The Association: Our Time Is Now

By Paul Lombardo, MPS, RPA-C
Past President, APAP

Over the past several years APAP has participated in or initiated a number of important changes that have improved the organization’s capacity to respond to both member needs and the demands of the external environment. One has only to consider the proliferation of PA programs, the ongoing transition to graduate-level education, and the successful development of the Central Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA) to see our organization’s capacity to successfully negotiate change. In our time, the most significant change may well be the move to an independently managed organization that is fully accountable for its operations and fully responsible for forging its own destiny.

What is irrefutable is that change is upon us and that we must embrace it if we are to survive and prosper. Each successive Association board has attempted to manage change with due diligence for the initiatives it has undertaken. As a result, our membership has benefited and our cachet in the world of professional organizations and health care education is at the highest level in recent memory. That our members have embraced and benefited from these changes is reflected in the recent adoption of a new mission statement, organizational goals, and governance procedures. Like many others, I am convinced that substantive membership support for the majority of board and committee recommendations is a good indicator that the Association is proceeding in the right direction and for the right reasons.

Of course, the Association and its members recognize that many important challenges and opportunities will present themselves in the near future — some known, some yet to develop. These will require us to be even more thoughtful and innovative than we have been in the past, if we are to continue to prosper. Consider the following:

• Our organizational focus is, and should be, providing the highest quality student education as a vehicle for improving the patient care extended by PAs. The expression of this focus is inextricably tied to both the written and visual representations of who and what we are as an organization and as PA educators. An organizational name, logo, and tagline that are clearly reflective of the Association’s role in education are critical to achieving this goal. To optimize our capacity as an Association, the board and the Transition Task Force (TTF) have retained a marketing and design firm to help us explore issues related to our identity. Prior to the upcoming Education Forum in Puerto Rico we will endeavor to clarify any questions related to the rationale for these proposed changes (as noted in previous APAP communications), as well as the details of a proposed name, logo, and tagline. During the Education Forum members will have the opportunity to debate and vote on the proposed branding package. Your thoughtfulness and diligence in considering this matter will help to ensure that we all move forward, together, as proposed change is discussed. Your decision will likely affect our operation for years to come.

• One of the developments of which the Association and PA faculty can be most proud is the globalization of the PA educational process. The changes in process and pedagogy that PA educators pioneered in medical education are being increasingly acknowledged and applauded. If it is true that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then we all have reason to be very proud. However, this greater visibility will require APAP to consider whether or not the Association should maintain its role as a national organization or expand its membership to include international PA programs.

• APAP’s expanding role in external relations, including those with other PA organizations, will necessitate changes in the way we currently configure both board and staff responsibilities, not to mention the numbers of people. Association board and staff members are appropriately being held ever more accountable for their activities and decisions and for providing the resources needed to ensure that the Association is responsive to internal and external concerns.

• Issues such as data management, response to policy inquiries, and external organizational appointments are just some of the other overlapping interests of the Academy and Association on which both organizations will need to work together to achieve our common goals of promoting the profession and improving patient care. Can anyone who has reviewed the new Standards seriously doubt the importance of self-study, program evaluation, and outcomes, as well as the need to provide new membership services to help programs better respond to the expectations of the national accrediting body? And finally, issues of ethical comportment in PA programs and the profession being raised by the NCCPA will undoubtedly require new thinking along preventive and disciplinary lines to ensure that all parties clearly understand what is expected and the risks of noncompliance.

Fortunately those who have held and aspired to leadership and staff positions in the Association have always shown a willingness to embrace change and to adopt a better mousetrap when necessary. Once again the time has come to demonstrate our willingness to critically examine what we do and show the mettle that has served us so well in the past. Getting to where we want to be has not always been easy, but it has always been something we have aspired to do together. Ultimately that journey has been one that has solidified our professional relationships, strengthened our Association, and reinforced why we are so passionate about being both physician assistants and educators. May it always be so.