In Practice: Reflections from NPs and PAs

August 18th, 2016

The Caregiver Conundrum

Charity Maniates, MSPA, MPH, PA-C

My patient’s daughter, Jane, sits tensely on the edge of the wingback chair. Leaning forward slightly, her body, like a jack-in-the-box, stays seated, and she fires the question, “Do you really think my mother is ready to come home? Is this safe?” Rippling beneath her intense body language and direct questioning is a pervasive fear that […]

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November 25th, 2015

Looking and Finding

Harrison Reed, PA-C

Harrison Reed, PA-C, practices emergency medicine in Las Vegas, NV. I sat in the bulky padded chair and eyed the mechanical gadgetry around me. “What did you say this was for?” I tried to not sound confrontational, but there must be some deformity of my vocal cords that makes it hard. “It’s called a CT scanner,” the […]

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October 28th, 2015

Much Ado About a Fall

Charity Maniates, MSPA, MPH, PA-C

Charity Maniates, MSPA, MPH, PA-C practices geriatric medicine in Maine. At 3:00 AM the pager furiously buzzes on my bedside table, jolting me out of sleep. I grapple with my iPhone and call the nursing facility to address the emergency. The nurse brightly reports that a patient had a fall without injury — her third […]

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