Are you a member of the American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA)? If you’re not, you should be! Not only does your membership help support our national academy, advancing legislation and improving practice for PAs across the country, but AAPA offers a variety of benefits to its members!

Kelsey King & Laura Burch both work at AAPA and are here on the latest episode of The PA Is In to share the newest AAPA member benefits as well as shine a light on some of the lesser-known benefits. 

Kelsey is the Assistant Director of Career Products and Services at AAPA. She is responsible for Career Central, AAPA’s home base for the information and resources that practicing PAs and future PAs need to navigate every step of their career journey, from PA school to retirement. Laura is the Senior Director of Membership Products and Experience at AAPA, where she is responsible for ensuring that the different offerings of AAPA are of value and interest to PAs.

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In episode 305 of The PA Is In, Tracy Bingaman dives into the latest updates from AAPA, highlights lesser known benefits, and discusses the importance of an AAPA membership.

PA Job Source

Kelsey describes PA Job Source as the Zillow of PA job opportunities. PA Job Source is a members-only job search platform that was relaunched in May 2024. It currently includes almost 50,000 PA employers, with the goal to feature every PA employer.

Not only can PAs search for current job opportunities, but they can also use PA Job Source to better understand the full PA job employment landscape. PAs can search for jobs in a specific location and determine how many employers have hired PAs in the past, in what specialties, and what current salary ranges are.

PA Job Source also fosters communication between employers and PAs. PAs can follow employers on the platform to stay up to date with their hiring and receive alerts when a job is posted. The platform can be used to actively grow your professional PA network.

There are also map layers that can be utilized when searching for a job. Map layers currently include average compensation, average cost of living, and average rent in the area, to name a few. New map layers are currently being created!

AAPA Mentorship

Mentorship is important for any professional development, but is incredibly important for PAs. Mentorship can be beneficial to pre-PA students looking to shadow current PAs, PA students preparing to enter the workforce after graduation, and PAs looking for a job or specialty change.

AAPA utilizes two mentorship programs within Huddle to foster mentorship in the PA field. Mentor Match Connect is a traditional mentoring program. Both mentees and mentors fill out enrollment forms providing their professional details and what they are looking for and can provide for mentorship. They are then matched based on their connection criteria.

Mentor Match Chat is a short-term mentorship program. This program is used for someone looking for short answers instead of a long-term mentorship. Examples include asking a mentor to review your resume, help prep for an interview, or navigate the transition between specialties. You don’t need to create a profile or complete an enrollment form. AAPA members can just log into Huddle and post their questions with the tag “ask a mentor.”

For those PAs looking to become mentors, they can log into Huddle and enroll as a mentor. Remember that you can serve as a mentor in many capacities. You have experience, skills, and knowledge that can be valuable to many other colleagues. If you’ve allowed a pre-PA student to shadow you or precepted a current PA student, you’ve been a mentor!

Benefits of AAPA Membership

One of the biggest benefits to an AAPA membership is CME access. AAPA members have access to Learning Central, a vast catalog of CME and on-demand learning. AAPA also offers a variety of yearly conferences.

Another major benefit AAPA provides is advocacy. AAPA works to modernize PA legislation and provides resources regarding varying state laws. This is very beneficial if you’re looking to relocate and want to stay up to date on your new state’s practice laws.

AAPA also offers Career Central with a plethora of resources to utilize to advance your professional career, whether clinical or non-clinical. Career Central provides articles by experts, webinars, pre-recorded videos, the AAPA salary report, and negotiation resources, among many others.

AAPA also provides a variety of discounts, partnerships, and collaborations.

Why Every PA Should Have an AAPA Membership

AAPA is our federal association that can advocate for PAs on a national level. By improving legislation and removing barriers to care, advocacy makes practicing as a PA more efficient and beneficial to patients.

AAPA provides biweekly newsletters as well as monthly publication, the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Associates. In addition to print material, AAPA also publishes a podcast hosted by PAs.

AAPA cultivates a community of peers that can support, educate, and mentor one another as we continue to grow the PA profession.

There are three membership levels – fellow professional, fellow plus, and fellow premium – so you can find the one that fits you best.

AAPA offers a plethora of resources to its members. Episode 305 of The PA Is In offers a behind the scenes look at what an AAPA membership includes. Take action today to utilize these benefits and get the most out of your membership. 

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