Northern Arizona University, Phoenix Biomedical Campus, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
National Commission On Certification of Physician Assistants, 12000 Findley Road Suite 100, Johns Creek, GA, 30097, USA.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2022 Sep 3;22(1):1117. doi: 10.1186/s12913-022-08479-0.
Retirement patterns for American physician assistants/associates (PAs) are in flux as the first substantial cadre trained in the 1970s makes their retirement choices. The growing and aging of the US population is increasing the demand for healthcare services. At the same time, provider retirement can decrease patient access to care, disrupt continuity of care and lead to poorer health outcomes. Knowing PA intentions to retire and the retirement patterns can be useful to health system employers and workforce policymakers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the retirement patterns of PAs within the United States. We investigated their characteristics, career roles, and intent to depart from clinical practice.
Drawing on the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) 2020 health workforce data (N = 105,699), the associations of demographics (age, gender, US region, and years certified), and practice attributes (specialty and practice setting) of clinically active PAs were assessed with intending to retire in the next five years. Analyses for this national cross-sectional study included descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and Fisher's Exact test, as appropriate. A p-value of 0.05 or less was considered statistically significant for all analyses where a comparison was made.
Overall, 5.8% of respondents indicated that they intend to retire within five years. We detected significant differences (all p < 0.001) on intentions to retire by age group, gender, US region, years certified, specialty, and practice setting. Respondents 70 years and older compared to those 60-69 were more likely (66.5% vs. 48.9%), males compared to females (8.8% vs. 4.4%), those who have been certified for more than 21 years compared to 11-20 years (25.6% vs. 4.0%), PAs practicing in family medicine compared to dermatology (7.7% vs. 3.4%) and those in the federal government practice setting compared to rural health clinic (13.6% vs. 9.8%) reported they were more likely to retire in the next five years.
Our study provides a comprehensive snapshot of PA retirement intentions using a robust national dataset. Among the most important factors associated with intent to retire in this study were older age and duration of PA career. Most PAs are remaining clinically active into their seventh decade-suggesting that they are integrated into medical systems that value them and they, in turn, value their role.
随着 20 世纪 70 年代培养的第一批大量医师助理（PA）退休，美国 PA 的退休模式正在发生变化。美国人口的增长和老龄化增加了对医疗服务的需求。与此同时，提供者退休可能会减少患者获得护理的机会，破坏护理的连续性，并导致更差的健康结果。了解 PA 的退休意向和退休模式对卫生系统雇主和劳动力政策制定者是有用的。本研究的目的是调查美国 PA 的退休模式。我们研究了他们的特征、职业角色以及离开临床实践的意图。
利用全国医师助理认证委员会（NCCPA）2020 年卫生人力数据（N=105699），评估了年龄、性别、美国地区和认证年限等人口统计学特征（年龄、性别、美国地区和认证年限）与临床活跃 PA 的实践属性（专业和实践地点）与未来五年内退休的意愿之间的关系。对这项全国性横断面研究的分析包括描述性统计、卡方检验和 Fisher 精确检验，适当情况下进行分析。所有比较均采用 p 值<0.05 作为统计学意义的标准。
总体而言，5.8%的受访者表示他们计划在五年内退休。我们发现，按年龄组、性别、美国地区、认证年限、专业和实践地点的不同，退休意愿存在显著差异（均 p<0.001）。70 岁及以上的受访者比 60-69 岁的受访者更有可能（66.5%比 48.9%），男性比女性（8.8%比 4.4%），认证年限超过 21 年的受访者比 11-20 年的受访者（25.6%比 4.0%），从事家庭医学的 PA 比从事皮肤科的 PA（7.7%比 3.4%）以及在联邦政府工作环境中工作的 PA 比在农村医疗诊所工作的 PA（13.6%比 9.8%）更有可能在未来五年内退休。
我们的研究使用强大的国家数据集全面描绘了 PA 的退休意向。在这项研究中，与退休意愿最相关的最重要因素是年龄较大和 PA 职业年限较长。大多数 PA 仍然活跃在他们的第七个十年-这表明他们融入了重视他们的医疗系统，而他们反过来也重视自己的角色。
