If you're not chatting with us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, ''like'', ''follow'' and ''connect'' with us and start sharing in the conversations! If you are, keep following and spread the word! This week, our social media sites exploded with great comments from our readers. Here are some of the highlights, copied verbatim and without ...

The American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) and the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) recently announced a set of 16 recommendations to promote the growth of the PA workforce. The task force, developed in October 2010, was charged with addressing future opportunities and challenges associated with expansion ...

The American Academy of Physician Assistants today announced that Jennifer L. (Jenna) Dorn will join the academy as chief executive officer on Oct. 31. Dorn takes the AAPA’s helm from interim executive vice president and CEO, James Potter, who himself took over in January after the abrupt resignation of Bill Leinweber. The EVP/CEO oversees all ...

Health system analysts and assorted other parties have been forecasting a primary care physician shortage for quite some time. An article published recently in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons predicts two additional shortfalls that could affect patient access to care: nurse practitioners and physician ...

Pioneering PA Ron L. Nelson died Saturday at 58 in Fremont, Mich. Here's the obituary from the Grand Rapids Press. Ron had a keen interest in advancing rural healthcare, having co-founded and served as first president of the National Association of Rural Health Clinics. He also served two terms as AAPA president and was appointed by President ...

An online article dated Aug. 31 in Becker's Hospital Review offered “8 Statistics About Physician Assistant Compensation.” The stats are from May 2009 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The American Academy of Physician Assistants, as part of its Physician Assistant Census, each year collects salary information from PAs, some ...

U.S. News and World Report today posted an article about the PA profession in the “Best Graduate Schools” section of its website. “Why Physician Assistant School May be Right for You,” the subhead of which proclaims, “It's one of the fastest growing careers in the country. Learn about how to get into a top program,” offers three basic but ...

Physician assistants are increasingly more likely to head into specialties such as surgery and emergency medicine rather than primary care, according to the News & Observer. Researchers at the Duke University PA program studied the job choices of PAs from 1997 to 2006 and found that the number of PAs going into primary care declined to 41% ...

Physician assistant students at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., received recognition in the New Haven Register this month for their volunteer work in the Dominican Republic. In January and March, the students volunteered with Health Horizons International, an organization that focuses on expanding health care access to the Puerto Plata ...

In a letter to the editor on May 3, AAPA president Stephen Hanson responded to an opinion piece published on April 10 in The Bakersfield Californian called ''Doctor shortage is first ObamaCare issue.'' The author, Dr. Robert S. Hooker, made a strong case about the looming physician shortage, but failed to mention PAs as a critical part of the ...