- Joined
- Jun 19, 2016
- Messages
- 57
- Reaction score
- 26
I am seeing more and more PAs/NPs in IR. I'm also hearing more stories of PAs leaving radiology groups after getting trained and going to work for the local referring MDs and doing the work they previously did for IRs (I.e. Doing the lines and ports in the oncologists office that used to be sent to IR that were done by that PA in IR).
Do IRs not see the huge long term risks in training others to do our jobs? Let's be honest, a lot of IR, especially in the community, is "bread and butter" cases that people are teaching their PAs to do. In the short run, this is a great idea. However as the examples above show, this could really hurt IR in the long run. I can't think of another specialty that is using PAs in an almost replacement function like IR does (oh wait, CRNAs, that hasn't caused any problems for anesthesia...)
I really think we should have PAs act as assistants that augment us (help with notes, assist with cases, etc) like neurosurgeons, cards, ortho, etc does. We do not own most of our patients, and once referrers realize they are sending us cases to be done by a PA they will smartly hire that person away from us and take those cases. I also think it cheapens our training to teach someone how to do a case a few times while saying our extensive training is why we should get the cases...
Interested to hear people's thoughts!
Do IRs not see the huge long term risks in training others to do our jobs? Let's be honest, a lot of IR, especially in the community, is "bread and butter" cases that people are teaching their PAs to do. In the short run, this is a great idea. However as the examples above show, this could really hurt IR in the long run. I can't think of another specialty that is using PAs in an almost replacement function like IR does (oh wait, CRNAs, that hasn't caused any problems for anesthesia...)
I really think we should have PAs act as assistants that augment us (help with notes, assist with cases, etc) like neurosurgeons, cards, ortho, etc does. We do not own most of our patients, and once referrers realize they are sending us cases to be done by a PA they will smartly hire that person away from us and take those cases. I also think it cheapens our training to teach someone how to do a case a few times while saying our extensive training is why we should get the cases...
Interested to hear people's thoughts!