Nurses, assistants fill gaps in doctors’ ranks

Akron Beacon Journal

AKRON

When the medical staff executive committee helps chart the future of Akron Children’s Hospital, nurse practitioners sit side by side with doctors as peers.

As the hospital’s pediatric neurosurgeon finishes a complex brain operation, he usually steps back and lets a physician assistant close the child’s head.

And if a cancer patient has a problem in the middle of the night, an advanced-practice nurse or physician assistant often provides the care.

The pediatric hospital increasingly is relying on nurse practitioners and physician assistants to deliver high-level care to its young patients.

Hospitals nationwide are turning to these advanced-practice professionals to care for patients for a number of reasons, industry experts say.

Among the factors contributing to this trend: An anticipated shortage of primary-care doctors, reductions in hours residents can work, and an expected increase in demand for medical services by aging baby boomers as well as people who will be newly insured through health-care reform.

“They’re coming into the spotlight,” said Julie Tsirambidis, a certified nurse practitioner and director of the Advanced Practice Center at Akron Children’s Hospital.

Tsirambidis also is a voting member of the hospital’s medical-staff executive committee, which traditionally included doctors who chair departments.

The hospital created the Advanced Practice Center in recent years to oversee recruitment, orientation, professional development and retention of advanced practitioners, who include physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, nurse anesthetists and clinical nurse specialists.

The hospital employs 164 advanced practitioners and is actively recruiting 24 more.

Nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) earn at least a master’s degree from an accredited program. Both are in strong demand and can command healthy salaries.

Forbes magazine recently named physician-assistant programs the No. 1 master’s degree for getting a job, citing an expected growth of 39 percent by 2018.

The average yearly total compensation for NPs nationwide is $94,050, according to the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Likewise, physician assistants earn an average base salary of more than $87,000 and more than $89,000 for those who are hospital-based, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. After 10 years in practice, the median salary is $100,000, according to the American Academy of Physician Assistants.

“The supply does not meet the demand,” said Josanne Pagel, executive director of Physician Assistant Services at the Cleveland Clinic. The hospital is offering tuition forgiveness to help attract PAs.

The health system now has more than 40 openings posted for PAs and advanced-practice nurses and expects to hire at least 45 more next year.

The Cleveland Clinic Health System says it is Ohio’s largest employer of physician assistants, with about 325 on staff throughout the system. The hospital system also employs about 800 advanced- practice nurses.