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Titled: Physician's Assistance: Responsibilities and Importance
Physician's Assistance: Responsibilities and Importance
Article Summary: Physician assistants are a relatively new breed of health care professionals, who are licensed to practice medicine under the supervision of the doctors and physicians.
Physician assistants are a relatively new breed of health care professionals, who are licensed to practice medicine under the supervision of the doctors and physicians.
The profession of physician assistance was introduced in the 1960s, when there was a growing need of professionals with the license and education of primary care physicians. It was in the end of the 1960s that educators and physicians recognized that there was a real need of physicians to expand the delivery of quality medical care. In order to cover the shortage of primary health care physicians, Dr. Eugene Stead of the Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina first proposed a plan to introduce the health care physicians called "Physician Assistants" with the aim that these assistants in the future would cover up the shortages in health care profession. The first class of the physician assistants was put together by Dr. Eugene Stead in 1965; Dr. Eugene wanted individuals who had acquired some education of medical training and thus selected Navy corpsmen who had received medical education in the military service. Moreover Dr. Eugene based his curriculum of the physician assistant program on the concept of fast track training which he had been giving to doctors during Vietnam War [Roderick, 1999].
A physician assistant has now grown into a credible profession and physician assistants are employed by the federal government and authorized to practice. Although the physician assistants are assistants to the physicians and work under their supervision they perform 80 percent of the tasks of a physician and this is the reason they are often called 'physician extender". The physician assistant has many responsibilities and performs a variety of tasks, a physician assistant is authorized to conduct physical exams, and he is also credentialed to treat illness and diagnose, order or interpret tests. In most of the states in America a physician assistant assists in surgery and also can write prescriptions. The physician assistants are certified and the certification entails that these physicians have licensed, they have gone through a defined course of study and have knowledge of the things they are entitled to do (Roderick, 1999; Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2003.
Role of the Physician's Assistance in the US Prison health Care System and the Correctional Facilities - Article Review
The following section of the paper will review an article titled "Understanding Incarcerated Populations" authored by Cooke, Cheryl L., and written for the AORN Journal issue of March 2002.
Though the said article discusses at length the various aspects and characteristics of the incarcerated populations in the US prison and correctional facilities, there are but two aspects that are imperative to note, and which have a profound implication with respect to the role of the physician's assistance in both the US prisons as well as the various correctional facilities across the nation.
First is the difference between a prison and a correctional facility or jails. Prisons are usually located outside the parameters of a major city, preferably in remote regions of the state and provide housing for inmates who have been convicted and sentenced to serve for a period of 12 months of more. On the other hand, jails are usually located within close proximity of the city limits and more often than not have access to major trauma centers and hospitals of the respective city.
With respect to the health care systems, inmates of jails located in close proximity of city limits have access to a number of health care services including but not limited to a normal sick call, ongoing treatment for a chronic illness, or a limited facility for prenatal care. In addition, since the location of the jails are close proximity to major trauma centers and hospitals, emergency care of severe nature can be attended to any given time for services that are not immediately available within the limits of the jail facility.
Inmates of prisons however are faced with a totally different set of health care facilities, primarily because of their remote locations, and more often than not because of the limited number of health care providers assigned to the respective prison.
It is the later, the prison system where the need and importance of physician's assistance are most needed and called for, simply because the senior physician alone cannot handle all the health enquires and needs of the prison inmates. The unavailability or busy schedule of the senior physicians then calls for the importance of the physician's assistance, which according to one estimate perform more than 80 percent of the tasks of the senior physician.
Perhaps it is this factor that also gives these people the distinguished name of "physician extenders", as majority of the responsibilities and tasks otherwise falling under the domain of the physician are in fact handled by these physician assistants.
These tasks may include, but are certainly not limited to conducting physical exams, treating ills, diagnosing patients, ordering and interpreting tests results. Majority of the states in the US also allow these physician assistants to assist in surgeries as well as prescribe medications to the patients according to the nature of the illness.
A simple procedure followed by the physician's assistants when dealing or treating with the incarcerated populations reveals that the entire program commences with a receipt from an inmate, and in response the inmate is given an appointment, more often than a few days later. In normal circumstances, inmates are transferred to a larger health facility where treatment for both major and minor illnesses is handled. This also includes emergency and other surgical procedures that are taken are of at off-site health care facilities. It is a normal for security personnel of the respective prison or correctional facility to accompany the inmate to the requisite health facility.
Secondary aspect that is of important for the physician's assistants is the cooperation aspect that may or may not be of help with respect to the legal proceedings. This becomes all the more important in cases where inmates develop a feeling that the health care professional assigned to them may want to collect some evidence during the course of transfer from prison to the larger health facility.
Though it is certainly not the case, nor is it the responsibility of the physician assistants to do so, yet it is important to clarify to the inmate that the physician assistant is there to assist and help the inmate in matters of medical needs and requirements, and has nothing to do with the legal or judicial system of the respective state or facility. Once this feeling is embedded into the inmates' minds, it would become all the more easier for the physicians assistants to provide more care and make them feel comfortable, which would also help them recover from whatever illness or diseases they may be suffering from.
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