Economic value of Physician assistants or Development of the PA concept in FOREIGN COUNTRIES (International PA issues)

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Economic value of Physician assistants or Development of the PA concept in FOREIGN COUNTRIES (“International PA” issues)

The high shortage of doctors in most parts of the world, especially developing nations, has resulted into many countries undertaking the concept of Physician Assistant (PA) as a strategy to train and employ health workers. PAs are medical practitioners licensed to carry out healthcare duties with the help of a qualified physician. The increasing health care costs and diversification in health care specialists, as well as the rising issues of health care needs, leaves most foreign countries with no option other than adopting the PA concept to offer solutions to these workforce issues. The concept of PA started in United States (U.S.) and has since expanded into many parts of the world through the support of the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) and American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA). PAEA and AAPA have volunteered to offer education to PA professionals in foreign countries. Most countries across the globe have incorporated US-trained PAs to help them establish their programs (Allison et al 1).

According to Pedersen and DeGracia, allocation of resources to cater for major causes of healthcare burden worldwide and reduce health disparities forms the major challenge facing the health care industry today (4). The United Kingdom (U.K.) healthcare department needs more health care providers to cater for the high number of workforce needed in order to realize National Health Service (NHS) goals. In order to achieve their objective, U.K. government has established two PA programs in two universities, the Wolverhampton University and the University of Herefordshire. The adoption of PA strategy in foreign countries will help tackle these challenges because it is cost effective, efficient and flexible to utilize. The research findings indicated that most countries that have used American-trained PAs to implement the program have seen more success in their healthcare workforces. PA education offers a wider view in terms of organizational productivity as countries come up with new labor forces.

Works cited

Allison, Donald., Boudreaux-Milligan, Jessica., Catanzaro, Rachel., et al. (n.d). Global Development of Physical Assistants. Web

http://www.paeaonline.org/index.php?ht=a/GetDocumentAction/i/75206

Pedersen, J. Kathy. Aand DeGracia Donna. Global Health Workforce and Physician Assistants,

Global Health Education Consortium. 2014. Web

http://www.cugh.org/sites/default/files/content/resources/modules/To%20Post%20Both%20Faculty%20and%20Trainees/28_Global_Health_Workforce_And_Physician_Assistants_FINAL.pdf