Accelerate Your Growth as an EMPA

EMPA happy with career growth at Vituity

Whether you are just finishing your residency or seeking a change that gives you more room to grow, the key to a fulfilling career in emergency medicine is finding a place to practice where you feel supported in your personal and professional development. When you find that place, practicing emergency medicine can be one of the most challenging and rewarding careers you could hope for.

For physician assistants (PAs), breaking into emergency medicine is hard. It requires unique skills that are difficult to master in a single clinical rotation.

Vituity’s unique partnership model, led by front line physicians, provides PAs with a bounty of resources to gain the training and education needed for a meaningful and enjoyable career in emergency medicine. Through Vituity’s Emergency Medicine Physician Assistant (EMPA) Fellowships, PAs benefit from the collaboration, camaraderie, and training programs needed to succeed.

The Vituity EMPA Fellowship includes salary and benefits while fellows receive hands-on clinical training and weekly didactic classroom education from nationally certified PAs and board-certified or board-eligible emergency physicians with a passion for transforming healthcare.

“Learning on the job is unorganized. It doesn’t provide you the support you need, it doesn’t get you where you want to be as quickly as you could be. So, going through a post-graduate EMPA fellowship is a way to ramp up your career. If you want to provide good care, I think it’s the right thing to do.”

– Dennis Tankersley, PA-C, MS, EMPA Fellowship Director

“They don’t just throw you in and expect you to know everything. You get a little bit of hand-holding in the beginning, and they gradually get you out there, practicing on your own. When I finished, I had a lot more job opportunities.”

– Tanya Schrobilgen, PA-C

Opening Doors to the ED

When Theresa Brodeur, PA-C, was in graduate school getting her PA degree, she started looking at the job market and noticed that the EMPA jobs required years of experience. That made sense, since emergency medicine has such a steep learning curve, but she had no idea how she’d get a job to get the experience she needed without experience. She found her answer in the Vituity EMPA Fellowship. In her words:

“If your heart is set on being an EMPA like mine was, there is simply no better way to start your career than with a Vituity EMPA Fellowship.

“Vituity’s EMPA Fellowship enabled me to put in the hours and do the higher-level procedures in a supportive environment while gradually taking on more responsibility. You’ll need deep inner drive and passion to see you through these challenging 14 months. But you’ll have senior providers mentoring you throughout the length of the program, who will hold your hand for the first three months or so. After that you’ll be running pods on your own; caring for sicker, higher-acuity patients; coming up with the differentials; and ultimately making dispositions.

“That hands-on clinical experience — the pressure that’s on you and the volume of patients you see — is what’s going to make you effective in the ED. It will ultimately get you the job you want and help you keep pace with the seasoned advanced providers in your ED.”

Careers with Vituity

Vituity was formed nearly 50 years ago by a group of physicians who believed in the important role they must play in defining and delivering high-quality patient care. Vituity has grown to become one of the largest physician-owned and -managed practice groups in the U.S. because of its providers’ genuine care for their patients, its focus on collaboration and camaraderie, and its ability to deliver outstanding outcomes at hospitals and medical organizations across the country.

If you choose to join Vituity, you’ll be a valued member of a democratic partnership with a clearly defined path for advancement and leadership opportunities. You’ll work alongside physicians committed to your long-term success who respect your skills, training, and judgment. Life circumstances often require flexibility, so opportunities are available at any of our more than 250 practice sites across the country.

Your passion and expertise are crucial to Vituity's mission of improving patient care. That's why we offer unparalleled support to help you enhance your clinical foundation, grow as a leader, and reach your professional goals.

Originally published March 19, 2019.

Partnering to improve patient lives

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