Physician Assistants Are an Essential Part of Your Team—So You’d Better Understand Their Priorities

Physician assistants and nurse practitioners (collectively referred to as advanced practice clinicians, or APCs) are becoming more and more essential to the efficient operation of an urgent care center. And with the likelihood of a physician shortage growing with each passing year, you can expect that to be the case for the foreseeable future. As such, you will want to hang on to the cream of the crop. Do you even know what your superstar PA’s aspirations are, either professionally or personally? The results of a survey by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants in partnership with the Society of Emergency Medicine PAs, and published by Clinical Advisor, may offer essential clues that could help you avoid constantly trying to fit a square peg (qualified and highly competent PAs) into a round hole (your urgent care center). Let’s start with this: The factor most often named as extremely important—by around 70% of respondents who work in emergency or urgent care medicine—was work–life balance. A fairly distant second was job security (noted as “extremely important” by 60% of respondents), followed by developing and maintaining a strong PA–physician relationship (58.9%) and managing work stress (53.6%). Of course, it’s also important to recognize aspirations for ongoing education and advancement in clinical acumen among PAs and NPs in your urgent care center. JUCM touched on this in an article entitled The Case for an Interprofessional, Postgraduate NP/PA Fellowship in Urgent Care. Read it now for more insights.