National practice characteristics and utilization of pathologists' assistants

Objective.-To obtain descriptive information regarding the practice charact eristics and utilization of US pathologists' assistants. Design,-A self-administered, mailed, voluntary, anonymous questionnaire was distributed to a cross-sectional sample of 515 US pathologists' assistants registered as members of the American Association of Pathologists' Assista nts. The questionnaire contained items relating to subject demographics, pr actice characteristics, specific task performance, and amount of time spent per day on the performance of specific tasks. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the data in terms of measures of central tendency and disp ersion. Results.-The response rate was 66.8%. The majority of questionnaires sent a nd received were from East Coast regions. Of all respondents, 46.6% were wo men, 57.6% were less than 40 years old, and 60.0% had been practicing 10 ye ars or less. Over half (54.0%) had a master's degree, Almost the entire sam ple reported working 30 or more hours per week, with 43.4% reporting workin g more than 40 hours per week. The majority reported earning annual salarie s between $56 000 and $75 000. Although task analysis of responses revealed a wide range of responses, the majority of the sample reported spending mo st of their daily time performing surgical specimen gross examinations (med ian 300 min/d). Approximately half of respondents also reported spending up to 90 minutes per day on nonspecific tasks such as logging specimens and a nswering the phone. Most respondents reported spending more daily time on s uch nonspecific tasks than on autopsy prosection or research. Conclusions.-To our knowledge, this national survey provides the first desc ription of pathologists' assistants across the United States. These data pr ovide a useful tool for tracking changes in the profession.