Hunton Ryan W, Gifford Dalton C, Puckett Kasey K, Bruza-Augatis Mirela, Kozikowski Andrzej, Valentin Virginia L
Department of Physician Assistant Studies, University of Kentucky College of Health Sciences, Lexington, KY.
Division of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, Department of Radiology, University of Kentucky Healthcare, Lexington, KY.
Crit Care Explor. 2025 Mar 28;7(4):e1250. doi: 10.1097/CCE.0000000000001250. eCollection 2025 Apr 1.
Little is known about the size, trajectory, and practice characteristics of the physician assistant/associate (PA) workforce specializing in critical care. The demand for critical care service delivery is growing, and the supply of physician critical care specialists is not fully meeting this demand. The purpose of this research is to describe the characteristics of PAs in critical care medicine.
Descriptive cross-sectional analysis.
"PA Professional Profile" 2023 survey instrument from the National Commission on Certification for Physician Assistants.
PAs who have identified their role in critical care medicine.
Dataset regarding demographics, practice characteristics, income, and retention for the study population. Descriptive and bivariate statistics were used to compare findings of PAs practicing in critical care and PAs in all other disciplines.
By the end of 2023, 2561 PAs reported working in critical care (2.0% of PAs). Of these PAs, 1738 (67.9%) were under age 40 (mean, 37.5; sd, 9.3), and 1740 (67.9%) had 10 years or less as a board-certified PA (mean, 9.3; sd, 7.8). The average income was $137,793 (sd, $32,882). Geographically, there were more PAs in critical care in the Northeast (38.7%) and South (36.1%) compared with other regions in the United States, and 2493 PAs in critical care (97.7%) resided in urban settings. Additionally, 408 PAs (16.1%) in critical care reported completing a postgraduate training program, more prevalent than PAs in all other specialties (5.4%; p < 0.001). More PAs in critical care report symptoms of burnout (n = 944; 38.5%) than PAs in all other specialties.
Team-based and multidisciplinary health care is becoming standard in the ICU setting, and the role of PAs is growing in critical care. This follows a trend over the last 10 years of PAs increasingly working in inpatient acute care settings and completing postgraduate clinical training.
关于重症监护领域医师助理/副医师（PA）队伍的规模、发展轨迹和执业特点，人们了解甚少。对重症监护服务的需求在不断增长，而重症监护专科医师的供应未能完全满足这一需求。本研究的目的是描述重症监护医学领域PA的特点。
描述性横断面分析。
来自医师助理国家认证委员会的“PA职业概况”2023年调查问卷。
确定自己在重症监护医学中角色的PA。
关于研究人群的人口统计学、执业特点、收入和留用情况的数据集。使用描述性和双变量统计方法比较重症监护领域执业的PA与所有其他学科PA的研究结果。
截至2023年底，2561名PA报告从事重症监护工作（占PA总数的2.0%）。在这些PA中，1738名（67.9%）年龄在40岁以下（平均年龄37.5岁；标准差9.3岁），1740名（67.9%）获得委员会认证的PA工作年限为10年或更短（平均9.3年；标准差7.8年）。平均收入为137,793美元（标准差32,882美元）。在地理位置上，与美国其他地区相比，东北部（38.7%）和南部（36.1%）从事重症监护工作的PA更多，2493名从事重症监护工作的PA（97.7%）居住在城市地区。此外，408名重症监护领域的PA（16.1%）报告完成了研究生培训项目，这一比例高于所有其他专科的PA（5.4%；p<0.001）。与所有其他专科的PA相比，更多重症监护领域的PA报告有职业倦怠症状（n=944；38.5%）。
基于团队的多学科医疗保健正在成为重症监护病房的标准模式，PA在重症监护中的作用正在增强。这遵循了过去10年PA越来越多地在住院急性护理环境中工作并完成研究生临床培训的趋势。
