title: Parents' willingness to have their child receive care by physician assistants in a pediatric emergency department.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the willingness of parents of children visiting a pediatric emergency department to have a physician assistant (PA) assess and treat their child and the waiting time reduction sufficient for them to choose to receive treatment by a PA rather than wait for a physician.
  
  
  METHODS
  After describing the training and scope of practice of PAs, we asked caregivers of children triaged as urgent to nonurgent if they would be willing to have their child assessed and treated by a PA on that visit: definitely, maybe, or never. We also asked the minimum amount of waiting time reduction they would want to see before choosing to receive treatment by a PA rather than wait for a physician.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We approached 320 eligible subjects, and 273 (85.3%) consented to participate. Regarding whether they would be willing to have their child receive treatment by a PA, 140 (51.3%) respondents answered definitely, 107 (39.2%) said maybe, and 26 (9.2%) said never. Most respondents (64.1%) would choose to have their child seen by a PA instead of waiting for a physician if the waiting time reduction were at least 60 minutes (median 60 minutes [interquartile range 60 minutes]). Respondents' perception of the severity of their child's condition was associated with unwillingness to receive treatment by a PA, whereas child's age, presenting complaint, and actual waiting time were not.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Only a small minority of parents of children visiting a pediatric emergency department for urgent to nonurgent issues are unwilling to have their child treated by PAs.
authors.forename: Quynh
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Doan
authors.forename: Sam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sheps
authors.forename: Hubert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Singer
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Niranjan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kissoon
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010823:Physician Assistants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult