| Course | PA 501 PA Professional Practice Seminar I |
|---|---|
| Week | 7 |
| Paper type | Professional conduct case analysis |
| Length | About 1,100 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PA 501 Week 7
Professional Conduct Case: A Collaborating Physician Asks a New Physician Assistant to Refill a Patient's Opioid Prescription Without Seeing the Patient
Student Name
Chamberlain University
PA 501: PA Professional Practice Seminar I
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Professional Conduct Case: A Collaborating Physician Asks a New Physician Assistant to Refill a Patient's Opioid Prescription Without Seeing the Patient
The Facts That Matter
A physician assistant in her first year of practice at a rural Montana clinic works under a collaborative agreement, as Montana requires of every PA below the 8,000-hour threshold (Montana Legislature, 2025). Her collaborating physician, who is also the clinic's owner, is leaving for a week of vacation. On his last afternoon he asks her to refill, while he is away, a 30-day prescription for oxycodone for a long-standing patient of his with chronic back pain. He says the patient is stable, he has seen her monthly for years and the refill is routine. The PA has never met the patient. The clinic's collaboration policy says the PA consults the collaborating physician on cases outside her experience; it says nothing specific about refills of controlled substances for patients she has not seen. The physician will be reachable by phone. Only these facts could change the answer, so the case stays with them. Details such as the patient's diagnosis history or the clinic's revenue are left out because they would not change what the PA should do, however much they might color the story.
Two Duties, Two Owners
The case turns on two obligations that cannot both be fully met. The first is the PA's duty to the patient and to her own license: under Montana law the responsibility for care she gives rests with her (Montana Legislature, 2025), and a prescription she signs is her prescription, whoever asked for it. Prescribing a Schedule II opioid to a patient she has never assessed would place her name on a decision she did not make. The second is her obligation within the collaborative relationship and to the clinic: the physician knows the patient, is responsible for the overall plan and is the person whose direction and guidance the agreement provides for. Refusing outright could leave a patient on long-term opioids without a refill, which carries its own risk of withdrawal or of seeking drugs elsewhere.
The Agreement Is an Authority Too
The collaborative agreement does not give the physician authority to direct the PA to prescribe without her own assessment, and it does not make the physician responsible for her prescriptions. But it is a real source of guidance: the physician is entitled to share his knowledge of the patient, and the PA is expected to consult him. The question is not whether to follow his request but what she needs in order to make the refill her own decision.
Responses That Climb
The PA has a range of responses, from least to most disruptive.
First, she can ask for what she needs to make an independent decision: the patient's chart, the most recent visit note, the treatment agreement, the latest state prescription drug monitoring program check and any urine drug testing. If those are in order, she can schedule a brief visit with the patient during the week, in person or by video if the clinic allows it, before signing.
Second, if no visit is possible, she can tell the physician she will refill only after reviewing the chart and speaking with the patient by phone, and will document that conversation.
Third, if the physician insists that she sign without any assessment, she can decline and suggest that he write the prescription before leaving, since a 30-day supply could be issued on his last day.
Fourth, if the request recurs as a pattern, she can raise it with the clinic's medical director or, in a clinic where the owner is the director, with a trusted colleague or the licensing board's guidance, as a question of policy.
Pricing the Choice
Each response has a cost. Asking for the chart and a short visit costs time on a busy week and may irritate a physician who has trusted her. Insisting he write the prescription himself costs him time on his last afternoon. Declining outright may strain the relationship on which her daily practice depends. Signing without assessment costs nothing today but would expose her to the greatest professional risk, and would set a precedent for future requests. The second or third response balances the duties: the patient is not left without medication, and the decision on her prescription is hers.
The Patient Who Says Doctor
When the PA calls the patient, the patient may ask, "Can't the doctor just do it?" She should answer plainly: "Dr. Hale is away this week, and I'm the clinician covering for him. Before I can refill your prescription, I need to ask a few questions about how you're doing. It will take about ten minutes." Calling herself the covering clinician is accurate. Pretending to act on the physician's authority would mislead the patient about who is responsible.
What a New PA Takes From This
The case shows that collaboration does not dissolve the PA's responsibility. National survey data suggest that PAs collaborate widely with physicians and other clinicians in daily practice, often beyond their named supervisor (Hulse et al., 2025). Collaboration of that kind works only if each clinician owns the decisions that carry their name. The best time to settle this kind of request is before it arises: the PA should ask that the clinic's collaboration policy say how controlled-substance refills for absent clinicians' patients are handled, so that the next vacation does not produce the same conflict.
What the Clinic's Policy Should Say
The case exposes a gap in the clinic's written collaboration policy, which Montana requires for PAs under 8,000 hours to describe how collaboration will occur (Montana Legislature, 2025). A short addition would prevent most of the conflict: when a clinician is away, refills of controlled substances for that clinician's patients are written before departure for the period of absence, or are handled by the covering clinician only after a chart review and a contact with the patient. The PA can propose this wording to the physician after he returns, framed as protecting both of them. A policy settled in advance turns a personal confrontation into a shared rule, which is easier for a new PA to rely on than her own nerve on a Friday afternoon, and it protects the patient from depending on which clinician happens to be on duty.
References
Hulse, B., Schweinle, W. E., Kassin, K., & Trimble, N. D. (2025). Physician assistant training, collaboration, and practice act legislation: Perspectives from practicing physician assistants. The Journal of Physician Assistant Education, 36(1), e25-e33. https://doi.org/10.1097/JPA.0000000000000628
Montana Legislature. (2025). Montana Code Annotated, Title 37, chapter 20: Physician assistants. https://leg.mt.gov/bills/mca/title_0370/chapter_0200/part_0020/section_0030/0370-0200-0020-0030.html
The Chamberlain PA 501 Week 7 instructions
Week seven asks you to analyze a professional conduct case. Present only the facts that could change the answer: who asked, for what, what any agreement covers and who was reachable. Identify the two or more obligations in tension and who owns each, since a case with only one defensible answer is not much of a case. Explain the authority of any agreement or policy involved. Set out a range of responses, from least to most disruptive, rather than a single verdict. Price each response by its costs. Address how to speak with the patient. Do not give yourself powers the role does not hold. Finish with what should change so the dilemma does not recur.
How the PA 501 Week 7 example is put together
The case involves a first-year PA in a rural Montana clinic whose collaborating physician and clinic owner, leaving for a week, asks her to refill a 30-day oxycodone prescription for a stable long-term patient she has never met. The analysis names her responsibility for any prescription she signs and her obligation within the collaborative relationship. It lays out four responses, from reviewing the chart and monitoring data with a short visit, to asking the physician to write the prescription before leaving, to raising a pattern as policy. Each is priced. A script shows how to answer a patient who asks for the doctor, and a proposed policy clause closes the paper.
PA 501 Week 7 rubric: what full points look like
Most marks disappear into a case with only one defensible answer, where someone is plainly wrong and the paper becomes an explanation of why. Papers that give the writer powers the role does not hold, such as ending the arrangement or disciplining a colleague, lose a great deal too. Analyses that ignore the agreement's authority, offer a single verdict with no range of responses or never price the choices also cost points. Strong analyses keep only decisive facts, name two duties and their owners, treat the agreement as an authority, set out climbing responses, price each, address the patient honestly and propose a change that prevents recurrence. Cases that end without a policy change tend to repeat in the reader's own practice.
Common PA 501 Week 7 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Conduct cases are hard to write well because the temptation is to pick the right answer quickly. If you share the case your instructor assigned, or one from your own experience with details removed, we can help you trim it to decisive facts, name the duties in tension and lay out responses with their costs. We can also help you script what you would say to the patient and to the colleague. The judgments are yours to make. Where a section names a code of ethics to apply, include it, and each duty in the custom sample will be tied to a provision of that code. We can also help you write the policy clause that would prevent the dilemma recurring.
Get a PA-501 Week 7 example written to your instructions
Send the scenario your section published, the rubric, and whatever guidance or framework your classroom expects to see applied. A custom example case is written to those instructions and returned inside 24-48h. The first one costs nothing and comes back as a finished model, with the responses laid out in order and the price of each one stated.
More PA 501 papers and MPAS samples
- PA 501 Week 1: Defining the PA Role Post
- PA 501 Week 2: Origins of the Profession Essay
- PA 501 Week 3: State Practice Act Analysis
- PA 501 Week 4: Role Delineation Memo
- PA 501 Week 5: Supervision Model Comparison
- PA 501 Week 6: Care Team Map
- PA 501 Week 8: Professional Commitment Memo
PA 501 Week 7 questions, answered
Does the case have to involve a physician?
Not necessarily, and sections vary in what they supply. The scenarios fitting this seminar best involve somebody whose cooperation the writer depends on, which is often the supervising physician but can be a practice manager or a colleague with more standing. What makes a case belong to this course is that objecting carries a personal cost, not that a particular job title appears in it.
How much of the published guidance should be quoted?
A provision at a time, and only where it decides something. Guidance quoted at length in an opening section and never returned to reads as decoration, while a single clause set against the specific request in the scenario does real work. Where your classroom names a required framework, apply it to the request itself rather than summarizing it first and reasoning afterward.
What if the honest answer is that I would do nothing?
Then say so and defend it, which is a legitimate position where the request sits inside what the agreement covers and the objection is a matter of preference. What fails is silence written as tact, a paper describing a request the guidance plainly addresses and then declining to say anything about it. Naming the reason for restraint is analysis; leaving the reason out is avoidance.
Where can I find a free PA 501 Week 7 sample paper?
This page has the full PA 501 Week 7 analysis of a request to refill an opioid prescription for an unseen patient, with responses priced.
Which response does the PA 501 Week 7 sample favor?
Reviewing the chart and speaking with the patient before refilling, or asking the physician to write the prescription before he leaves.