Rheumatology PAs more satisfied with job vs other specialties despite lower pay
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Key takeaways:
- Physician assistants/associates in rheumatology increased 93.7% from 2015 to 2022 in the United States.
- Rheumatology PAs reported higher job satisfaction, and fewer burnout symptoms, vs. PAs in other specialties.
Physician assistants in rheumatology report higher job satisfaction and lower levels of burnout than those in other specialties despite working similar hours and receiving lower pay, according to data published in Arthritis Care & Research.
“There exists a critical undersupply of rheumatology health care providers,” Benjamin J. Smith, DMSc, PA-C, DFAAPA, program director and associate dean in the school of physician assistant practice at the Florida State University College of Medicine, told Healio. “Innovative approaches to address this need are essential. Physician associates (PAs) are one solution to provide care to persons with rheumatic disease. While PAs have worked in rheumatology since the 1970s, the number of PAs working in the specialty has not previously been well defined.”
For a clearer view of PA characteristics and trends in rheumatology, Smith and colleagues analyzed data up through 2022 from the PA Professional Profile, a system run by the National Commission on Certification of PAs enabling board-certified associates and assistants to self-report workforce information.
The demographics and workforce characteristics of rheumatology PAs vs. PAs across all other medical specialties were compared using descriptive and bivariate assessments and Pearson chi-square and Mann-Whitney U tests.
The study found a total of 430 PAs reporting rheumatology as their primary specialty in 2022, comprising a total of 0.4% of all U.S. PAs and representing a 93.7% increase from the number of rheumatology PAs in 2015.
Rheumatology PAs were 84.7% women, while 78.8% of them worked in office-based private practices, compared with 37% of PAs across other specialties. More of them also reported use of telemedicine in their practice (62.5%) than PAs in other specialties (40.2%; P < .001).
When grouping PAs across all specialties based on the number of patients seen each week (eg, up to 40, 41 to 60, 61 to 80, etc.), there were similar amounts in each range. However, rheumatology PAs predominantly reported seeing 41 to 60 (38.4%) or 61 to 80 patients (28%) per week. Rheumatology PAs worked hours comparable with those in other specialties — a median of 40 hours per week for both groups (P = .806).
Although rheumatology PAs reported a lower median income ($105,000) than PAs in other specialties ($115,000), they reported somewhat higher levels of job satisfaction (87.6% vs. 83.6%; P < .026), more of them reported no symptoms of burnout (72.2% vs. 67.8%; P = .05), and they were less likely to plan on leaving in the next year (5.1% vs. 8.7%; P = .008).
“The finding that PAs in rheumatology work similar hours compared with PA colleagues in other specialties, while seeing a higher proportion of patients each week is notable,” Smith said. “The high job satisfaction and lower levels of burnout are remarkable. The characteristics of rheumatology PAs can be highlighted when recruiting other PAs and health care professionals to the specialty.”
“We hope that this work will lead to further scholarly discoveries regarding PAs in rheumatology,” he added. “Some suggested focus areas include exploring the economics of PAs in the specialty, the aspects of teamwork, scope of practice in a rheumatology setting, and patient outcomes and satisfaction when PAs are part of the rheumatology care team.”
For more information:
Benjamin J. Smith, DMSc, PA-C, DFAAPA, can be reached at benjamin.smith@med.fsu.edu.
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