Reaching our full potential
In a profession where the emphasis has always been on primary care, the perception may indeed be that by embracing increasing professional diversity, we are losing our focus on and appreciation for the founder's concept that PAs should help physicians provide primary care in underserved areas. Certainly we could debate this point. Some evidence would indicate that at the start of our profession, the emphasis was on primary care because the government saw that as the area of greatest need and provided funding to PA programs for that purpose. Meanwhile, physicians involved in developing the curriculum for the profession recognized early on the utility of PAs in all specialties. After all, PAs are educated to diagnose conditions requiring surgical intervention, and PA students continue to have surgical clinical rotations. Perhaps it is only now that our profession is reaching its full potential. The commitment of JAAPA to include a surgical forum completes the ongoing educational experience of PAs that first began and continues on in the standards of PA education.
As professionals, PAs are all involved in some type of specialty practice. Those of us who work in primary care enjoy offering a continuum of care for patients, while those of us in other specialties provide the consultation and services needed before patients return to their primary care provider. The Journal now offers us an avenue to share our collective knowledge. As those of us in surgical specialties elaborate on the whys, whens, and hows of our surgical interventions, perhaps our primary care colleagues will learn things too—such as when to request a surgical consult, how to better educate patients on what to expect from the consult, and what patients and PAs should expect postoperatively. In return, we in surgery will be reminded of the intricacies of ongoing care for our patients before, during, and after they leave the operative suite and the surgical floor.
The inclusion of surgical information in JAAPA will certainly not eliminate the need for each of us to study the information we have always found in the literature more closely associated with our chosen area of specialty. The complexity of medicine in general, much less that of a specific specialty, cannot be addressed by any single journal. However, as a profession, we now have come full circle in completing the essentials of our original educational experience. It was an experience that addressed all aspects of the needs of our patients. It continues to be an experience that demands that we not act in isolation when considering what is best for our patients.
Why has it taken this long for our professional journal to include surgical information? Maybe because no one there knew Dr. Hu. JAAPA
The author works in the Heart Center of Peninsula Regional Medical Center, Salisbury, Md, as a PA in cardiac, thoracic, and vascular surgery. He has no relationships to disclose relating to the content of this article.