The goal of PA training is to produce bedside clinicians in the primary care fields. Given that so much of what comes to the ED is not a true life threat PAs fit in well by helping to manage some of these patients. EM is one of the required rotations that PA students must complete in the second year in training. Internships and residencies are not required to practice. Post-graduate education in EM has had a varied course over the years with programs at Iowa and USC in the past, a couple of distance learning programs, and a true, residency model, program that has opened in the past year in Georgia.
Actual practice varies considerably.
I've about a dozen practice styles given that there are about 25 physicians in our group with different degrees of aggressiveness in approaching problems. Some of those physicians want to see and hear about every detail on every patient, and others recognize that I've been in practice for 10 years and have successfully managed thousands of cases. And, not all of them have been 'boo-boo' care. State law and regulation also plays a large part in the design and conduct of practice. I know that some in EM think that we are a threat to jobs.