What do they call those Japanese teeny boppers? You know, with long braids, loud clothes, and backpacks? Next to no English, giggle a lot. One materialized next to my bed at nine last night, checked my heartbeat then vanished. I asked who the hell was that and was told it was my doctor’s physician’s assistant. “No, Anna is a tall, regal blonde.”
“That’s her other PA. This one usually comes later at night.”
Like a vampire. My oldest says, “Like ten subcultures encourage that mode of dress.”
“But she’s a freaking MD!”
Glad I wasn’t high. But what are those girls called in Japan?
Is there any reason to think that this particular staff member didn’t do a competent job of checking the OP’s heartbeat? AFAICT that’s all she was required to do, and the OP’s only complaint is that he doesn’t like the way she dresses and/or wears her hair.
The OP is at the mercy of these people. He can’t really leave on his own steam. He’s not getting the PT or care he needs. He almost got someone elses meds once. The staff are every nationality and ethic background. Speaking in languages he doesn’t understand. They don’t understand him. He doesn’t even get proper meals. The place is a disgrace and needs to be investigated. IMO.
There are Physician Assistants, who are not Medical Doctors.
And now, in some states there are also Assistant Physicians, people who have gotten the MD degree, but did not get sufficient post-grad training (aka residency) to get a medical license. A few states allow them to practice as assistants to licensed physicians, but they’re Assistant Physicians, NOT Physician Assistants.
Whose idiotic idea was it to create a title of “assistant physician” that’s bound to get confused with “physician assistant”? As it is, judging from the third post in this thread, some don’t understand what a physician assistant is and already think it’s a consolation prize for a failed would-be physician.
Nursing is a whole nother ball of wax; you’ve got NPs, as you mentioned. Plus you’ve got RNs, LPNs, CNAs and probably some others. But at least those use different words to name them, not just the same two words in a different order.
AFAIK, there’s not a whole lot of practical difference between NPs and PAs in terms of what they are licensed to do (and not do). The real difference is in the educational/licensing track you follow to get to the degrees, where a PA is pretty much a deliberate, end-stage degree that you go to PA school for, while a NP is sort of like the final level of nurse licensing, starting with CNA, and moving up through LPN, RN and ending up as a APRN (advance practice registered nurse), meaning your nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives, and clinical nurse specialists. You can go straight for the APRN careers, but I’m pretty sure you get a RN in there somewhere.