What are physician assistants and how could they ease P.E.I.'s health-care crisis?
CBC
Two P.E.I. political parties are looking to physician assistants to help solve the province's health-care crisis.
The Progressive Conservative and Green parties have included the advanced practice health-care practitioners as part of their election platforms.
Physician assistants are already licensed to work in several other provinces.
They're trained to work with doctors in a variety of settings — like clinics, family practices, emergency departments and operating rooms.
Erin Sephton, the P.E.I. chapter president of the Canadian Association of Physician Assistants, said PAs take some of the workload from doctors, which ultimately improves access to care for patients.
"Physician assistants are able to see patients with a variety of different acuity levels. So from very, very sick to 'I have a cough or cold' versus 'I need stitches,'" she said.
"We are able to see patients independently. We review with our physicians or surgeons to kind of come up with a plan, but we're enabling the physicians to see more acute and more complex patients, while we can see everything else."
But there's a catch.
With the whole country in a healthcare crisis, physician assistants are in high demand.
Sephton recently moved to Nova Scotia, the latest province to start using them. She now works in orthopedics there.
"In terms of overall patient care and continuity of care, there's definitely been an improvement with the addition of physician assistants," she said.
"If our surgeon is in the operating room, you can still get a hold of the PA to deal with an acute issue on the floor or in the community. So that's definitely adding a big impact."
There are only three universities in Canada that offer the two-year graduate level training program: two in Ontario and one in Manitoba.
And while about 70 people graduate from the programs every year, there are many more job postings advertised.
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.