In observance of National Physician Assistant Week, UNMC’s PA class of 2007 will set up booths to provide information about the physician assistant profession on Friday, Oct. 7 and Monday, Oct. 10 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. outside the Nebraska Cafe.
National Physician Assistant Week will be celebrated across the country today (Oct. 6) through Oct. 12.
Today, there are more than 50,000 physician assistants in clinical practice in the United States. On Thursday, Oct. 6, they will be honored during National PA week for the care they provide to millions of Americans. Oct. 6 commemorates the day the first class of physician assistants graduated from the first PA program founded at Duke University in North Carolina in 1967.
Although what a PA does varies with training, experience and state laws, PAs provide a broad range of medical and surgical services as a member of a team, with their supervising physicians. As part of their clinical practice responsibilities, PAs conduct physical examinations, diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret tests, counsel on preventive health care, assist in surgery and prescribe medications. There are 39 PAs in clinical practice at The Nebraska Medical Center in the departments of pediatrics, geriatrics, emergency medicine, surgery, psychiatry, radiology, internal medicine, oncology/hematology and bone marrow transplant.
UNMC’s PA Program was established in 1971, as a result of a mandate from the Nebraska State Legislature to provide primary care providers for rural and underserved areas of Nebraska. The first students graduated from the UNMC program in 1975.
The program is 28 months in length, accepts a class of 40 students each fall, and awards a master’s degree upon completion of the program. There are currently 120 students enrolled in the PA Program. For more information, visit the UNMC PA Web site or the American Academy of Physician Assistants Web site.