March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month - Surgery

Physician Assistants Aid UC Surgeons
According to the American College of Surgeons, many positions in
general surgery residency programs went unfilled in 2001 and 2002.
In addition, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical
Education (ACGME) announced that effective July 1, 2003, more
than 100,000 residents (including surgical residents) in the United
States will be limited to a maximum of 24 hours per shift and no more
than 80 hours per week.
In an effort to meet these resident work hour restrictions, the
Department of Surgery has begun to utilize Physician Assistants.
While PA's are not intended to replace residents, when a resident is
unavailable the service will be covered by PA's or other mid-level
providers. The PA's are intended to augment the resident staff to help
reduce their work-loads and allow them additional quality education
time. Michael Bowen, MA, RN, PA-C, has joined the Department to
manage and oversee the development of the PA program. Michael has
been a practicing PA for 25 years with extensive experience in
Graduate Medical Education and PA education, and serves on the PA
Policy Committee to the State Medical Board of Ohio.
Several institutions have demonstrated that surgical PA's provide
high-quality, cost-effective care as house officers. In addition to
assisting in surgery, the surgical PA frequently takes the admitting
history and performs the physical examination, writes orders, interprets
preoperative tests, educates the patient and obtains informed
consent, dictates the operative report, manages patient care on the
wards, handles discharge planning, and performs follow-up care.
There are 132 accredited physician assistant educational programs in
the United States, located at medical colleges and universities, teaching
hospitals, and the Armed Forces. All PA educational programs are
accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health
Education Programs (CAAHEP). Prior to admission, the typical PA
student has a bachelor's degree and 45 months of health care experience.
PA education typically is 111 weeks in length. PA students will
spend 400 hours in basic sciences, 70 hours in pharmacology, 150
hours in behavioral sciences, and 550 hours in clinical medicine. In
addition, the PA student will spend over 2000 hours on clinical rotations,
with emphasis on primary care in ambulatory clinics, physicians'
offices, and acute/long-term care facilities.
To practice, the PA must pass a national certification examination
developed jointly with the National Board of Medical Examiners and
administered by the National Commission on Certification of
Physician Assistants (NCCPA). Following a successful certifying
examination, the PA must obtain an individual license from the state
medical board or PA regulatory committee.
The Department of Surgery currently has five PA’s: Doug Knight,
Trauma; Joseph Konys, Cardiothoracic; Susan Hatfield, Burns;
Glenda Updyke, Transplant; and Michael Bowen. We anticipate
additional PA's for Trauma/Critical Care, Vascular, General Surgery,
Cardiothoracic, and Transplantation.
For additional information, please contact Michael Bowen at (513)-
558-1759; e-mail: Michael.Bowen@UC.EDU.
Left to right: Susan Hatfield, PA-C; Doug Knight, PA-C; Joseph Konys, PA-C; Michael Bowen, PA-C; and Glenda Updyke, PA-C.