Advanced Trauma Life Support Cards for PAs

Starting in October 2008, PAs will receive cards for completing the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course offered by the American College of Surgeons (ACS). Between now and this fall, ACS will work to restructure the rules, design the cards, and inform ATLS course managers of the new policy. Until then, PAs will continue to receive letters indicating that they have attended the course. AAPA liaisons to the ACS have worked for many years to achieve this goal. Dan Vetrosky, PA-C, M.Ed., current Academy liaison to ACS, congratulated all those whose past efforts contributed to this achievement.
 
Frances

From what we get we can make a living; however, what we give makes a life.-Arthur Ashe

Frances P. Placide, PA-C, MMS
CDR, USPHS
National PA Chief Clinical Consultant, IHS
Cherokee Indian Hospital
Cherokee NC 28719
828-497-9163 ext 6499 (W)
828-497-5343 (F)
828-506-1086 (C)
frances.placide@cherokeehospital.org New work email address!

The Rasmuson Foundation and Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason

Working together to bring clinical research trials to Alaskans.                                                                                                                                                                                 
The Rasmuson Foundation and the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason are joining together to enhance medical research opportunities in Alaska. To date, Alaskans have had limited access to cutting-edge medical research. Recently, the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason received a grant from the Rasmuson Foundation that will increase opportunities for Alaskan patients to participate in clinical research trials, making the latest therapeutic options available to them. This work will supplement the good work of the individual providers and agencies already serving patients in Alaska.

Research Trials Available.

Have you or a family member expressed an interest in participating in a clinical research trial in Seattle? If so, a grant provided by the Rasmuson Foundation will cover all travel expenses for Alaskan patients until the grant expires in 2010.  To find out if you’re eligible for clinical research trials in the following areas:  

• Cancer (breast, pancreatic, prostate and others)
• Cardiology
• Diabetes
• Gastroenterology (Crohn's, ulcerative colitis)
• Neurology (multiple sclerosis, brain tumors)
• Rheumatology (Arthritis)
• Urology (prostate, kidney)
• Others

Please visit the Benaroya Research Institute web site at www.benaroyaresearch.org
or call 1-877-248-4802 (toll free).

For Immediate Release
March 31, 2008

Contact: Nancy Hughes, 703/836-2272, ext. 3505
                nancyh@aapa.org
        David Ashner, 703/836-2272, ext. 3513
                dashner@aapa.org

Alaska Physician Assistant Honored with National
PA Service to the Underserved Award

(Alexandria, VA) — The American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) will award the 2008 Physician Assistant Service to the Underserved Award posthumously to Jessica Stevens, PA-C, from Talkeetna, Alaska. Stevens served a community of approximately 4,500 residents, the majority of whom are uninsured and spread out in a region of rural Alaska that is larger than Maryland and Delaware combined. The award will be presented to her husband, Robert Ambrose, on May 23 in San Antonio at AAPA’s 36th Annual Physician Assistant Conference.

The Physician Assistant Service to the Underserved Award honors a physician assistant (PA) who has provided accessible, quality health care to the underserved in a rural community or an inner-city setting of the United States.

Stevens, who was British by birth and fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and French, traveled far and wide before settling down in Alaska. In the early 1980s, she visited Panama, Mexico, and Nicaragua to provide volunteer health care. After those lay health care experiences, she began her nursing education in England and moved to California to enroll in the Stanford University Primary Care Associate Program, where she graduated as a physician assistant in 1989.

After practicing as a PA at a community clinic in San Francisco, Stevens moved to Seward, Alaska with her husband and young son in 1991, and then to Talkeetna in 1993 to work at the Sunshine Clinic. In the beginning, she had only a part-time receptionist, in a community that had no other health care option. The clinic had no lab, no x-ray machines, no dental services, no substance abuse counseling, no behavioral health resources, and no family advocacy services. The nearest hospital was more than 70 miles away, a distance made even greater by harsh Alaskan winters. Her supervising physician, Barbara J. Doty, M.D., was based at that hospital and could visit the Sunshine Clinic only once per month. Stevens was on-call 24 hours a day for several years without significant breaks.

Over the next several years, Stevens coordinated with various government agencies, secured grants, and recruited health care professionals in a massive effort to improve the quality and scope of care provided at the Sunshine Clinic. The small building that housed the clinic did not grow along with the staff, who “literally tripped over each other in their effort to provide client services,” according to Doty. With a mostly uninsured patient population, finding the funds to expand the clinic was a daunting task.

In 1999, Stevens and her husband helped Sunshine Clinic secure Community Health Center status from the federal government. Federal funding helped Stevens expand the clinic, which by that time included a lab, mental health services, early childhood education, and dental services. In 2003, Sunshine opened its first permanent satellite clinic in Willow, Alaska, about forty-five miles south of Talkeetna. After a successful capital campaign that raised $5 million, Sunshine opened the doors of its brand-new, 12,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility in January 2004.

In just over a decade, Stevens had taken a clinic with a staff of two people working out of a small converted house and turned it into a federally-qualified community health center with a staff of 40 health care professionals, including a full-time physician and dentist, servicing the communities with two clinics., As her colleague Keith Kehoe, PA-C, put it, “These clinics provide the multitude of high quality, affordable health care services Jess fought so hard to obtain.” The clinic now offers digital x-rays, behavioral health services, drug and alcohol abuse services, and domestic violence counseling.

Stevens was killed in a car accident while driving home after a day of work at the satellite clinic in June last year. Her legacy lives on at Sunshine Community Health Center, and also through the work of the recently established Jessica Stevens Community Foundation (JSCF). JSCF distributes grants to the seven local communities served through Stevens’ efforts, with a mission “to build community assets for the development of health communities in the northern Susitna Valley.

In recognition of her achievements, Jessica’s husband Robert will be presented a crystal PAragon Award and a check for $2,500. The AAPA PA Service to the Underserved Award is made possible with the support of Pfizer Inc.

Physician assistants are licensed health professionals who practice medicine as members of a team with their supervising physicians. PAs deliver a broad range of medical and surgical services to diverse populations in rural and urban settings. As part of their comprehensive responsibilities, PAs conduct physical exams, diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret tests, counsel on preventive health care, assist in surgery, and prescribe medications.

AAPA is the only national organization to represent physician assistants in all medical and surgical specialties and work settings in the United States and federal services. Founded in 1968, the Academy works to promote quality, cost-effective health care, and the professional and personal growth of PAs. For more information about the Academy and the PA profession, visit the AAPA’s Web site at www.aapa.org.