Down the road, the hospital may introduce new work practices, such as increasing the role of physician assistants.
Many primary care clinics already weave together physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and registered nurses.
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Like doctors, physician assistants see patients individually, diagnose conditions, and in some cases even write prescriptions.
America has led the world in developing the roles of nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
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Nurse practitioners or physician assistants sometimes do help patients with making lifestyle choices and meeting social care needs.
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And it would help train new doctors and nurses and physician assistants to provide care for American families.
That means the doctor will oversee a team of less- highly paid nurses, physician assistants and orderlies who will perform many basic tasks.
Satisfaction with the profession is high -- one survey found that 88 percent of physician assistants would choose that career again, Lord said.
When I practiced in the VA setting, I had the great pleasure of working closely with many excellent nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
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But there are also winners, especially nurses and physician assistants (PAs).
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Nonphysicians are taking on a greater role in this team-based approach, so patients should make sure they feel comfortable with a practice's nurses and physician assistants.
For example, physician assistants, nurse aides and paralegals often manage the administrative and routine work, allowing the professional to focus on the work they were trained for.
Jobs for physician assistants have also stayed steady, as these medical practitioners help offset the national physician shortage, said Cindy Lord, president of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
If payments from these programs dry up, providers could be forced to scale back or even close operations, laying off nurses, physician assistants, technicians, and others in the process.
Employment for physician assistants is projected to grow much faster than average because health care institutions increasingly use these practitioners to contain costs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
We need to think more clearly about whether it is more primary care physicians that we need or, instead, more primary care clinicians: nurse practitioners, physician assistants and the like.
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The number of licensed PAs, meanwhile, has doubled in the past decade, to 86, 500, and is likely to grow another 30% by 2020, according to the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
Cigna Medical Group, the medical practice unit of Cigna HealthCare of Arizona, with 25 health centers in the Phoenix area, has a Home-Based Care Team that includes nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
The unique roles played by physicians, nurses, dentists, nurse anesthetists, nurse midwifes, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, podiatrists, pharmacists, paramedics, psychologists, and optometrists are well known and have clinical duties, delineated by government, associated with them.
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Skeptics say doctors should be able to care for many more patients in the future with more efficient group practices, greater reliance on physician assistants and nurse practitioners, and "telemedicine" done via the phone and online.
Enter the nurses and physician assistants.
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If you see no benefit, there are in general two paths your doctor might recommend (and I say doctor in the generic sense, given that many folks nowadays see physician assistants or nurse practitioners who often -- in my experience -- do a better job diagnosing and treating depression than do MDs).
The tiny clinic is staffed by nurse practitioners and physician's assistants, seven days a week, including evenings and holidays.
They're more likely to be middle-income women (think physician's assistants, soldiers, teachers).
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