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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Physician assistants

Prioritizing Primary Care: Twenty-first Annual Report to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Congress
Offers policy and program development recommendations to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Congress regarding primary care training and education. Reviews the historical development of accelerated pathway programs for clinicians, physician assistants, and dentists, and program outcomes. Explores challenges related to securing an adequate number of clinical training sites, as well as recommendations to address this shortage. Outlines recommendations to support the training of more primary care clinicians who practice in underserved communities.
Date: 12/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry
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The State of Rural Provider Compensation in 2023: Rural Provider & Advanced Practice Provider Compensation Survey Results
Results of a survey of over 6,000 rural providers, conducted in January and February of 2023 to provide insight into rural healthcare organizations and promote evidence-based, informed decisions when considering physician and advanced practice provider compensation. Features statistics with breakdowns by type of provider, specialty area, and Federal Office of Rural Health Policy region.
Date: 12/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: National Rural Health Association, Stroudwater Associates
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State of the Primary Care Workforce, 2023
Offers data on the current state and projected estimates of the future supply of physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants offering primary care. Includes demographics as well as current and projected shortages with comparison and metropolitan and nonmetropolitan projections. Discusses challenges impacting the workforce and the impact of primary care on population health. Includes state by state data on the primary care physician workforce.
Date: 11/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Center for Health Workforce Analysis
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Health is Primary: Charting a Path to Equity and Sustainability
Examines factors driving the downward trends in primary care, including fewer clinicians practicing primary care, fewer available appointments, lower spending on primary care, and fewer adults reporting that they have a usual source of primary care. Features a literature review, supply and demand analysis, and recommendations for potential solutions. Mentions rural throughout.
Additional links: Slide Presentation
Author(s): Alison Huffstetler, Ann Greiner, Anam Siddiqi, et al.
Date: 11/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Primary Care Collaborative, Robert Graham Center
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First-Ever Rural Physician and Advanced Practice Provider Compensation Survey
Recording of an October 11, 2023, webinar discussing results of a January 2023 survey of rural hospitals regarding physician and advanced-practice provider compensation. Presents results for primary care and specialty care providers by provider type, hospital system affiliation, and region. Highlights factors that influence compensation and nurse practitioner practice environments by state. Transcript available in the video description.
Additional links: Presentation Slides
Date: 10/2023
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organizations: National Rural Health Association, Stroudwater Associates
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Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry (ACTPCMD) Meeting Minutes, August 17, 2023
Summarizes the Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry (ACTPCMD) meeting held August 17, 2023. Features updates from the Bureau of Health Workforce on programs to address healthcare workforce shortages and Title VII funding opportunities planned for 2024, including the Primary Care Training and Enhancement (PCTE) - Physician Assistant Rural Training in Mental and Behavioral Health and the Rural Community Program Directors programs.
Additional links: Presentations
Date: 08/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry
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Health Workforce in Nevada: A Chartbook - 2023 Edition
Highlights current state and federal data on the supply and geographic distribution of physicians, nurses, and other healthcare workers providing direct patient care services, and administrative and non-clinical healthcare workers in Nevada.
Author(s): John Packham, Tabor Griswold, Nicole Mwalili, Amanda Brown, Laima Etchegoyhen
Date: 05/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine Office of Statewide Initiatives
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Factors Associated With Health Care Professionals' Choice to Practice in Rural Minnesota
Analyzes the factors that impact a healthcare practitioner's choice to work in rural or urban Minnesota. Utilizes 2021-2022 data from 32,086 respondents to observe feedback from advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), physicians, physician assistants (PAs), and registered nurses (RNs). Discusses issues such as where the practitioner grew up, scope of practice, loan forgiveness opportunities, internship experiences, financial or family considerations, and more.
Author(s): Teri Fritsma, Carrie Henning-Smith, Jacqueline L. Gauer, et al.
Citation: JAMA Network Open, 6(5)
Date: 05/2023
Type: Document
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The Health of US Primary Care: A Baseline Scorecard Tracking Support for High-Quality Primary Care
Examines the support for implementing high-quality primary care in the United States across measures in five categories: financing, workforce, access, training, and research. Presents data on primary care financing trends from 2010 to 2020, the number of primary care physicians per capita in medically-underserved areas (MUAs) and non-MUAs by state, trends in financing primary care research, and more. Figure 7 shows the percentage of physician residents trained in an MUA or rural county by state in 2020. Appendix B includes data on the number and percentage of physician residents trained in an MUA, rural county, or both between the 2012-2013 academic year and the 2020-2021 academic year.
Additional links: Appendix B, Full Report
Date: 02/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Milbank Memorial Fund, Robert Graham Center, The Physicians Foundation
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Provision of Evaluation and Management Visits by Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants in the USA from 2013 to 2019: Cross-sectional Time Series Study
Evaluated healthcare visits of Medicare patients between 2013 and 2019 to determine trends in proportion of visits by a nurse practitioner or physician assistant versus a physician. Includes analyses of clinical setting, diagnosis, and various patient characteristics including rurality. Discusses workforce shortage impacts on the findings.
Author(s): Sadiq Y. Patel, David Auerbach, Haiden A. Huskamp, et al.
Citation: BMJ, 382, e073933
Date: 2023
Type: Document
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