Physician Associates
Who Are Physician Associates?
Physician Associates are qualified healthcare professionals. PAs trained in the UK have undertaken postgraduate medical training in PA studies. PAs are dependent clinicians who work under the supervision of a Consultant Physician, Associate Specialist or Specialist doctor and their aim is to support the teams in providing acute care to patients and being the continuity on the ward. The role includes seeing patients on the medical take and formulating differential diagnoses and management plan, partaking on ward rounds and seeing patients in clinic (this list is not exhaustive). With additional training, they may perform procedures with the supervision of a doctor. PAs cannot prescribe or request ionising radiation. Some physician associates may have a special interest in a certain area for example focussed ultrasound.
Membership
Stay on top of the most cutting-edge acute medical research, discuss challenges and triumphs with colleagues, and influence the future of this exciting young speciality.
“PAs add a continuity to care that is often missing from modern medicine. They act as a consistent presence on the unit and support our junior trainees integrate into the way of working, also freeing time up for teaching and training. Locally we are aiming to train our PAs in procedural and ultrasound competencies, alongside developing their managerial and leadership skills. They are an invaluable part of our Acute Medical Unit and we could not function without them”
Dr Nick Smallwood, AMU Consultant/SAM Council
“I chose acute medicine because of it's fast pace environment. There are lots of opportunities to develop my skills and be a valuable member of the team”
Robert Deans, Physician Associate
“The PAs are the backbone of the ward providing continuity of care. Fantastic colleagues”
Dr Martin Dachsel, AMU Consultant
“ Acute medicine as a specialty enables you to see a wide variety of presentations, as a PA it fits well with the generalist nature of our training and complements it extremely well, maintaining a generalist is what we are about”
Michelle Chapman, Physician Associate Ambassador, KSS School of PAs, FPA Vice president
“ PAs have been an integral part of our team for over 8 years. I can honestly say that adding the role to expand our medical team has been one of the best decisions we made.
We have more than 20 PAs working in the Medical Division providing vital continuity but in addition over time their roles have developed to include non- clinical project management and leading on quality improvement work that really adds to the care we provide."
Dr Natalie King, Clinical Director for Emergency Access, Head of KSS School of PAs