As part of the recent 38th Annual Nebraska Academy of Physician Assistants Spring CME Conference held in Kearney, PA Program faculty were instructors in the Rural Emergency Skills Workshops along with other UNMC faculty. Tami Ritsema, PA-C, Dr. Mike Wadman, Dr. Wes Zeger, Carol Lomneth, PhD., Sarah Keim, PhD., Stephane VanderMeulen, PA-C, and Darwin Brown, PA-C were the instructors and coordinators for the workshops. Skills covered included placement of chest tubes, difficult airways, and lumbar punctures. The workshop utilized lightly embalmed cadavers to provide participants with hands-on experience in performing these skill sets. Video news story

Patty Scholting, MPAS, PA-C, Instructor in the PA Program, was in Washington, DC, last week for meetings with the Government Relations Committee of the Physician Assistant Education Association. Among the agenda topics was exploring barriers for PAs seeking to work in primary care. The committee is working with government officials to create more opportunities for PAs in primary care, such as supporting federal grants to PA programs that educate PAs for primary care needs, continued funding for the National Health Service Corps scholarships to help offset the expense of PA education, and promoting models of physician-PA teams that provide efficient, high quality care in primary care. A highlight of the meetings was the opportunity to meet with legislative aides in Senator Deb Fischer’s office (Senator Fischer  was involved in the confirmation hearings for Chuck Hagel at the time). Patty sought Senator Fischer’s support to move forward on increasing the utilization of PAs in primary care for the state and received a positive response.