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Physician assistants and nurse practitioners in the National Health Service Corps
Donald E Pathman1, Thomas R Konrad, Roderick S Hooker
1Donald E. Pathman is director of the Program on Primary Care at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research and a professor and research director in the Department of Family Medicine, both at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Thomas R. Konrad is senior fellow of the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research and the Institute on Aging at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Roderick S. Hooker is a retired PA. Dr. Pathman has disclosed that he is a coinvestigator on a grant application pending with the National Health Service Corp. Dr. Konrad has disclosed that his institution received financial support from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for data collection under a contract with HRSA, and that he is a consultant on another HRSA grant. The authors have disclosed no other potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise.
Objectives:
This study describes the experiences of physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) in the National Health Service Corps' (NHSC) loan repayment program in 2010.
Methods:
In 2011, a stratified random sample of NHSC clinicians was surveyed. Data from the 148 PA and 137 NP respondents were analyzed (52.4% response rate).
Results:
PAs were younger than NPs (mean age 31 versus 35 years), less often female (68% versus 91%), and more often carried educational debt over $100,000 (56% versus 24%). Both groups were serving in states familiar to them and within communities where they felt accepted. The groups were generally satisfied on most measures of work, with PAs more satisfied than NPs on some measures.
Conclusion:
The NHSC's PAs and NPs are well matched to communities and satisfied with their work. Maximizing their NHSC experiences and retention requires recognizing their differences in demographics, debt, and areas of job satisfaction.
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