Des Moines, Iowa — Iowa will no longer require experienced physician assistants, known as PAs, to work under the direct supervision of doctors to practice medicine.
PAs who are newly licensed, though, will have to have an agreement with a supervising doctor for two years before they may practice independently. Governor Kim Reynolds signed the bill making those changes into law yesterday (Wednesday).
Over half of the licensed PAs in Iowa today are working in rural communities. Representative Josh Turek of Council Bluffs says about 40 percent of the PAs who graduate in Iowa, though, leave to practice elsewhere.
The first class of PAs graduated from the University of Iowa in 1974. The PA program at Des Moines University has been operating for nearly four decades. In the past decade, St. Ambrose University in Davenport and the University of Dubuque started PA training programs. The PA program at Northwestern College in Orange City started in 2020.
