PAs Go Beyond

PA and medical students at Florida State University are providing care to unsheltered individuals through the Homeless Outreach Medicine & Education (HOME) Street Medicine Program. Assistant Professor and PA Allison Justice and PA student and HOME president, Samantha Mankus, talk about how they connect with patients who have made their homes in the deep woods, and how this program benefits everyone involved.

In 1998, eight-year-old Olivia Bell had open-heart surgery to patch a hole between the top two chambers of her heart. In November of this year, Bell commemorated the 25th anniversary of that surgery by running the New York City Marathon for The Children’s Heart Foundation.

PAs who choose to practice in family medicine will learn a broad range of skills and have the opportunity to build lasting relationships with their patients. Read about a day in the life of PA Joseph Carter, who has practiced in family medicine for four years, and consider signing up for AAPA’s We Are Family (Medicine) Conference in January.

PAs Jeff Anderson and Siobhan Kent are all too familiar with the issues rural communities face when finding healthcare. Through their work with Homeward Health, they are helping bridge the gap by offering alternative healthcare options to the community.

PA Christopher Dietrich works with patients at Orion Behavioral Health Network, a private practice that offers comprehensive psychiatric services, and Banyan Alaska, a substance use disorder treatment facility, to provide much needed care to veterans in Alaska.

PA Teresa Lowe grew up in Mountain Village, Alaska, a rural community where about 97% of the population is Alaska Native or American Indian. Today, as the Anchorage campus coordinator for the MEDEX Northwest PA Program, Lowe aims to help future PAs provide more compassionate care for these populations.

For many women, the pervasiveness of breast cancer continues to invoke a sense of fear and anxiety. But Adriana Posadas, a PA at the Women’s Center of Winchester, is helping to alleviate some of those fears among her patients.