Apparently the new rules governing resident hrs are already having a positive effect... for pa's! many prestigious university medical centers are replacing resident hrs with increased pa staffing leading the chief of staff at yale/new haven hospital( peter herbret, md ) to predict a shortage of pa's in the near future. great news for practicing pa's and new grads! examples of new jobs already created by a shortage of resident hours: yale/new haven: medicine + 4 pa's surgery + 10 pa's NY HOSPITAL/QUEENS surgery +4 pa's long island jewish CT surgery +1 tufts: surgery(general) +1 pa CT surgery +2 pa's numerous other facilities following above examples. it's a great time to be a PA! source for above AAPA news 7/30/02
Probably not. each overworked/underpaid resident will likely be replaced by 2 full time staff pa's. this assures that the clinician seeing the patient is awake and alert at the time of exam(not always a given for residents). having full time PA housestaff eliminates the problems associated with new/green residents every july by insuring a continuity of care in the dept from month to month. also most of us are bright enough to include language in our contracts which specifies hours to be worked and on call responsibilities. anyone who signs on for 80 hrs/week knows what they are in for. most pa's work 45-55 hrs/week and are paid hourly with extra for call. some work significantly more than that, but as I said they knew the job description when they took it.
I dont think they are going to hire 2 PAs for every 1 resident, at least not at first. You have to remember that residents are not paid by the hospital, but by the federal government via medicare. i think the hospitals are going to try and hire the bare minimum number of PAs it takes to function under the new resident regulations, and then ONLY if that is not enough they might hire more.
