National Physician Assistant Day

Canada Needs Physician Assistants!

On November 27 Canada celebrates National Physician Assistant Day, which recognizes the physician assistant (PA) profession and its contributions to health care in Canada.

Working alongside physicians and other health professionals, PAs are having a positive impact on many aspects of health care from emergency room wait times, access to primary care, the quality of seniors care and access to health care in rural communities.

Help Us Celebrate National PA Day!

The resources below are available to help us celebrate the accomplishments of PAs and raise awareness about this vital profession.

Key Messages

Key messages to help you communicate the importance and value of PAs.

Or you can share this handout (PAs-Canada’s Untapped Health Care Resource) in print or electronically.

Videos

CAPA

An overview of the PA profession and the value these highly trained health professionals can bring to the Canadian health care system (find this video on YouTube).

McMaster Physician Assistant Student Association (MPASA)

The MPASA created this new video – Common Misconceptions About the PA Profession – to help demystify the PA profession and answer commonly heard questions.

Special thanks to Ryan Runciman, one of the Student Affairs Representatives for the Class of 2020, and the team who created this video. It can be viewed here on YouTube.

Ask Your Workplace To Celebrate

Hospitals, family health teams, health authorities and other organizations all have communications teams that may help celebrate PAs. Below is a short email template to help you get started, if you’d like to ask your workplace to mark PA Day.

Dear__,

My name is _ and I’m a PA in _.

Later this month, on November 27, we’re celebrating National Physician Assistant Day in Canada.

I’m hoping that <name of org> might consider acknowledging our exceptional PA team with a special message for our 2020 PA Day. PAs are working closely with physicians across our organization, most notably in <example of department(s)>, to help improve patient care.

We hope that <name of org> will celebrate by participating on social media, posting a notice on our website and intranet, sharing the news with employees, or through any other communication platform we use. Our hashtag is #CanadaNeedsPAs and to tag us in any posts, you can find us at the links below.