Multisource feedback for the physician associate role

Abstract

Introduction Physician associates (PAs) are dependent medical practitioners who work alongside doctors and other healthcare professionals. There are approximately 350 PAs working throughout the UK, with another 550 in training. Methods An online questionnaire was sent to healthcare professionals throughout the North West region with a total of 119 responding. Participants were asked nine questions on clinical skills and three on communication skills. These were to be rated as ‘excellent’, ‘good’, ‘satisfactory’, ‘needs to improve’ or ‘unacceptable’. In addition, respondents were asked to indicate their agreement with 14 statements about the role of PAs. There was also a field for free text comments. Results Of the 1,071 individual responses to the survey questions on clinical skills, 859 (80%) were ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. Similarly, among the 357 answers to the questions on communication skills, 317 (89%) were ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. Comments in the free text field included both positive and negative observations, with all negative comments coming from junior doctors. Conclusions Overall feedback for the PA role was overwhelmingly positive. However, the most commonly mentioned problem was that they are not being utilised effectively and in turn, that they are taking learning opportunities from junior doctors. This is an important concern to note and warrants further investigation. PAs are clearly useful assets and are set to increase in number in the NHS over the coming years. It is therefore imperative that this new role works well with the existing roles and training structure of junior doctors.