THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF HEALTH CARE
In honor of National PA Week, meet three PAs educated and employed at UF Health
Only 54 years have passed since the nation’s first physician assistant program was started at Duke University, but the career has evolved and expanded to become the fifth fastest-growing profession in the nation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2018. Each day in hospitals, clinics and academic health care settings across the nation and beyond, PAs work on care teams with physicians and nurses to provide trusted, competent patient care.
The UF School of Physician Assistant Studies, which has been housed in the George T. Harrell, M.D., Medical Education Building since 2015, provides a systems-based, collaborative approach to medical education, coupling real-life clinical training with use of leading-edge simulation technology, ensuring students graduate with all the skills they need to work in the modern health care field.
Each year during Oct. 6-12, we celebrate National PA Week, which recognizes the commitment and talent of physician assistants across the nation. We’d like to introduce three PAs who were trained at the UF School of Physician Assistant Studies in the College of Medicine and remained on campus to provide quality patient care at UF Health Shands hospitals and outpatient practices.
Richard Davis, PA-C
For Rick Davis, PA ’82, 2019 marks 30 years working as a physician assistant at UF Health. He says UF Health is his home, a place where he collaborates with physicians and nurses across disciplines during work days filled with variety.
Davis, a PA in the UF College of Medicine division of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition, works in the UF Health Physicians gastroenterology outpatient practice for GatorCare and GatorAdvantage patients. He says his education at the UF School of Physician Assistant Studies not only provided him with a wide breadth of clinical and research experience during monthlong rotations across 13 or 14 specialties, but also taught him many important lessons he uses each day in his current career. He passes these teachings on to current UF PA students in his role as a clinical preceptor teaching Introduction to Gastroenterology.
“Continue to read and build your knowledge base,” Davis says. “Always be aware of what you don’t know. Don’t be shy to ask questions. We all share a scientific and medical curiosity. And don’t forget that each patient has a story. We used to say, 80% of diagnoses are made when taking a patient’s history. Try to achieve a balance so that you give your patients enough time to tell you about themselves.”
Anthony Musalo, PA-C
Shortly after graduating from the UF School of Physician Assistant Studies, Anthony Musalo, PA ’05, joined the UF Health team, where he worked in a multidisciplinary surgical ICU, the UF Health Shands Burn Center and as a member of the cardiac arrest Code Blue Team. Today he works nights in the UF Health Neuromedicine Hospital Neuro ICU Unit 46, and he’s found that his career at UF Health centers around the same kind of collaborative teamwork that characterized his education. Musalo says he was driven to embark on a career at UF Health because of the mentorship he received from Thomas J. Gallagher, M.D., former chief of the UF College of Medicine division of critical care medicine. As a PA, Musalo values the close relationships he develops with physicians and other members of the patient care team.
“The landscape of health care is changing. By design, we as physician assistants are part of a team with physicians. That aspect of teamwork is something I value and wanted to be a part of,” Musalo says. “There’s great respect and camaraderie among all members of a team who work together to provide care. It is only with the contributions of the entire team that we’re able to deliver the highest-quality care to our sickest patients.”
Caroli G. Harkness, PA-C, MPAS
Since starting her career as a critical care PA at UF Health in 2010, Caroli Harkness, PA ’10, has witnessed immense growth and evolution at every level. At both the newly constructed UF Health Heart & Vascular Hospital and the UF Health Neuromedicine Hospital, Harkness has helped develop new ICUs for patients across surgical critical care specialties. She recalls working on a team that grew from five to 40 advanced practice providers — encompassing PAs and nurse practitioners. Harkness credits her education at the UF School of Physician Assistant Studies with equipping her with all the skills she needed to work in “highly specialized, challenging and evolving fields within medicine.”
Harkness says working with Musalo in an ICU during her clinical year of training inspired her to become a critical care PA. This summer, Harkness got the opportunity to serve as a mentor herself to current PA students by instructing them in simulation and procedural lab settings.
“Anthony took me under his wing. Working with him as my mentor was a highlight of my clinical year and led me to my career,” Harkness says. “I’m glad I’ve been able to give back to the UF School of Physician Assistant Studies and pay it forward by teaching during the summer. It was nice to meet the students before their rotations, before they step into a challenging and intimidating ICU. Now, when they enter the ICU, they’ll see my familiar face.”
CELEBRATING PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT WEEK
PAs are medical professionals who diagnose illness, develop and manage treatment plans, prescribe medication and often serve as a patient’s principal health care provider. With thousands of hours of medical training, PAs are versatile and collaborative. PAs practice in every state and in every medical setting and specialty, improving health care access and quality.
PAs are educated at the master’s degree level in programs that are approximately three academic years in length, and include more than 2,000 hours of clinical rotations.
Their training as medical generalists provides PAs with diagnostic and treatment skills in all areas of medicine and for all patients, regardless of age or gender.
Did you know?
• UF currently has 120 PA students
• UF has 1,915 PA graduates
• There are 131,000 PAs practicing in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
