National PA Week: Daniel Martin and Angela Urban, Department of Medicine

It's National Physician Assistant Week, and we're celebrating our dedicated physician assistants at LifeBridge Health by having them share their stories.

Being a Medical PA at Sinai Hospital
by Daniel Martin and Angela Urban, Sinai Hospital, Department of Medicine

For Physician Assistants at Sinai Hospital covering day/evening service, the constants of our daily routine are sign-in and sign-out (when we first become aware of new patients/and updated about current patient), and the gentle lead of a vibrating beeper. Our duties as medical PAs vary with the need of our patient population we serve. If there are no urgent/emergent needs at hand, we see and evaluate patients in the order of medical stability. Our daily goal is to facilitate medical management as prescribed by the attending physician and consulting staff, and to respond to the medical needs of our patient population when their attending physician is not readily available.

We try to have a systematic approach to each day. PAs often try to take care of any pending issues, such as a patient being discharged, obtaining a consent form, following up on lab work, etc. You never know exactly how busy the night will be. Due to the resident's other responsibilities, often 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. can be a very busy time. We can have anywhere from 2 to 6 admissions per night of varying diagnoses.

What is great about being a PA is the autonomy, variation of diagnoses, and the fact that you never know exactly what the day will bring. It keeps you on your toes. Many times during the week we'll go home thinking, “Hmm, I’m gonna have to read up on that.” We feel blessed to have jobs that are challenging on an academic and personal level.

Are you interested in working as a PA at LifeBridge Health? Click here to see our open positions.