PA Clinical Doctorate Degrees and the Army
After reading the Army Times article cited in the previous blog post, I wanted to make what I think is an important point that has been overshadowed a bit by the controversy about the U.S. Army’s PA clinical doctorate program.
The U.S. Army and Baylor University created the first clinical doctorate degree for PAs because the Army desperately needs more highly trained emergency medicine specialists to care for seriously wounded soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And by creating this first PA clinical doctorate, the Army showed enormous respect for its PAs and for the PA profession as a whole.
First, the Army decided that its PAs were worthy of the significant investment of resources needed to create this program. PAs, the Army said with that decision, are capable of practicing medicine at an extremely high level.
Second, the Army demonstrated great faith in the abilities of highly trained PAs. These PAs, the Army is saying, are good enough to care for American soldiers who have been critically wounded on the battlefield.
Third, the Army ignored the temptation to take the easy way out by slighting PAs. Surely, the PAs and others involved in the creation of this program realized it would be somewhat controversial. They didn’t have to grant PAs a doctorate degree. But they reasoned that PAs who invest 18 months in rigorous doctorate-level clinical training deserve to be recognized for their excellence and hard work.
Judging by the mostly positive PA response to ADVANCE’s coverage of the profession’s first clinical doctorate, many PAs think that PA-specific clinical doctorates are a terrific idea and a positive development for the profession’s future.
Other PAs feel just as strongly that the clinical doctorate degrees are not a move in the right direction for the PA profession.
No matter which side of the debate you are on, one thing is undeniable. This issue deserves—no, demands—a full, mature, open-minded debate within the profession.