I wanted to know what people thought of PAs working in the NICU, specifically those who have done a "residency"? There seems to be more programs that are now offering a one year residency for PAs in NICU and I wanted to see if anyone may have worked with someone coming from one of these residencies and what you thought of their competency.
Thoughts on PAs who have done a residency in the NICU
- Thread starter Corpsman
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I can't speak from experience in NICUs, but where I did fellowship training in PICU, we had PAs and NPs. I admit I don't know what goes into "residency", but both groups had to have additional training and peer oversight to be hired, though I admit I don't know how long that training was. I liked most of PAs I worked with. As far as competency, well I suppose it depends what you mean by that. It is expected that new PAs be competent in writing orders, documentation, following up with consults and labs. If you are speaking of clinical competency, well to be honest that is not why most PAs are hired. They are not meant to function independently. I knew some senior PAs of about 10+ years or so in the PICU, and while their opinion in clinical decisions was listened to and respected, they did not practice without close supervision. New hires on the other hand essentially functioned as students or interns. Thus, while it is certainly is helpful if a PA has good clinical acumen, no attending is going to provide care without checking out the work themselves. PAs make that work more efficient and that is where PAs need to be competent.
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From talking to senior residents that is not how our hospital is using them. The NICU is split between a resident team that takes care of 40% of admits and a PA team, where all of the PAs have completed the residency, that takes 60% of the admits. The PA residents are part of the MD resident team and have the same responsibilities, participate in the all of the fellow lectures and do 4 months of off service rotations, 8 months of NICU. I was just checking to see if anyone else was familiar with something similar and if it is a trend in NICUs I was unaware of. I will check back to tell you how it goes.
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The system you mentioned, resident teams and PA/NP teams with the latter having a heavier patient workload, has been typical in my experience. Also, NPs and PAs did (do in my current institute) attend resident and fellow lectures during their additional training time, but what you are mentioning sounds a little bit more formal. I hope it ends up being a good experience for you.
