Two physician assistants have been hired to help in the emergency department
Two physician assistants have been hired at a Vancouver Island hospital to work in the emergency department as part of a groundbreaking B.C. pilot project aimed at addressing staffing shortages.
PAs could help alleviate the health-care crisis in the province, particularly in the rural communities that have been among the hardest hit.
Physician assistants are educated under the same medical model used to train doctors but through a two-year graduate program. They can conduct patient interviews, provide physical examinations, perform diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, prescribe most medicines, order and read tests, and make referrals under the guidance of a physician.
Already working in other parts of Canada, the PA experiment at Saanich Peninsula Hospital outside Victoria is an attempt to alleviate the health-care crisis in the province, particularly in the rural communities that have been among the hardest hit.
Fred Bai began working as a physician assistant in Manitoba in 2012. He previously worked as a medical geneticist abroad and spent a number of years providing patient care as a registered nurse.
Eric Demers became a physician assistant in 2010 while serving with the Canadian Armed Forces. In addition to continuing to offer medical assistance to isolated First Nations communities in Canada’s northern regions, Demers will assist the Saan Pen emergency department team.
As part of a one-year pilot program authorized by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia, Bai and Demers began their clinical shifts as B.C.’s first non-military PAs on Jan. 8.
B.C.’s 1st physician assistants added in effort to treat rural health shortage
