Physician associates: a potential solution to our workforce crisis.

It is well known the paediatric workforce is facing a crisis. In the most recent Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health workforce census, when asked to select the top three ‘service and workforce pressure or issue you feel poses a significant risk to your service to children, young people or their families’ 73% of respondents selected ‘Nursing, Alied Heathcare Professionals and other staff shortages’, and 81.8% selected ‘paediatric post vacancies and gaps’.1 Physician associates (PAs) could be considered part of the solution, having been successfully working within the USA workforce since the 1960s, spreading to many other areas of the world.2 The UK focus has been on …