INTRODUCTION: Physician Assistants are medical care providers working under supervision and/or in collaboration with a medical doctor. The Physician Assistant profession has its origin in the United States, but in the last decade has also reached other nations to overcome medical staffing issues. With little summarized literature available, the aim of this study is to portray the Physician Assistant movement in Europe.METHODS: A literature search was conducted in Academic Search Premier, CINAHL, ERIC and MEDLINE databases. In addition, European PA educational programs, professional associations, and local experts on the PA profession were queried.RESULTS: Currently, in Europe there are three countries in which physician assistants are trained and are working. The educational models of physician assistant training in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands differ, as do the degrees offered by the training institutions.CONCLUSIONS: There is scant literature about physician assistant training and practice in Europe available in the common scientific databases. The paucity of literature makes it difficult for an outsider to observe the developments and to value the impact of a new profession on national health systems. Further high-quality research is needed to adequately characterize physician assistant education and implementation across Europe.
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BACKGROUND: Physician assistant (PA) education has undergone substantial change since the late 1960s. After four decades of development, other countries have taken a page from the American experience and launched their own instructional initiatives. The diversity in how different countries approach education and produce a PA for their nation's needs provides an opportunity to make comparisons. The intent of this study was to document and describe PA programs in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and the United States.METHODS: We reviewed the literature and contacted a network of academics in various institutions to obtain primary information. Each contact was asked a set of basic questions about the country, the PA program, and the deployment of graduates. Information on US PA programs was obtained from the Physician Assistant Education Association.RESULTS: At year's end 2010, the following was known about PA development: Australia, one program; Canada, four programs; United Kingdom, four programs; The Netherlands, five programs; the United States, 154 programs. Trends in program per capita growth remain the largest in the United States, followed by The Netherlands and Canada. The shortest program length was 24 months and the longest, 36 months. Outside the United States, almost all programs are situated in an academic health center ([AHC] defined as a medical university, a teaching hospital, and a nursing or allied health school), whereas only one-third of US PA programs are in AHCs. All non-US programs receive public/government funding whereas American programs are predominately private and depend on tuition to fund their programs.CONCLUSION: The PA movement is a global phenomenon. How PAs are being educated, trained, and deployed is known only on the basic level. We identify common characteristics, unique aspects, and trends in PA education across five nations, and set the stage for collaboration and analysis of optimal educational strategies. Additional information is needed on lesser-known PA programs outside these five countries.
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The primary reason for the development of physician assistant (PA) educational programs in the Netherlands was the discrepancy between supply and demand for health care providers. The need for health care workers was increasing while the supply of (para)medical and nursing practitioners stagnated. Although medical schools have expanded the numbers of students they are training, it is still not enough to overcome the problem of a shortage of physicians
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