AAPA's Slowing Fellow Membership Growth
New AAPA executive vice president and CEO Bill Leinweber addressed the academy’s fellow membership numbers in his recent AAPA News editorial.
As an example of the challenges the AAPA currently faces, the first thing he listed was:
We have yet to demonstrate sufficient value to engage a large percentage of our professional colleagues as members of AAPA.
During the explosive growth of the profession over the last decade, the number of AAPA fellow members has not kept pace.
Source: American Academy of Physician Assistants
From 1997 to 2007, the number of PAs in clinical practice increased by 36,823. During that same period, the number of AAPA fellow members increased by 12,318.
From 2003 to 2007, the number of PAs in clinical practice increased by 18,003, while the number of AAPA fellow members increased by only 3,054.
From 2006 to 2007, the number of PAs in clinical practice increased by 4,515, while the number of AAPA fellow members increased by 122.
My personal opinion is that this is a real shame.
While the AAPA is certainly far from perfect—no organization is perfect—the academy has done an admirable job of serving the PA profession as long as I have been covering it (since 1996).
I think that all PAs should be members of the AAPA and their state PA organizations and should strongly consider joining a PA specialty group. The profession is doing extremely well right now, but there are still many battles that need to be fought and won.
For the most part, very small groups of dedicated PAs associated with the AAPA and other PA organizations are doing a ton of work that benefits all PAs, and almost all of them are doing that work as volunteers.
Physician assistant didn’t become one of the hottest and most successful professions in the United States by accident.
Membership to these organizations is relatively inexpensive, especially considering current PA salary levels.
The least PAs can do is support their representative organizations through membership. Now is not the time for PAs to become complacent about their profession. There is still way too much at stake.