Physician assistant role flexibility and career mobility.

摘要

Unlike other health professionals, physician assistants have the unique capability to change specialties over the course of their careers (usually without additional formal training), a characteristic that provides advantages both to them and to employers. Such clinical flexibility permits PAs to adapt relatively quickly to changing workforce needs and emerging medical practice niches. The bedrock for diis capability is the PA's foundation of general medicine and close practice relationship with physicians.The specific dimensions and patterns of PA career flexibility have been quantified, and their mobility is distinct. An analysis of AAPA data containing 42 annual cohorts of PA graduates documented patterns of specialty change.