Training the Physician Assistant in the Netherlands

The concept of the physician assistant (PA) in the United States has served as a model for other countries in providing one solution for the challenges in their health care systems. In the Netherlands there is a growing shortage of adequately trained health care workers, an increasing demand for medical services, a growing political pressure to contain the costs of health care, a shift from hospital care to outpatient care and from curative care to preventive care, and an increased demand to apply emerging biomedical technologies in health care. The concept of "demand-driven care" - a concept that empowers the patient in the coordination and organization of health care - plays a key role in the modernization of the Dutch health care system and forms an instrument to liberalize public activities. The need to meet these challenges has made it necessary to develop curricula for new types of health care professionals in the Netherlands, and to identify professional core competencies, relevant for physicians and PAs.