Physician Associates in Paediatrics event resources - autumn 2021

Our day-long online event on 19 October 2021 brought together people interested in Physician Associates (PAs) – from those who are currently working as a PA or keen to explore the profession to those who work with PAs or employers seeing to recruit them. The programme included a typical day for a PA, upcoming GMC regulation for the profession and looking at the international context.

Physician Associates (PAs) are an integral part of a multidisciplinary team, working with dedicated doctors as part of the team and providing medical care. Given how stretched health services are and the immense pressures faced, PAs demonstrate their valuable contribution to the field by taking some of this load and providing patients, especially those with long term conditions, the continuity of care they need. Our Physicians Associates in Paediatrics page has resources such as video interviews and reports.

Following our successful ‘Paediatric workforce: Advanced Clinical Practitioners and Physician Associates’ learning and networking event in February 2020, and the focus day, 'Physician Associates in Paediatrics’ in October 2020, in which we introduced and discussed the current landscape of PAs in the UK and the future of the multidisciplinary child health workforce, we were pleased to host our third event dedicated to the PA profession in October 2021.

Submitting abstracts

We invited delegates to submit their abstracts on quality improvement projects, audits, guidelines, and protocol development projects which have been carried out by PAs or related to this field.

To submit an abstract, delegates were asked to email the Workforce Information team at workforce@rcpch.ac.uk

Programme

The October 2020 online event was positively received and saw over 220 registrations – with a mix of PAs, student PAs, paediatric consultants, nurses and ACPs in attendance. Attendees’ insights on the day and their feedback was paramount to continue discussions and devise this year’s programme.

This event in October 2021 included interesting talks and presentations, abstract presentations and quality improvement projects, as well as interactive workshops.

We included the full programme below:

Time	Topic	Speaker(s)	PDF materials (if available)
09:30 - 09:45	Welcome and introduction: Physician Associates in paediatrics	Dr Nicola Jay, RCPCH Officer for Workforce Planning and Health Services	Welcome and introduction: Physician Associates in paediatrics (PDF)
09:45 - 10:45	Policy and practice reasons, we need Physician Associates in paediatrics	Dr Simon Clark, RCPCH Vice President for Policy	Policy and practice reasons, we need Physician Associates in paediatrics (PDF)
	Preparing for regulation	Helen Arrowsmith, Programme Manager; General Medical Council	Preparing for regulation (PDF)
	PAs: Around the world in 10 minutes	Dr Tamara Ritsema, PhD, MPH, PA-C/R Associate Professor, George Washington University School of Medicine Senior Lecturer, St. George's, University of London	PAs: Around the world in 10 minutes (PDF)
10:45 - 11:00: Comfort Break
11:00 - 11:15	Physician Associates in neonatology	Dr Ngozi Edi-Osagie, Group Associate Medical Director, Chair, neonatal critical care CRG NHSE and Consultant Neonatologist	Physician Associates in neonatology (PDF)
11:15 - 11:30	The Alder Hey Paediatric Physician Associate Programme	Dr Natalie Daniels, Consultant Neurodevelopmental Paediatrician Designated Doctor for Safeguarding, Sefton CCG Trust Physician Associate Programme Clinical Lead, Alder Hey	The Alder Hey Paediatric Physician Associate Programme (PDF)
11:30 - 11:40	Building of a curriculum	Carolyn Charlton, RCPCH Curriculum Project Coordinator	Building of a curriculum (PDF)
11:40 - 11:50	Physician Associates affiliate membership and its benefits	Patrick Cullen, RCPCH Head of Membership	Physician Associates affiliate membership and its benefits (PDF)
11:50 - 11:55 Comfort Break
11:55 - 12:20	A day in the life of a Physician Associate...	Manisha Patel, PA in paediatric community	Manisha Patel (PDF),
		Giles Carey, PA in paediatric surgery	Giles Carey (PDF)
		Ellie Clarke, PA in paediatric endocrinology	Ellie Clarke (PDF)
		Nikita Patel, PA in surgery	Nikita Patel (PDF)
		Sana Waheed, PA in research (immunology, allergy)	(currently unavailable)
12:20 - 13:00	Quality Improvement projects: Abstract presentations...	Alisha Kotecha, Dina Bateman, Hannah Rowley, - PAs, Leicester Children’s Hospital, Leicester Royal Infirmary	Alisha Kotecha, Dina Bateman, Hannah Rowley (PDF)
		Grace Rimmer, - PA, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust	Grace Rimmer (PDF)
		Phoebe Musuka, Kalvin Lee. - PAs, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust	(currently unavailable)
		Hannah Tapping-Upton, Eleanor Adams - PA, Manchester University NHS Trust	Hannah Tapping-Upton and Eleanor Adams (PDF)
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch break
14:00 – 14:45	Interactive afternoon workshops Workshop Leads and facilitators; Dr Tamara Ritsema, Dr Alex Gillingham, Dr Nicola Jay, Nawsheen Boodhun, Davide Carzedda, Natascha Banziger, Sara Haveron
	Workshop 1: The added value of Physician Associates - to an organisation, and the support needed The added value of a PA in a team and measuring effectiveness Barriers and facilitators of integrating PAs into a team/area Career progression Dr Carol Ewing – RCPCH Ambassador Greater Manchester Dr Urmi Das – RCPCH Ambassador Cheshire and Merseyside Dr Clare Peckham – RCPCH Ambassador Lancashire and South Cumbria		Workshop 1: The added value of Physician Associates (PDF)
	Workshop 2: Development of leadership skills for Physician Associates What is leadership Knowledge of self Team leadership & effective team working
14:45 - 15:00 Comfort Break
15:00 – 15:45	Workshop 1: The added value of Physician Associates to an organisation, and the support needed Workshop 2: Development of leadership skills for Physician Associates(currently unavailable)
15:45 - 16:00	Summary	Dr Nicola Jay

Contributors

A huge thank you to everyone who participated in the event.

The project was led by Nawsheen Boodhun (Head of Workforce Information) and supported by Davide Carzedda (Data Analyst), Natascha Banziger (Project Officer) and collaboration with Dr Nicola Jay (Officer for Workforce Planning and Health Services) and Sara Haveron (Invited Reviews Project Manager).