According to Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the total physician shortage for the year 2025 includes a deficit of between 12,500 and 31,100 primary care physicians and decrease of between 28,200 and 63,700 non-primary care physicians. The shortage of physician is most see in primary care. As stated by Alder, Coombs, Koduri, Morgan, Pedersen (2011), PAs have been suggested as a temporary solution to the predicted physician shortages, especially in primary care. In the United States, the rural areas are the ones being affected the most. According to United States’ Congress Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (2007), one of the reasons for the physician shortage is that most physicians are 50 years or older, and are likely to retire just as the baby boom generation moves into its time of greatest medical need (pp. 3). In the rural parts of the United States, physicians are disappearing. According to American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA), about ten percent of MD’s practices are in rural …show more content…
One of them that is most applicable to the issue, is the rise of the Physician Assistant profession. The rise of the PA profession is mostly seen in the rural parts of the United States. According to Hooker, Cawley, and Everett (2011), a component of health-care reform in 2010 identified that physician assistants (PAs) were needed to help reduce the expected doctor shortage. PAs are beginning to flood the roles once filled by physicians. According to American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA), PAs increase access to health care, improve health care quality, and decrease health care