Point Loma Nazarene University’s inaugural class graduates 28 students.
By Paul Sisson / San Diego Union-Tribune / Dec. 18, 2023
They came to the stage one at a time, trailing parents, siblings, spouses and significant others who took white coats from a rack, holding them up as the graduates shrugged into them, getting a feel for a new level of responsibility in the medical world. And just like that, Point Loma Nazarene University minted its first 28 physician assistants Friday, injecting a fresh set of trained troops into an ongoing battle to keep up with the increased demands for health care caused by an aging population and an exodus of burnt-out medical providers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was the first graduating class of the university’s new physician assistant program and the first crop of locally trained PAs for any institution in San Diego County. But that will not be the case for long. UC San Diego has its own PA program underway and, in a few years, will be graduating its own groups of specialists in addition to the doctors its medical school has been producing annually since the 1960s.
The title physician assistant does not accurately describe the role they play in modern medicine. Though they’re called assistants, and work under the oversight of medical doctors, PAs wield a massive amount of medical authority. They can perform physicals, take health histories, order tests and even make diagnoses. But educating a physician assistant takes only about two and a half years compared to about eight for a medical doctor. Physician assistants, along with nurse practitioners, are seen as a key way to address the increasing demand for health care that has recently led to long waits for care and overflow into emergency departments.
In its most recent estimate, the American Association of Medical Colleges projects increasing physician shortages nationwide. A 2020 assessment predicts a shortage of between 21,400 and 55,200 primary care doctors by 2033. The shortfall is expected to be even more among specialists — 33,700 to 86,700 in the same timeframe.
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