MTP Podcast Episode 14: Isaac Noble Deboison

Meet the PAs Podcast

Mr. Deboison is a physician assistant practicing family medicine in Ghana, in this episode, he gives an overview of the PA profession in Ghana and his personal experience as a member of a very busy practice. Ghana has had PAs since 1969 and has the fastest growing PA profession outside of the US and includes PA-medical, PA-dental and PA-anesthesia. Isaac and others in Ghana are able to practice to their full and independent scope, including prescriptive authority.

Isaac details a typical day in his family practice setting involving a very full patient load (much higher than the typical Canadian or American practice) and many acute presentations, both outpatient and inpatient, in a standard 8 hour shift. He works weekends too, sharing responsibility with physicians and PA colleagues.

Ghana is much further along in the advancement of the PA profession than Canada both in terms of scope of practice and government regulation, but it is not without its challenges. It is still a relatively unknown profession among the general public and low pay scale can inhibit further career advancement. It can be very challenging as there is little organizational support to garner increased salary.

Isaac depicts a future utopian medical system involving PAs across the globe supporting each other throughout different countries and offering reciprocity, allowing the PA certification to be valid in all countries that have practicing PAs. Here in Canada, we can relate to those wishes as many hope for reciprocity in the US as well.

Here is to the global future of a thriving PA community!