From Advance For NPs and PAs October Web edition: 
http://nurse-practitioners-and-physician-assistants.advanceweb.com/Features/Articles/A-Million-Dollar-PA-Public-Education-Campaign-for-Free.aspx

One thing that grassroots PAs have said loud and clear when speaking to the profession’s leaders is the undeniable need for more public education, the need for the lay public to become more intimately acquainted with the who, what and whys of the PA profession. Public and professional education has been vigorously requested as one of the most sought after services that the American Academy of Physician Assistants could provide over the entire history of our profession. 

While almost all leaders agree that public education is crucial, many contend that the cost and scope of such education is far too great, and that other issues always seem to take precedent. 

This year, many of our profession’s most esteemed leaders are being queried by their constituent members to rename our profession, giving us the name we held at birth: physician associate. Naturally, those same leaders are concerned with the particulars such a change might take. As one of the frontrunners behind the name change initiative to achieve that goal, I would like to outline yet another added value to changing our title. And fortunately, it would require scant use of our collective resources. In fact, it would be a relatively free public relations campaign. 

Refining the Brand Before the PR Campaign 
Looking at a future campaign to educate the public that we are “assistants” is counterintuitive for a number of reasons. The most important is that we actually might succeed in changing our title, in essence making the money and effort previously spent a foolish endeavor. It would be a mistake to focus attention on a grand public relations campaign until the issues surrounding our title are properly debated and put to rest. 

Another reason deals with the end result of a large-scale PR campaign: the branding of our profession. It would be impossible to truly brand a title containing the word “assistant.” The term is simply too generic and holds deep-rooted nuances with the public. Assistants don’t do the real work, they help someone else do it. The fact that we diagnose, treat and prescribe will never be able to be explained as “assistant” work. Likewise, the term is too broadly applied to others in the medical field: medical assistants, optometric assistants and physical therapy assistants, to name but a few. No matter how hard we try or how much money we spend, our name, our face to the public, will still hold the generally accepted meaning of an assistant. 

PAs: Not Your Typical Assistant 
It would be disastrous to spend the time and money on a PR campaign, only to have the general public believe that all assistants are capable of diagnosing, interpreting, developing treatment plans, prescribing and all of the other things that separate us from other assistants. Remember, it’s not the word up front that matters, it’s what comes after that will cause confusion. A picture-perfect example is the continued use of the possessive form of our current name, “physician’s assistant.” Though the AAPA and grassroots efforts have done a great job in correcting those still using that nomenclature, most people simply can’t comprehend that a PA is anything more than the physician’s right hand guy or gal, at their beck and call and in a subservient role. The names “physician assistant” and “physician’s assistant” have always been synonymous. The public sees those names as one and the same. The effort we have previously put forth to clarify the difference, that small yet vastly important distinction, has fallen seriously short. 

Creating a new name, a new face, would inherently possess the added value we need to start a vigorous public education campaign. Once it is made clear that the change in title is merely the natural evolution of our professional role, that the new title more accurately and positively reflects our role in the current landscape of medicine and leaves behind the hindrances of the “assistant” label, people will want to know about it. We then finally will have the power to frame our new title to our liking, and in a way that will not to be confused with the cornucopia of assistants found in medicine. When this occurs, others will begin to do much of the PR work for us. Scientific publications, medical publications, websites and media outlets of all sorts will begin to describe the change and why we made it to their readers, viewers and listeners. And at their cost and with their effort, not ours.

 
Time for Physician Associates to Shine 
Once and for all the public will truly come to realize the physician associate or PA brings a wealth of knowledge and high-level professional training to the medical offices and ERs around town. They are the men and women who not only have the know-how, but the willingness to help tackle the nation’s healthcare crisis. Not as assistants merely watching from the sidelines, but as professionals working hand-in-hand at the frontlines. 

Ready for your interview?

Dave has been a PA, and later NP, leader for thirty years.  He strongly believes that NPs and PAs must work together to insure a better future for both professions.  Most recently Dave has been busy launching another dream; Clinician 1, the first internet community for PAs and NPs.  In October 2008, Dave was honored by the New Jersey State society of PAs with its “Lifetime Achievement Award”.

RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE

You must be logged in
to recommend articles

Average (Not Rated)

» Recommended Articles