PA Week is October 6-12, 2015

Submitted by the UNMC PA Class of 2017

To celebrate Physician Assistant Week, October 6-12, 2015, here on the UNMC campus, the PA class of 2017 will participate in service events to spread influence across the local community. They’ll be serving dinner on October 8th at the Rainbow House, and on October 11th at the Ronald McDonald house.

Fifty years ago the PA profession was initiated by Eugene A. Stead Jr., MD, at Duke University, in order to help find an occupation for the paramedics returning from the Vietnam War. Today there are almost 200 accredited programs throughout the nation.

The occupation has grown further than even Dr. Stead could have imagined, branching into all facets of medicine. The responsibilities of the PA will continue to develop as the profession reaches further into the ever changing medical field.

So, if you visit your PA this week, give them a little extra thanks for the job they are doing, and think about how hard the Physician Assistants that came before them worked in order to bring the profession to where it is today. Here’s to 50 great years of PAs and 50 more to come!