Sarah Zarbock, PA-C

JAAPA's recently retired editor in chief describes some of the Journal's accomplishments during her tenure and explores some of the challenges facing JAAPA in the years ahead.

JAAPA's editor in chief for the past 8 years writes her last editorial, and looks forward to retirement.

I was recently diagnosed with spondylolisthesis, which presented as uncomfortable and quite bothersome left hip pain. "Ah ha," exclaimed my good friend, a local orthopedic surgeon, as he peered at my lateral plain film.

Trying to ensure that one receives care at home can be an especially precarious adventure as one gets older and faces a myriad of very difficult questions.

When seven tobacco companies' CEOs, one right after the other, swore under oath before a Congressional committee, "I believe that nicotine is not addictive," I actually burst out laughing.

The author argues that when examining our patients, we need to understand the concepts of space and distance, the boundaries in between, and how to cross them.

What is it about who PAs are and what they do that can be translated into small, simple gestures of kindness? See the author's list, and add your own.

Wallis Simpson, the beautiful American divorcee who married Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII of England, is credited with the popular saying, "A woman can never be too rich or too thin." Fast forward to the present. As we sit smack-dab in the middle of a recession, I would say that for most of us working stiffs, the notion of being "too rich," much less just being free from credit card debt, is a remote notion. Being "too thin" seems equally improbable. Quite frankly, I'd settle just for plain old "thin" any day.

PAs are perfectly positioned to help to prevent falls, especially in the elderly, just by evaluating patients for risk factors and educating them about avoidable hazards.

In a rich southern drawl she exclaimed over the telephone, "A physician assistant saved my life!" To say that I was startled by this revelation would be an understatement.