PPP’s Rebekah Bernard, MD, offers commentary in Medscape.

Physician assistants (PAs) are angry with me, and with good reason. I had the audacity to lump them together with nurse practitioners (NPs) in my book Patients at Risk, an act which one highly placed PA leader called “distasteful” in a private conversation with me.

I will admit that PAs have reason to be upset. With competitive acceptance rates including a requirement for extensive healthcare experience before PA school, standardized training, and at least 2000 hours of clinical experience before graduation, the profession is a stark contrast to the haphazard training and 500 clinical hours required of NPs today…

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