Iowa already faces a shortage of primary care doctors and registered nurses. Now, a University of Iowa study finds there’s also a looming shortage of physician assistants, or P-As. Tom Gruca (GROO-kah), a U-I professor of marketing at the Tippie College of Business, says a recent survey found more than 870 P-As on duty in Iowa, but of those, 485 are at least 50 years old.
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There are four schools in Iowa training P-As, at: the University Des Moines University, the University of Dubuque and St. Ambrose University in Davenport. The study found Iowa’s P-A population is rising three to four-percent each year, but Gruca says those numbers will start to shift downward as more P-As near retirement age.
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In Iowa, P-As help to fill a gap created by a shortage of M-Ds and Gruca says P-As are especially vital in rural Iowa.
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About 30-percent of Iowa’s P-A workforce practices in rural areas, compared to 15-percent nationwide. Also, Gruca says a higher proportion of Iowa’s P-As practice in primary care, about 56-percent, compared to the nation as a whole at 30-percent.