Government Relations, Staffing Rise to the Top at Board Retreat

By Steven Lane

PAEA President Justine Strand converses with AAPA Past President Gregor Bennett at the joint AAPA/PAEA board meeting.

In its first face-to-face meeting of 2009, held last month in Alexandria, Virginia, the PAEA Board of Directors provisionally approved funding for three new PAEA staff positions, including a lobbyist position; established a new workgroup to review international activities; approved a new investment policy; and spent a productive half-day meeting with the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) Board of Directors. The board reviewed progress on several important issues facing the Association, including the preceptor shortage, the clinical doctorate summit, communications, and global PA education. The three-day meeting also included a facilitated daylong retreat designed to help orient new board members and to enhance trust, clarify roles, and build good working relationships among the board and staff.

Moving Forward on Government Relations
Among the positions approved by the board, the lobbyist position will likely be filled first and may begin as a part-time position, moving towards full-time in the future. A number of possible models are being investigated, including collaboration with the AAPA. The AAPA has a well-developed government affairs department and has represented the interests of PA programs for many years, first under contract and more recently on a less formal basis.

The lobbyist position was approved following a presentation by Federal Affairs Workgroup Chair David Asprey, who reported to the board on the workgroup’s surveys and other activities over the past two years and recommended that the Association move toward hiring its own lobbyist: “Based on our research, the workgroup felt that hiring a dedicated lobbyist, who can represent the interests of PA programs and PAEA on Capitol Hill, should be a priority for the Association. We certainly expect to continue working closely with the Academy, which has represented us wonderfully over the years, on many issues during this exciting time in health care policy.”

The PAEA board felt that the proposed schedule for hiring a lobbyist should be accelerated, given the unprecedented opportunity for health care reform presented by the new administration. “The board felt the next few months will likely be a time of unprecedented opportunity for health care reform,” said President Justine Strand. “We want to seize that opportunity and be part of steering that reform.”

Government relations and advocacy, one of the core areas of the Association’s strategic plan, has been an area of rapid growth in recent months. In January, the board approved a set of health reform principles to be sent to the Department of Health and Human Services. (This can be viewed here http://www.paeaonline.org/Networker/0209Networker/0209Strand.htm in Justine Strand’s article on PAs and health care reform.) And on February 25, more than 80 people registered for a Webinar on health care reform presented by Asprey and AAPA Director of Federal Affairs Sandra Harding.

Following a recommendation from the workgroup, the board approved renaming the Association’s Federal Affairs Workgroup the Government Relations Council, to reflect its broader mission of working also at the state and local levels.

Doctorate Summit, Preceptors, and Other Issues
Other items on the board’s agenda included the Association’s role in the global development of PA education, efforts to tackle the preceptor shortage, the effects of the declining economy, and review of a communications audit recently completed by a public relations firm.

            The preceptor shortage facing many PA programs continues to be a high priority for the Association, and plans are well advanced for giving the issue high visibility at the AAPA Annual Conference in San Diego this May. PAEA will again have a booth in the exhibit hall, and two education sessions will be held to help recruit and train preceptors and to discuss general workforce issues.

On the global development of PA education, the board reviewed the Association’s relationship with the International Forum for Physician Assistant Education and determined that the Association should not continue to provide formal staff or financial support to this group, but rather maintain an informal working relationship with the group as PA education continues to spread around the world. The board established a small workgroup to review the missions of a variety of international health and education organizations and make recommendations on those with which the Association should pursue relationships.

The board also heard a report from PR Solutions, the D.C.-based public relations firm that recently conducted a communications audit for PAEA. Among the report’s recommendations are expansion of PAEA’s public policy work, continuing enhancement of the Web site and Web-based community-building tools, and more outreach to PA and mainstream media.

Other actions taken by the board were:

• Approval of a special interest group devoted to problem-based learning
• Charging board and staff members to review the Association’s liaison relationships
• Approval of New Orleans as the site of the 2011 PAEA Annual Education Forum, pending final staff review of hotel contracts and other logistical details.