National Public Radio’s health policy correspondent, Julie Rovner, produced a three-part series in which one segment was focused on the PA profession. The series, entitled “Primary Care Under Pressure,” ran during NPR’s high-profile “All Things Considered” program from August 25-27. One segment profiled PA Jim Love, who works in rural Pittsfield, Maine. Rovner specifically focused on how PAs in rural locations may be the only health care professionals in the region.

AAPA worked with Rovner over the two-month period she gathered information and interviewed individuals for the series. She chose a rural Maine community to show how the new health care environment and the growing shortage of primary care providers affects those with limited access to care. The Academy, with input from PAs in the state, suggested she interview Love and provided her background material on the profession and its increasingly important role in filling the primary care need.

It didn’t hurt to have a bit of luck as well, as when Love’s supervising physician – who works approximately 25 miles away – showed up at the clinic the same day Rovner was there and spoke glowingly about the profession in general, and Jim Love in particular.