CAPA update

To bring readers up to date on developments on the Canadian Association of PAs front, you should know that the organization, truly in its infancy, now has an executive. This was decided upon by those who attended the CAP meeting this year (Newfoundland) and a follow-up meeting at Vancouver Children's Hospital recently (at the time of the AAPA AGM). Lloyd Kennedy (Kingston) and Larry Bluhm (Winnipeg) are co-chairs and Kent Neuert (Vancouver) is the Secretary.

Among abundant amounts of conversation on many topics, the submission of an updated list of key competencies for Canada's PAs will be created (beginning with the CAP's Position Statement); ready for submission to the CAP for ratification by next year's AGM (Toronto). Grandmother-/fathering guidelines is a big topic for discussion. My feeling is that the majority of Canadian PAs are Technologists who (please correct me if you think otherwise) do not hold a baccalaureate and who have been trained on the job. Insofar as the minimum requirement to attain membership will be holding a baccalaureate (plus several years' bench experience), the association is going to be an elite one indeed (or so it would seem to me). There are numerous institutions, especially non-academic centres, at which PAs are involved solely in either surgical, or autopsy, pathology, but not both. The minimum criterion for inclusion will be that the candidate must be able to function in both disciplines. This may further limit the membership.

I understand that just 43 PAs have joined the CAP. These individuals will receive a communique from the CAPA, via the CAP, concerning membership (in the CAPA), and other things -- as soon as possible.

Much progress on the educational front is being made. A number of individuals in Vancouver, Kent among them, are working on the final stages of a curriculum, much of it to be hopefully offered as e-education (aka 'distance ed'). I sincerely hope that they, and anyone else who may hold, or may be working on, a curriculum consult the CMA concerning accreditation of their curriculum.

It is SO very nice to see progress being made. Those who have assisted to date should be given a very big thank-you for their efforts. Thank-you!