Majority of Public Say They Are Willing to be Treated by PAs
In April 2007, the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) Board of Directors gave staff permission to negotiate a contract with an outside communications company to conduct a public relations research project. The initial results, presented to the AAPA Board of Directors in May 2007, show high awareness of and strong positive feelings toward the PA profession.
Two out of three adults responding to the nation-wide poll said they are aware of the PA profession. Just over 80 percent of all respondents said they would be willing to be seen by a PA for a routine health visit in the event their primary medical doctor is not available. Of those previously treated by a PA, 90 percent said they would be willing to see a PA again. Of those who have never been treated by a PA, 76 percent said they would be willing to see a PA. The results seem to point that one way to increase patient willingness to be treated by a PA would be to increase contact between the public and PAs.
The survey was managed by Fleishman-Hillard, an international communications company, and was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, which also conducts the CNN polls. The questions were part of an omnibus poll using a nationally representative random sample. Just over 1000 adults were interviewed by telephone between April 27 to April 30.
Even though there are approximately 65,000 clinically practicing PAs in a country of more than 281 million people, a majority of people - 51 percent - said they had been treated by a PA. (The percentage based off the weighted base would be 47 percent.)
To test whether the respondents were confusing PAs with other health care professions, all were asked to describe the primary responsibilities of a PA and, for those previously treated by a PA, what condition they presented to the PA.
The responses confirmed the public has a general understanding of what a PA does - such as, they "do everything a doctor does," provide patient care, write prescriptions, diagnose illness, take the burden off the doctor. The conditions or procedures mentioned by those previously treated by a PA are common to PAs - colds and flu, allergy and asthma, annual checkup, gynecological exams, general surgery. Nine percent of those previously seen by a PA said they were treated by a PA because the physician was not available.
The national poll is the first step in a data collection effort to investigate the use of a public awareness campaign to advance understanding of the PA profession. The next step will be a round of longer, more in-depth phone surveys with a nationwide audience to delve deeper into patient attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors. This will be followed by analysis of the results by the AAPA Public Relations Committee, Fleishman-Hillard, and Academy staff.