Workweek restrictions and specialty-trained physician assistants: potential opportunities

The increasing use of physician assistants (PAs) in surgical settings is part of a continuing trend of PA specialization, and many graduate medical education (GME) programs in teaching hospitals have hired PAs to augment physician housestaff duties. PAs have been shown to be effective in these roles by contributing to the continuity of care and enhancement of resident educational experiences. One strategy for educating and training specialty PAs to help augment perioperative surgical workforce needs for acute and critically ill patients is PA postgraduate training programs, which are typically offered as formal 1 year experiences following entry-level PA education and based on the GME model. Many academic health centers (AHCs) are well positioned to host such educational programs by collaborating with PA educators to develop additional surgical postgraduate training programs. We propose a model to produce an increased supply of specialty-trained PAs to serve as permanent hospital-based clinicians who could enable surgical residency training programs to meet critical resident education and operative experience needs by providing team-oriented and physician-supervised perioperative care.