Give Something Back

by Tom Gaughan, PA, President

I have mentioned to you all before that the reason I am “recycling” as President is that I personally felt an obligation to CAPA. I feel that our Academy has been there for us to watch over and guard our profession and our practice as no other group has or will. Therefore, I wanted to volunteer to help CAPA as a way of giving something back. Many of us feel the same way about our church or our community and choose to volunteer our time in that way. At this year’s Annual CAPA Conference I referenced this concept on each occasion that I addressed the attendees. I feel it is important in so many ways for us, especially as PAs, to find ways to contribute, to Pay it Forward (as the movie called it) or to give something back to the groups, the churches or communities that have helped us. Because I made a point of commenting on this subject several times during the weekend at the Conference, many individuals approached me and asked for my thoughts on what they might do. I have given some thought to this and have spoken with many members of our Board of Directors.

During the Conference, the newly formed PA Program Relations Committee and I held a meeting with California PA Program Directors and other faculty members. One of the goals that we have set for CAPA this year is to strengthen the ties between CAPA and the PA programs in California. We have mutual interests and will find many ways to work to support one another. However, one of the items that came up during our discus-sions was that the PA programs are in need of additional training sites. The programs need PAs to volunteer to serve as clinical precep-tors, and CAPA would like to help facilitate the creation of a list of PAs whose practices would like to support the education and training of PA students.

This would be an excellent way for us as PAs to give something back. The PA programs who provided us with the means to realize our goal to become physician assistants are asking for our help. Several of CAPA’s Board members, particularly Bob Miller and Miguel Medina, have volunteered for several years and at several programs to serve as speakers in their respective areas of expertise. My practice has served as a clinical rotation site in the past, and we found it to be a marvelous experience. Having a student around requires that we remain sharp. Students need practical experience and PA programs need clinics, hospitals and other settings in which the PA students can train.

If you think this is something that you would be interested in doing, here are some things to consider. Your physicians must agree to be involved in this, as the physician is ultimately responsible for the training. You must want to teach because that is the purpose of having a student in your office. The students quickly learn and adapt to your practice and will be an extra set of hands, but the emphasis has got to be on education. The PA Program Relations Committee is in the process of developing an outreach strategy to all CAPA members to identify those members interested in serving as a preceptor. A database of PAs who want to be involved in PA education will be created and made available to PA Programs, who in turn will have one of their representatives contact you and determine the suitability of your setting to serve as a training site. Each PA Program has its own set of guidelines that must be met and they will be solely respon-sible for making that determination. CAPA will serve strictly as a database. I encourage the entire CAPA membership to participate in this activity. This could be a fantastic way to give back to your PA program or just to our profession in general.

We are all part of this California PA Community and what better way for us to support our profession than to give our time to helping PA programs educate PA students. If the Programs need our help, then CAPA is willing to facilitate this in any way we can. So we are asking for your support. Feel free to contact the CAPA office and tell us of your interest. An official communication from the PA Program Relations Committee will be forthcoming. Whether you feel you have an expertise to serve as a speaker, or your facility and physician are willing to serve as a training site, just email or call the CAPA office. If you want to contact your school directly we would encourage you to do so. Let’s “Give Something Back” to those schools who gave us the tools to become PAs ourselves. Let’s support our own California PA Community.

If you would like to learn more, please contact Tom Gaughan, PA or
Janice Tramel, PA-C, MSHPE.