AAPA's Annual Conference

It is nearly Memorial Day weekend, and that means time once again for the annual conference of the American Academy of Physician Assistants. This year our meeting is being held in San Antonio, Texas.

This conference offers an outstanding opportunity for PAs from around the country (and the world) to meet, network, reunite, and enjoy each other’s company, as well as to obtain a load of continuing education credits on cutting-edge topics from excellent presenters. It is also an opportunity to observe or participate in the governing process of the organization, join special interest caucus groups, and attend reunions of nearly every PA training program in the country.

PA attendance at the annual conference numbers in the thousands—usually five or six. It is amazingly empowering to be in one place with that many of your colleagues. Though our profession has grown steadily in the nearly forty years since its inception, it is still somewhat small when compared to nurses or physicians. The old question, “So, what IS a PA, exactly?” is one I don’t hear nearly as much these days as when I was a new graduate sixteen years ago; but it still comes up occasionally. For the next week in San Antonio, it is not a question that will be heard. Everybody there will know.

I’m excited to be going to San Antonio. It is my absolute favorite city in Texas, and I haven’t been there since 1989; I hope it hasn’t changed much (!). I leave Bethel tonight, overnight in Anchorage, and then fly to Texas tomorrow, arriving about 10 pm. It’s a long dang way to Texas from southwest Alaska!

From Texas I’ll head to Alabama for a week with the Triumvirate (mother, auntie, and grandmother). Gran’s health is not good at this point; she is 94, and recently had surgery from which she has not bounced back with her usual verve and alacrity. I very much hope this will not be my final visit with her, but that is distinctly possible. I’ll be back in Bethel on June 8^th; posts are likely to be scarce until then.

Happy Memorial Day to all…