Physician assistant or physician associate? Here's what actually happened and what it means for you.

The AAPA House of Delegates voted in favor of "physician associate" as the title for the profession, and my inbox immediately filled with questions. Do I have to change how I say it? Does this affect my application? Is this even official yet?

Short version, and this is the practical takeaway: a vote by the AAPA is not the same as a legal title change. State law, licensing boards, and program names all move separately and slowly. So for your CASPA application and your interviews, keep saying physician assistant.

I also get into why the change was proposed at all, which comes down to "assistant" not describing what PAs actually do in a clinic.

What I cover:

• What the AAPA House of Delegates actually voted on
• Why the profession pushed for a title change
• Why a vote doesn't immediately change anything legally
• Which term to use on your application and in interviews
• How the title varies internationally
• What to watch for going forward

Resources:

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

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

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

Pre-PA Academy: https://prepaclub.thepaplatform.com/landing/academy

Mentioned in this episode:

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Alright, who's ready for a hot topic?

If you've been following PA news lately, you may have seen a change of physician assistant to physician associate.

What does that mean?

What do you need to know?

We're going to dive in today.

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.

Welcome to this week's podcast.

This is going to be a solo episode which I haven't done in a while, so kind of a different change of pace.

But there's something we need to talk about.

Something going on in the PA world that if you want to be a pa, you should probably know about.

And Happy July.

Now that we have reached really entered these summer months and I know it is prime application season, a lot of you have probably already submitted or you're getting close if you have not yet.

That's okay, don't freak out, you still have time.

There are people who submit the day before applications are due and get accepted to PA school.

Is that ideal or recommended?

Not necessarily, but just know you're good.

Okay, so for today's episode, by the way, I'm Savannah.

I am a dermatology Penns.

I've been a PA now for almost seven years, which is wild.

And I have been doing this podcast for almost three years, also wild.

And I am just really excited to see you guys here.

So if you have not if you're new to the podcast, welcome.

A lot of these episodes are interviews and answering questions, talking about certain topics.

Try to do a nice variety of different things and then sometimes they're a little bit random if it's something that I think would be helpful.

But if you are new here, there's plenty to go back and binge.

If you are a longtime listener.

Thank you for listening and I would love to have your feedback if you ever felt inclined to leave a review, particularly on Apple Podcast or Spotify or wherever you like to listen or let your friends know about the podcast.

That just helps more people find out about it and find out about the PA profession, which is the main goal here.

I haven't actually read any reviews in a while, so I was going to look.

Oh, if I can pull it up.

Of course my phone gives me problems as soon as I try to do this.

If I was going to bring it up and try to read some of these reviews for you guys and maybe you left one, who knows?

Or maybe I don't know how to read reviews on podcasts anymore.

There we go.

Okay, so this one's from Morgan, Kate and I just want to say thank you for leaving this.

If you're curious to know what a physician assistant is, what they do, or how to make it a career for yourself, this is the podcast for you.

Savannah does a great job of hosting a wide array of speakers and providing an immense information pertaining to the profession, from how to prepare for an interview to.

To paying off loans after your program is over.

Perfect for the pre PA student, pre health profession student, or anyone looking to learn about the profession.

That is so kind.

The next one just says it's the best, super helpful and I will take that.

I love that.

So I hope that you find this helpful as well.

And that was a perfect review because it brings up a few good things.

Number one, we're talking about physician assistants, but are we still physician assistants?

That's what we're going to talk about today.

Are we now physician associates?

What does that mean?

What do you need to know as a prepa student?

We'll get into that in just a minute.

Also coming up this month I have a financial webinar with two PA students who have created a really cool interactive Excel document and are talking about just money in PA school and helping students to be a little bit more organized because that's, that's an area that we really just don't get any training in.

So be on the lookout for that.

As of right now.

The webinar will be later this month on July 25th.

It's a Sunday night where we will be talking about all things to do with finances.

The working title right now is the PA Student Money Guide.

And we're going to talk about loans, what they are, how to borrow smartly, loan repayment options, how to budget as a PA student.

Lots of great info for you guys.

And if you want to know who we're talking with, if you go to Instagram @PA MoneySense are the students who are heading this up.

Their names are Evan and Ginger and they are just great.

So I'm very excited to host that for them and let them share about money with y' all and hear from somebody who's a little bit more, I guess, informed about it than I am.

So that'll be a good thing this month.

Also, if you need help with anything, feel free to reach out on social media.

I'm at the PA platform.

Send an email info@the PA platform.com or let me know if there's anything you need.

Pop in the Facebook group, the Pre PA Club.

Leave something in the forum.

There's lots of places to connect and get information.

All right, so let's get into this name change, and this has been quite a process.

I'm going to link a blog post that I wrote.

Gosh, I guess it was two years ago.

So this has been in discussion for a while now.

And to really discuss it, we almost have to go back and talk about the history of the PA profession.

If you go on the AAPA website, which is just AAPA.org, and that is the overarching association for PAS, the, oh, gosh, American Academy of PAS.

I should know that there's too many abbreviations in my life, but I'll look it up right now.

So with this, they have a really great timeline with the history of the PA profession, and it has been said, and I've heard this, so I was trying to find a very reliable source before I added it to the podcast.

So I've heard a lot that the PA profession originally started as physician associates, but nothing I've been able to find so far as far as discussion of that first program at Duke says that they all still say physician assistant.

So I'm going to keep doing some background work on that and see what I can find out.

But there are.

It's been said that originally the PA profession was called physician associate, and at some point that was changed to physician assistant.

And then over the past few years.

So I guess since I've been a pa, there have been talks about the name physician assistant.

For a while, AAPA was encouraging PAs to only use PA and not use the phrase physician assistant, which essentially, that's what we are.

That's the name.

That's what I went to school for.

That's what I knew I was becoming.

And although I don't view myself as an assistant like, my physician is usually available by either phone or in the clinic somewhere or text or whatever.

I could get in touch with her if I needed her.

She does not see all my patients with me.

She actually rarely sees a patient with me.

Only if there's something really weird going on or it's something that maybe I'm not gonna be there frequently enough to follow up on.

And so we'll have to kind of bounce back and forth.

If I have questions, sometimes I just bring her in because something is interesting.

And we are complete nerds in my office and love to see interesting.

So Sometimes it's not even that I don't know what to do or I'm not sure what's going on.

I have an idea, but it's something unique and I feel like she would really geek out if she got to see it too.

And so I will just bring her in for that purpose.

So in that case, I'm not an assistant.

I have my own schedule.

Being in Durham, I'm very autonomous and I have my own schedule of patients.

I see them, they know they're seeing me, and that's just kind of how my days go.

Some specialties look different.

Some PAs are first assisting in surgery more and working much more closely with their physicians.

And it's just a variety.

That's the thing that's so unique about the PA profession is that we're all called PAs, we're all called physician assistants, but our jobs can look so different, even PAs in the same specialty, like derm.

And it just looks very different depending on where you practice, your amount of experience, your relationship with the physician, and all of these different factors.

So all that to say there was a discussion, there's been discussion that assistant is not the best word to describe PAs, because that's not what we do.

And that can be confusing to patients.

They get us confused with medical assistance or other healthcare professionals and don't understand kind of the scope that PAS have.

So this was a discussion.

The AAPA back a couple years ago had an outside agency do research and you can read all about this on the AAPA website.

If you just type like look up AAPA title change, it'll come up and there's so much info there.

But, but they had an outside agency talk to patients, PAs, doctors, administration, legislators to see, okay, is there a misunderstanding of what PAS do based on the name?

And would changing the name possibly help that?

So this was like a $1 million super long survey process thing that happened.

And I, it was really cool because the year that they presented it and presented the results at AAPA was the first and only year I've been to the conference.

And we actually went to the discussion of this title change investigation.

So I was able to take notes and put together this blog post with kind of going over everything they said.

So I'll link to that in the description if you want to read that and get kind of all of the info from that stance.

So this was step one, step two, when they make this Proposal is to bring it to the House of Delegates.

So the House of Delegates is the, basically the governing body of aapa.

So there's delegates from each state and different societies and different specialties and different, you know, caucuses and interest groups that come together and vote on resolutions.

And so this happens at the conference each year.

Last year was a little funky because, you know, the worldwide pandemic happened and so AAPA was canceled.

So this has been a drawn out process, but it came to the House of Delegates for a vote this May.

Now there's another piece to this puzzle, which is what would our name be if we changed it?

So if we changed, if we lost assistant, what would we be?

What would describe what we do better?

And this is where it gets complicated and where this outside agency had to kind of help a little bit because it's not as simple as deciding you like a name and picking it.

So, like, you couldn't come up with a brand of shoes and be like, oh, yeah, Nike's a cool name because that's already branded.

There's.

That's not gonna work.

You can't take over that name because it's already being used.

So we had to.

Or we.

I say we.

Whoever's doing this had to look into figuring out what title is not already claimed, what title is appropriate that we could use.

So they did more research.

We ended up having to vote on this, which I believe I have to find the exact numbers, but I think out of 150,000 PAs, maybe 20,000 did the survey, which is not a ton of.

And the options given in that survey that we voted on were physician associate, medical care practitioner, and praxician.

Yes, you heard that right.

Praxician.

P R A X I C I A N A Completely made up new thing.

Not my choice, didn't get my vote.

So from this survey, the recommendation was that the best name for us to switch to would be medical care practitioner.

So now, and I don't claim to know all of how the House of Delegates works, I will tell you that up front, but this came to the House of Delegates as a vote and they voted on resolutions for what is our official title.

So they voted on physician associate and medical care practitioner.

And the AAPA, I have the press release in front of me, but the AAPA House of Delegates passed a resolution affirming Physician Associate as the official title for the PA profession by a majority vote.

So it was about two thirds to one third.

And so, yeah, they decided that our title is actually physician associates.

So what does this mean and what happens now?

So when the AAPA passes something, they are basically kind of claiming it.

But what has to happen now is each organization, each state has to do its own deliberations and its own.

Own legwork to get the title actually changed.

So it's not like this vote happened, and all of a sudden, okay, now we're physician associates.

That's not it.

And the AAPA actually came out with a statement and said it is inappropriate for PAs to hold themselves out as physician associates at this time until legislative and regulatory changes are made to incorporate the new title.

There are a lot of steps that have to happen.

I went to a PA program that went through about four.

Four name changes in two years.

And y', all, it was complicated.

So much stuff had to be changed.

There were so many logistics, so many administrative nightmares with that.

Because of that, I think I ended up with three diplomas with all different school names because I applied to one school, I was accepted to a school with a different name.

I started at a school with a different name, and I graduated, and it was a fourth name.

So at this point, a lot has to happen.

There's a lot of steps that have to happen.

States have to change all the wording of their legislation.

Hopefully, this does not take us a step back.

Hopefully this doesn't make legislators look at legislation and go, oh, should PAs be included in this legislation?

Should we change their name or should we just take them off?

Because that's a concern that could happen as we are trying to, you know, make this change.

And signs have to be changed once all this goes through.

I mean, signs, paperwork, websites, a lot will have to be changed if this, as this is implemented.

The timeline I've been hearing for this is that it will take five to 10 years for it to happen.

And I think the financial estimate from the AAPA was $21 million.

That's a lot.

So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see how all this plays out and what the next steps look like and how the implementation goes.

And again, I can't say that I completely understand it.

Which brings us to what do you need to know and what do you need to do as a pre PA student?

As of right now, you should continue to use physician assistant in your essays, at your interview, in your supplementals, all of those things, unless the program you're applying to uses physician associate.

So Yale, for I don't know why, has always used physician associate, their title.

So for that program, you're Fine to talk about it being a physician associate program, but if you're applying elsewhere, you're doing caspa.

Stick to physician assistant.

They're gonna understand what you mean.

It's not like they're gonna be like, oh, no, they used the wrong title.

They don't understand.

No, we know what it means.

It's fine.

So stick to physician assistant.

Keep using PA as the abbreviation that is appropriate and don't worry about, you know, if you did something different, it's okay.

Again, they know what you mean, so it's not going to be a huge deal breaker.

This is something you need to be aware of and have at least a superficial understanding of.

I'm a pa, and I can't say I fully understand all these steps, so they're not going to expect you to.

But it's a current event.

It's a big thing in the PA community.

If you're on Instagram, Facebook, any social media places with PAs there too, you've probably heard about this because it has been discussed so much.

So just it is something you want to know about.

Read about it on the AAPA website, even do a Google search.

One thing you may find is there are some physician groups and associations that are not very happy with the name change.

They feel that it will be more confusing to patients.

I don't know about that.

I don't think it's any more confusing than physician assistant.

I don't know.

I will just say, personally, I've never had an issue with my name or explaining it or had it affect how a patient views me or patient care.

But, I mean, some PAs have issues with that.

I think there's a lot of education that still has to be done.

But I've seen over the past seven years just how much more people understand and know what PAs are, know what PAs do.

There's a lot more positivity around the PA profession.

There are a few loud voices that still oppose PAs or don't think that they, you know, should be contributing to patient care.

But ultimately it's a need.

We, we need quality healthcare providers.

And going to PA school, it's difficult, it's rigorous.

I mean, you'll never, no matter what type of medical education you go to know everything about everything, especially since medicine is always changing.

But I do feel like my PA education was solid and gave me a really great foundation to continue learning.

So, yeah, we'll see what happens.

But yeah, you may see that some organizations have unfavorable opinions of this resolution, but I wouldn't worry about that, you know, I would say also in real life, I cannot think of a single bad interaction I've had with a physician because I'm a pa.

I've had a few patients question, you know, what can you do?

Or want to see the doctor?

Totally fine, that's okay.

But the medical community is actually really nice and really supportive.

And I have a lot of physicians that I refer to regularly and I have a lot of physicians who refer to me.

And so we all work together to make sure our patients are getting the best care possible.

And that's the main goal.

Patients come first.

And I think most PAs would 100% agree.

I have never pushed for and never will push for independent practice for PAs.

We are not physicians.

We did not go to medical school.

And I like the teamwork and collaboration approach.

Even though I don't work hand in hand with my physician, I still like being able to bounce ideas off of her and discuss things and know that we're supporting each other in practice.

So that's kind of, I guess, my two cents about it.

So, yeah, so you may find that.

But yeah, just be up to date with this.

Keep looking into it.

Don't feel like you have to change anything at this point.

And you can keep using pa, keep using physician assistant.

One thing I think is interesting too, if you go back, this is like probably first 10 episodes.

I did an interview with Monica.

She's a nurse practitioner, and it was so interesting talking to her.

I think she was the first NP that I've really had a deep conversation with.

And she said that she gets the exact same misconceptions about her career that I feel like I get where people will assume she's a nurse and don't understand what an NP is and don't understand what she can do.

So even though nurses and nurse practitioners have this really great lobbying body and they are typically governed by a nursing board and not the medical board, which helps with getting legislation passed.

And they are very strong in that regard.

They still face the same things we do as PAs.

So it's not like if you become a nurse practitioner, everyone's going to magically know what you do.

You're still probably going to be explaining your career.

So this is just part of medicine.

PAs are still a very new profession.

1960S, that's not that old.

That's younger than my parents.

And so, you know, it's going to take a while.

Versus doctors have been around forever.

Everyone knows what a physician is.

So it's going to take a while for everyone to understand and for PAs to really find their place in medicine.

But I hope that doesn't discourage you from wanting to become a PA and gives you some information, gives you a little bit of homework to go read up on some stuff.

If you're like, oh my gosh, what the heck, I didn't even know the name changed, then we probably need to make sure you're reading up a little bit extra.

The AAPA website is a great place to go to the news tab, the advocacy tab, and kind of learn about what's going on in the profession.

Google physician assistants.

Google PAs in your state, see what's going on.

Check the medical board websites to make sure you're up to date with current events.

All right.

Hopefully that gave you some good info.

Hopefully not too boring.

This one will be a little bit shorter than one of our normal episodes.

I don't think I have anything else to say about name change right now.

I'll keep you all updated if I hear anything more about kind of what's going on in regards to title change.

And if not, I'll see you guys next time week.

So, yeah, next week we're gonna hear from two students at Mount St. Joseph.

They just graduated.

They have been through didactic, they've been through clinical.

They have really great tips for studying and finding your groove and succeeding in PA school.

They both are.

They're not married to each other, but they're both married.

One of them has three, three kids now, two of which he had while he was in PA school or his wife did.

So it's going to be a really great episode for just figuring out what you need to do to be successful in PA school.

And you'll get to hear a little bit more about Mount St. Joseph.

So.

All right, I hope I see you guys there.

Bye.

Have a good weekend.