Helen Salisbury: Training in the medical model

There’s been much discussion in the press and on social media about the role of physician associates and anaesthetic associates.123 Who exactly are they, and how are they trained? The Department of Health and Social Care says that they’re “trained in the medical model”—but what does this actually mean?4 Among many possible meanings, an early paper on physician associates from 2005 defines it as “the flexible application of knowledge and skills to needs of the individual patient rather than working to predetermined protocols.”5The medical model I know is the one I experienced and have also taught. It involves learning a lot of basic science (anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, pathology, and more) and then understanding how these subjects relate to symptoms in patients and how we can investigate and treat illness. Many courses now weave these strands together, aiming for vertical integration of the curriculum and spiral learning, where you return…
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