Photo: Physician assistant student Jessica Lee chats with passersby at Harry and Celesta Pappas Quad on Oct. 6. Lee helped staff a booth aimed at educating people about the role of physician assistants as part of Physician Assistant Week. Photo by Jon Nalick
As the demand for health care professionals grows, physician assistant (PA) programs across the country are expanding. The USC Primary Care Physician Assistant Program received a $704,000 expansion grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
The grant allows for four additional students in each class over the next three years, bringing the class size to 54, and provides each of those additional students with $22,000 to be applied to their tuition over two years.
The USC Primary Care Physician Assistant Program has been continually accredited for the past 35 years and will graduate its 40th class in 2012. There are currently 159 accredited PA programs in the United States, with another 42 seeking accreditation over the next four years, according to Kevin Lohenry, who earlier this year succeeded Anne Walsh as director of the USC Primary Care Physician Assistant Program.
“The shortage of health care providers that is projected for 2020 is behind the big push for this expansion,” said Lohenry.
Lohenry took part in a workforce taskforce for the PA profession this past spring and says it is predicted that less than a decade from now the U.S. will see a shortage of 91,000 physicians across primary care and specialties. The shortage is due to overall population growth compounded by the aging baby boomer set and more than 30 million people gaining access to health care through the Affordable Care Act.
“The PA profession has been looking at this to try to determine what we should be doing as part of that team practice,” Lohenry said. “We recognize that there is a need for our profession to expand, but there is also a need to break down barriers to expansion in our profession as well.”
A number of states, including California, limit the number of PAs a physician can supervise. Lohenry said those laws may change as more patients require access to health care and become more comfortable with nonphysician providers.
The average PA student graduates with a master’s degree in 26 months. Given medical school’s greater investment of time and money, the PA program provides an attractive alternative to prospective students. The program also offers greater flexibility to switch specialties after graduation. As the program grows, it will remain dedicated to recruiting students from diverse backgrounds so that a number of them can be deployed to underserved communities.