

Thanks so much for listening.

And just so you know, this episode will be on YouTube as well if you'd rather watch.

But you would get to.

Or you'd miss out on hearing Abby's question.

So we'll get to Abby's question in just a second, which I'm really excited about.

But you know, something I haven't done in a while was read a review.

So I figured let's read one because one was posted a few days ago that just I loved.

So on itunes.

Shinshin Said found Savannah's podcast while applying to PA School last year and it provided so much great content to get me through it.

I wrote and rewrote and rewrote my personal statement with her voice in my head telling me all the ways it can be better.

Then she announced her interview book.

During my painful waiting period after submission, which I read cover to cover twice, I binged her podcast in between obsessively checking my emails, which kept me from wallowing in self despair.

Not only did this podcast help me feel prepared and motivated for my application cycle, but it also kept me from feeling alone and out of my element.

I start PA school in two months after my first cycle of applying, and Savannah has been a big help in making that happen.

So these are my favorite kinds of reviews and messages I get.

But honestly I. I feel like you guys are the ones who do the hard work and hopefully I just help you out along the way.

But I love this review because I feel like there's so many relatable things.

The waiting period is awful.

Everyone knows that everyone feels like they can keep working on their personal statement forever and ever and eventually you just have to know that it's awesome.

And then interviews are scary, but it's still possible to get accepted, so.

So thank you so much for listening, Shinshin, and hopefully your binging wasn't too boring, but I would love if you have a story like Shinshin.

I don't know if that's your real name, that's your itunes name.

I would love if you leave a review for us.

I'm kind of working on trying to get the podcast other places, so if you have thoughts on that, let me know.

A few people have mentioned Stitcher and Spotify.

I am not technologically savvy so that's something in the works, but I would love to see your reviews if you have them.

And then so speaking on a few of those things, if you're struggling with your personal statement, definitely check out my PA resource and I've talked about them before, but it's a personal statement editing service specifically for PA school applications.

There's a quick turnaround.

It's only PA's editing so you know you're getting quality work from someone who actually knows what they're talking about and not just someone who studied grammar.

But you can use the Code Prepa [email protected] to get a discount on that service.

And that same Code Prepa Club also works on the PA platform on mock interviews, pre PA assessments and the PA School Interview Guide.

We also have supplemental reviews and letter of recommendation reviews.

And Amazon has still been running a lot of great specials on the PA School Interview Guide.

So make sure to follow along on Instagram and I try to post that when they do.

Or I think you can set up an alert too if that's something you're looking for.

Someone told me had been as cheap as $15 with free prime shipping and I have a code in the description to try Prime.

If you've never tried it, I would still love to get it up on Audible, so I'm working on that.

But you can also get a free Audible book in the description too.

But another thing I want to tell you about before we get to this question is the early Bird pricing on the Northeastern Prepa Conference is ending in a couple days at the end of June.

You'll no longer be able to get that pricing and the price will go up.

And so I was notified today by the school that's hosting the College of St. Elizabeth to let you guys know.

But we also have kind of an itinerary in place now, so what you can expect and it's in Morristown, New Jersey on August 3rd.

I will be there doing a keynote speech and then also talking about interviewing and doing workshops for that and so you can kind of get some hands on experience and we'll talk through everything.

Brian Palm from IPA Resource will be there talking about personal statements.

Dr. Medea Valdez, who is also a PA, will be talking about navigating just the PA application cycle and what different schools are looking for.

Phil Festa is a pa, and he'll be doing some advanced interviewing skills as well, especially for re applicants.

Dr. Lori Tark, who's put all this together, will be doing a professionalism workshop, which is very important for making sure you're presenting yourself well.

Bethann Mercanti will be talking about shadowing.

She's also a pa. And then Tracy Pepparo is the president of the New Jersey State Society of PAs, and she'll be doing an endnote speech as well.

So it's gonna be a full day.

Lots of stuff.

I'll be there.

Some schools will be there, all the ones in New Jersey, and we're still kind of nailing those down.

We're.

We'll also have sessions with PAs who are gonna discuss their careers, what path they've taken, what you can do outside of just being a PA with your degree, another panel of recent PA graduates and accepted students and current students who can talk to you about their success and kind of answer questions from around the area, and then also a panel of PA program faculty who are gonna be discussing what they look for in candidates.

So I'm really excited about it.

I think it's going to be good.

And.

And I love meeting other PAs and students, so check that out.

The link is in the description.

Feel free to email me if you can't find it.

All right, let's get to Abby's question and then my answer.

Hey, Savannah, I was wondering how you react or deal with a situation when a patient insists on seeing the doctor and doesn't want to see a PA because, for whatever reason, they think that the doctor is the only one who can treat them.

Do you get personally offended?

How do you deal with that, and what's the best approach to take when that happens?

Hey, guys.

Today I wanted to respond to a question from Abby about how do you respond when patients don't want to see a physician assistant?

And this is a question that I don't get that often, but I think it's worth addressing.

I'm Savannah.

I'm the creator of the PA platform and the Pre PA Club podcast, and I'm a PA, so I've been a dermatology PA for the past five years.

Sometimes it's a little bit slower and it's somewhere in the 20s, but that's a lot of people.

And every once in a while I get a patient who maybe isn't familiar with the PA profession or what a PA is or what we're capable of doing.

So in my past five years, I was trying to think of some of the common questions I've gotten.

So, when are you going to med school?

When are you going to become a real doctor?

Can you do that?

Can you do my biopsy?

Can you prescribe medicine?

What can you do?

What did you go to school for?

Am I seeing the doctor today?

Is the doctor coming in after you?

All of these questions can sometimes come up.

And the way my office works is I have a medical assistant who goes to get the patient and takes them back to a room.

She gets their HPI history, asks a bunch of questions, and then she tells them, savannah will be here to see you in a minute.

Every once in a while she's met with, who's Savannah?

Or is that the doctor?

And so she does get to kind of field them a little bit and say, no, Savannah's our pa. She works with the doctor.

And that gives me a little bit of a heads up if I'm going into a room that may not be prepped to see a PA or know that they were with me.

Now, our patients are should be fully aware of who they're scheduled with.

So our schedulers are great about letting them know you're seeing the pa, you're being scheduled with the pa.

They get a text or an email that says you're scheduled with Savannah rpa.

And so it's not a surprise or it shouldn't be if they've been paying attention.

So here's my response.

And you know, this is a question that can come up during PA school interviews or during interviews for PA jobs.

How are you going to respond when a patient doesn't want to see you?

And it's something that if you are entering the PA field and you're going to work as a pa, you need to be okay with this.

You need to have a response and be ready to accept that some patients are going to refuse to see you.

And that's okay.

It's the patient's prerogative.

It's their choice who they see as their provider.

They're probably missing out because I'm sure you're great, but at the end of the day, you can't force them to see you or to see anyone, really.

So when I'M faced with this, my response is to not be offended.

It doesn't offend me at all.

If a patient doesn't want to see me because I'm a pa, I probably don't want to see them either.

That sometimes is an indicator that a patient's going to be a little bit difficult, or maybe they've had a bad experience in the past.

There's a saying that if a patient sees a bad doctor, they'll get a different doctor.

If a patient sees a bad pa, they'll never see a PA again because a lot of times they've never seen one before.

It may be their first encounter.

And so if that first encounter isn't pleasant, it puts a bad taste in their mouth and doesn't show them kind of what our profession amounts to and what makes most PAs really great.

You can't help that.

You can't help what another PA does or doesn't do or how that's perceived by a patient.

You know, I think just as providers, we all make mistakes.

We all have different personalities that may not always get along with a patient's personality.

And that goes for doctors, nurses, PAs, NPs, everyone.

So you can't help that.

But you've got to know that it's going to happen and kind of accept it.

So I don't get offended.

You know, I view those scenarios as a chance to educate my patients.

And, you know, again, as someone in the PA field, you need to know what your job is and what you're capable of doing.

So if I meet someone or a patient who has some questions about what PAs are and what we can do, I try to answer those completely and give a little background on our profession and then what I'm able to do and on myself in my education.

So for me, a PA is an advanced practice provider who's able to work with a physician, not directly at all times, but has trained with a physician in a medical model to provide care to patients.

So we're able to see patients take histories, do physical exams, order labs, order imaging, interpret those and kind of look at the results, prescribe medicines and do procedures and come up with treatment plans.

So really, PAs can do a lot of what physicians can do.

And in my field in dermatology, I do very similar things to what the doctor does.

She definitely handles some of our more intense surgeries, things that I don't want to do.

Patients who have a lot going on, a lot of really intense skin stuff.

But I get some tough patients, too.

And I feel after five years in the field, very qualified to take care of most skin things.

That doesn't mean that I don't ask questions, because I do.

If I ever have a question, I go to my physician and ask her.

And we have a really great relationship where we can kind of bounce things off each other.

We're constantly reading, constantly going to conferences and trying to learn more.

So we're able to share that knowledge amongst all of the providers in our practice.

But I try to educate those patients.

I answer their questions and try to make them feel more comfortable.

And, you know, if they don't want to see me, there's some choices.

They can see me that day.

So we all have busy schedules, and my patients know or should know, and I try to let them know that they are welcome to see the doctor, and it just may not be that day.

So if they were put on my schedule, she may not have room in her schedule.

And so they may have to reschedule with her or we'll make sure that their next appointment is set up with her.

I try to remind them to check their appointment reminders, and if they have a preference on who they see and see that that's not with who they thought it was to call our office.

Because sometimes scheduling errors can occur.

And then, you know, I also just want to try to make them feel confident in what I do.

And sometimes I'll tell patients, you know, you don't want me to get the doctor.

If I have to go get the doctor, it means you have something going on that I can't figure out, and that's not really a good thing.

So a lot of times if I do have to get her and she comes in, it's funny because we say the same thing.

I was trained by her.

And so we have a lot of the same phrases, the same mannerisms when it comes to what we do.

And it's funny because patients have commented on that and they'll say, that's what she said, or, you just did what she did.

And she asked me about that.

That always makes me feel better.

And I think that gives confidence to the patients.

It's really important as a PA that you have a relationship with your supervising physician where you feel supported and that they're not going to put you down in front of a patient.

I've certainly been wrong before.

I go out, tell her what I think is going on.

She comes in, thinks something completely different, but she doesn't put me down in front of that page patient.

She just very kindly kind of tells them what she thinks going on, we talk about it a little bit and then make sure we're on the same page.

That usually doesn't happen.

A lot of times we are thinking the same, but when it does, she's never going to degrade me in front of a patient because that will make a patient's opinion of PAs in general go down.

And I think just being in a practice that's pretty big with a lot of providers seen how different personalities kind of interact, but also how much we can learn from each other, and I think that's so, so important.

But back to the topic.

So make sure, if you're in that situation, that you use it to educate your patients as much as possible and let them know first what a PA is, what you're capable of, and then also what their choices are as a patient, and that if they want to see a physician in the future, that that is perfectly fine.

And then as a pa, just understand that this is going to happen.

Will it ever change?

Maybe.

But I think with the PA profession being somewhat newer, this is something that we're going to run into for a while.

There's a big push right now to change our name, which, honestly, I don't think I'm in favor of because I think it's going to be more confusing to patients.

I may get some backlash on that.

But, you know, I think at the end of the day, for me, it's up to me to show my patient what I'm able to do, to take.

Take good care of them and earn their respect.

Despite what my name is.

I honestly like that my patients call me Savannah.

I'm okay not being called a doctor.

If you're trying to decide if you want to pursue the PA profession, that may be something to think about, because as a pa, you're going to have to explain what you do.

Everyone knows what a doctor is.

Everyone knows what a doctor does, but not everyone understands the PA profession.

To be honest, even my own husband didn't understand it until he was working with PAs on rotations as a medical student.

So it's normal.

It's okay.

And I think just the more we educate the public, the general public, our patients, the general population about what PAs can do, the more that they're going to feel comfortable seeing us as providers and really just kind of wanting to see PAs in the future.

So I hope that answers Abby's question.

And if anyone else has a question, feel free to leave it in the comments or send us a voicemail and we'll make sure it gets answered.

Thanks so much for following along.

Make sure you're subscribed if you haven't already, and I look forward to talking to you later.

Bye.

So that's my response.

Like I said, it's on YouTube as well and hopefully that helps to give you some direction.

That is something that I cover in detail in the PA School Interview guide, since it does sometimes come up in interviews, but I hope that was helpful.

We'll be doing more of these voicemail questions in future episodes, and if you want to leave one, go to speed speakpipe.com thepa platform and that's linked below in the description as well.

If that's something that you want to try out, I would love to hear your question and try to respond to it.

Give me a challenge.

Alright, I'll see you guys next week.

Bye.