How to Celebrate PA Week

If you haven’t heard, PA week is coming up. Every year from October 6 – 12 we celebrate national PA week. It is a time to bring recognition to the PA profession and its contributions to health care. This year is a special one as we celebrate 50 years of the profession.

As PAs there are a variety of ways we can bring attention to this event and different ways that we can celebrate PA week. If you have not planned something to help bring recognition to the PA profession you still have some time to figure something out. Here are a few simple ideas you could do:

Your Employer

If the organization you work for does not do anything for PA week this is a great time to help promote the PA career. I work for a multi-specialty private practice and since I have worked here I don’t ever remember any mention of PA week or recognition of this.

I don’t think it has been done on purpose, just more of an oversight and leaders not being aware. This year I decided to see if there was something that could be done so I emailed the CEO and the marketing director to let them know, both acknowledged that it was a great idea to celebrate PA week as an organization.

For me it’s not about self-recognition, it’s about promoting the profession and PA week is a great opportunity to bring recognition to the profession. I feel like half of my patients are confused at what exactly a PA is and more education is needed. PA week is great way to help educate others about the PA profession.

Take Part or Organize a Local Community Event

If you don’t have a lot of support from your employer to help celebrate PA week you can work on organizing a community event such as fun run or health fair.

If you’re not employed by your local hospital you could reach out to them as well to see if they are doing anything or make them aware of PA week so that they can plan something.

These types of events usually take longer to prepare but you can always start thinking about doing something for next year as well.

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Social Media

We all have been in that situation where we’re talking to an old friend from high school and you tell them you’re a PA and they start talking about their cousin that is a dental assistant or medical assistant thinking that a Physician Assistant is something similar. There are a lot of people around us who can be educated on the PA profession.

It’s easy to educate those who we come in contact with; share a video on social media showing what a PA is.

Traditional Media

Don’t forget to reach out to your local media. There are many elderly people who don’t use social media that rely on traditional media such as the local newspaper to get their news; from my experience these are the patients that have the most questions and need education on who PAs are and what we do.

If your city has a local newspaper you can use resources from the AAPA to submit a press release or op-ed. It isn’t much work to submit an email to your local newspaper and it can reach a lot of people.

What’s Your Plan for PA Week

In celebration of PA week I’ll be posting on general PA topics during PA week instead of the regular PA-Cents topics to help bring light to the PA profession.

You still have some time to plan something. What will you do for PA week?

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