Thank you Paul. Emergency Medicine is defined by the AAPA to include urgent care facilities. Growth of the profession has been very rapid in the last decade. When I graduated in 1990 there were only 44 programs with enrollments around 20 to 30 per class. Now however, the number of programs is nearly 130.
PAs train in a medical model.
I was taught to approach a problem in the same manner that you were. 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.