Category: Barton News Page 5

For more than a decade, medical school debt has been increasing at an alarming rate. Debt has always been the albatross around medical students’ necks, but today’s young physicians have it worse than any generation in history. According to the American Medical Student Association, more than 86 percent of medical […]

It should come as no surprise that the United States military has provided a wide variety of opportunities for nurse practitioners and physician assistants. In fact, the Yale School of Medicine says that the PA profession was born of the desire to make use of the skills medics and corpsmen […]

In the United States, mandatory retirement (or, as it’s more derisively known, forced retirement) policies are illegal for the majority of professions, but there are a few exceptions. When a pilot hits age 65, for instance, he’s asked to hand over his wings. Federal law requires special agents to retire […]

So you’ve survived nurse practitioner school, passed your national board-certification exam, and — with your head barely above water — you’ve struck out into the job-hunting jungle. But where to begin? They don’t really prepare you for this in school. Never fear! Only a few years ago, I too was […]

Locum tenens work offers clinicians a way out of the petty squabbles, backstabbing, and Machiavellian machinations that color hospital politics. Yes, these things are present in practically every care facility, but the advantage of going locum is that you don’t have to care. Let the full-time doctors, nurses, and staff […]

For many healthcare professionals, the initial decision to join the industry doesn’t come from a single benefit so much as a combination of factors. Prestige, financial compensation, and the ability to truly help people are just three reasons a pre-med student might plan to enter the field, for instance. Flexibility […]

Shortages in rural health have long been a challenge for the healthcare profession — and one that has seen many proposed solutions over the years. Increasingly, nurse practitioners and physician assistants are answering the call. A Journal of Rural Health review shows that, overall, “PAs provide cost-efficient and supplemental medical […]

Congratulations! You’ve graduated as a nurse practitioner or physician assistant. Friends and family are proud, and they’ve applauded as you’ve stepped across the stage in a cap and gown. You’re ready to take on what’s next. You want to put your degree to good use, but you’re not sure where […]

I am apparently in the minority. According to the 2015 AAPA salary report, 51.7 percent of physician assistants work in an urban setting of more than 1 million people. Further, 12.4 percent work in an area where the closest town has a population of 20,000 people or less. I am […]

It isn’t always easy for patients to trust their doctors. We’ve heard that helping patients feel comfortable enough to open up about their lifestyle choices is a real challenge, especially now that tensions at the doctor’s office seem to have reached an all-time high. A 2015 study from Zocdoc confirms […]