Job Satisfaction Among Physician Assistants Practicing Cardiovascular Medicine in the United States

Well-being and the early-career PA: Influence of the collaborative physician relationship

OBJECTIVE

Recent updates to physician associate/assistant (PA) laws reflect less mandated supervision. Although greater autonomy may inspire experienced PAs, newer PAs may struggle with less required oversight. This study examined the influence of autonomy, career length, and the quality of the collaborative physician (CP) relationship on PA well-being.

METHODS

A secondary analysis of data gathered in 2018 by the American Academy of Physician Associates was conducted using bivariate and multiple linear regression with moderated mediation.

RESULTS

Years of experience positively predicted PA well-being and negatively predicted the percentage of time spent consulting with a CP. The interaction of the percentage of time spent consulting with a CP and the quality of the CP relationship mediated the relationship between years of experience and well-being.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings demonstrate that the quality of the CP relationship is most salient to the well-being of early-career PAs who spend more time in consultation with CPs.

What do cardiac surgical assistants in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia think about their job? A cross-sectional survey of job and work characteristics

Concerns about job design of the cardiac surgical assistant workforce such as role autonomy and job dissatisfaction have been outlined in the literature, although scant empirical research has examined these concerns from the perspective of cardiac surgical assistants themselves. This study surveyed the job design of cardiac surgical assistants in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia using Morgeson and Humphrey's Work Design Questionnaire. All scalable items within the questionnaire were reported as satisfactory except for 'autonomy', 'task identity', 'feedback from the job', 'job complexity', 'social support', 'feedback from others', 'ergonomic' and 'work condition'. The results provide insight into aspects of cardiac surgical assistants' role characteristics and contribute to the body of knowledge about their organisational psychology. Given the growth of cardiothoracic operations, the role of the surgical care assistant needs to be further developed to address the job design issues raised.

Clinical Treatment Analysis and Imaging Study of Patients with Acute Angina in Cardiovascular Medicine

With the accelerating pace of life, increasing stress and unhealthy diet make cardiovascular disease one of the important diseases that endanger human health, among which the incidence of acute angina is gradually increasing. At present, there are many clinical treatment studies on acute angina pectoris, but the relevant imaging analysis is very lacking. In order to study the clinical treatment of patients with acute angina pectoris and analyze the relevant medical images, to arrive at a more effective treatment method, this article launched an in-depth study. First, we selected 88 patients with acute angina in a hospital as the research object and randomly divided them into a control group (n = 44) and an experimental group (n = 44) Yan et al. (2020). The control group was treated with conventional acute angina pectoris drugs, while the experimental group was treated with clopidogrel on this basis. The two groups were treated at the same time, and the treatment time lasted for 3 months. Then, the risk factors of the two groups of patients were analyzed, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Then, the medical images of the two groups of patients were analyzed, and the diastolic blood pressure, systolic blood pressure, and coronary artery stenosis were compared before and after treatment. After treatment, the diastolic blood pressure and systolic blood pressure of the experimental group were 88.31 ± 3.15 mmHg and 125.63 ± 4.16 mmHg, respectively. The proportion of patients with zero-vessel disease and single-vessel disease in the experimental group increased to 15.91% and 56.82%. The treatment plan received by the experimental group patients had a better improvement effect. Finally, the clinical efficacy was compared. The total effective rates of the control and experimental groups were 72.7% and 88.6%, respectively. This shows that the treatment method adopted by the experimental group of patients has a better curative effect and is worthy of clinical promotion.

Reasons PAs leave their jobs

PURPOSE

Employee turnover is an important indicator that carries a heavy financial cost for healthcare organizations. Although previous research has highlighted some factors associated with turnover, the reasons physician assistants (PAs) leave their jobs are not fully understood. This study aimed to determine the most common reasons behind PA turnover.

METHODS

In 2019, the American Academy of PAs (AAPA) distributed a survey to all PAs with an eligible email address. The survey included a question asking respondents if they had left or changed their job in the past year. Respondents answering this question in the affirmative were asked a follow-up multiple-choice question to determine the reason behind this change.

RESULTS

A total of 13,088 PAs responded to the AAPA salary survey; of these, 1,261 reported leaving a job within the past year. The most common reasons provided for leaving a job were: better work/life balance (n = 209, 16.8%), moved (n = 208, 16.7%), better management/leadership/environment (reasons related to toxic/abusive environment) (n = 170, 13.6%), and better compensation/benefits (n = 148, 11.9%).

CONCLUSION

Employers should focus on common reasons for turnover that can be reasonably addressed. Of the top three reasons behind PA turnover, those related to toxic/abusive work environments may be the most practical and important to address.

Physician Assistants in Ophthalmology: A National Survey

PURPOSE

To evaluate the scope of practice and training of current physician assistants (PAs) in ophthalmology and gauge their interest in further training and involvement in ophthalmology.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional survey study.

METHODS

An anonymous survey on vision and ocular care in the PA profession was administered to PAs in ophthalmology within the American Academy of Physician Assistants member database. All survey questions were optional.

RESULTS

A total response rate of 47/94 (50.0%) was obtained. Respondents reported an average of 9.8 years (SD = 9.0) of experience as a PA in ophthalmology. Over half of the respondents (59.5%) did not have previous experience in vision and ocular health before becoming a PA. Most respondents (79.5%) reported that they are able to provide their primary clinical responsibilities for ophthalmic care independently. In addition to providing clinical ophthalmic care, many of the respondents have duties that involve consenting patients for ophthalmic surgery and procedures (62.5%) and assisting in ophthalmic surgery and minor procedures (65.0%). Only a minority of respondents independently perform procedures, such as intravitreal injections (23.1%) and minor lid procedures (38.5%). Most respondents reported interest in additional training in providing vision and ocular care (69.0%), in continuing their career as a PA in ophthalmology (87.5%), and in joining a specialty organization for PAs in ophthalmology (88.1%).

CONCLUSIONS

The PAs participating in this survey provide a range of clinical and some procedural ophthalmic care. The development of formal PA postgraduate training programs in ophthalmology may expand the pool of PAs qualified to practice ophthalmology.