Undoubtedly, the nature of the way a physician supervises a PA will change over time. An important aspect of PA education is clinical practice as part of a team. That is, students learn to carefully gauge the extent and limits of their medical expertise and to consult their supervising physicians when necessary. Because physicians and PAs train using similar curriculum, training sites, faculties, and facilities, they develop similarity in medical reasoning. PA education, like physician education, promotes the development of practical skills in clinical problem solving and decision making.
Protocols are rigid, never completely inclusive, and are soon outdated.
The goals of physician-PA teamwork, communication, and flexibility are better served by broad practice agreements. Such agreements allow the PA to exercise clinical judgement while consulting the supervising physician as necessary. The team practice model allows for rapid inclusion of new treatment modalities, individualized approaches to patient problems, and maximization of the supervising physician s ability to direct patient care in the clinical setting. Legal Considerations State laws allow the PA to have more than one supervising physician or to have one primary supervisor and a number of alternate supervisors. Alternate supervisors allow physicians the flexibility to entrust their supervisory responsibilities to physician colleagues.