Natalie Dies has joined the Crowsnest Pass Health Centre as a full-time physician assistant, helping to support local doctors and improve access to care in the community. Submitted photo courtesy of Natalie Dies.
Nicholas L. M. Allen
Mar 26, 2025
Full-time PA brings hospital and remote experience to new position at Crowsnest Pass Health Centre
A new face is helping ease the load at the Crowsnest Pass Health Centre, thanks to the recent addition of a full-time physician assistant (PA)—a first for the facility and a growing trend in rural Alberta health care.
Natalie Dies brings with her a diverse medical background, having worked in cancer care and head and neck oncology in Edmonton before spending time as a physician assistant in a remote diamond mine with De Beers in the Northwest Territories.
Her path to the Crowsnest Pass was shaped by both personal and professional motivations.
“I was previously in Edmonton… and was getting a little bit burnt out from the pace of that,” she said.
Through a connection with Dr. Shahrabadi at the local health centre, Dies helped create her current position and officially joined the team this year.
The role of a physician assistant, she explained, often requires clarification. While not a doctor or nurse practitioner, a PA is a medically trained professional who works under the supervision of a licensed physician. Their scope of work is flexible and depends on the needs of the physician or medical service.
“We finish about 80 per cent of med school and then there’s no residency training—we just work,” Dies said. “I need supervised practice, unlike a nurse practitioner, but I prefer that, because then I can chat about every patient if I want and there’s shared decision-making.”
Dies noted that while nurse practitioners are independent providers, PAs remain part of a supervised model, which creates opportunities for collaborative learning and consistent mentorship.
That support has already proven valuable in the emergency department, where Dies splits her time with the operating room.
“I hope wait times go down because I can start interviewing a patient, start the work-up, get any imaging or lab work done,” she said. “I can call a consulting service, or I could be waiting for the phone call back from the orthopedic surgeon while [the doctor is] seeing another patient.”
This kind of multitasking, she said, allows physicians to focus more on high-priority cases or administrative duties while still maintaining patient contact.
“I would be an extension of them. I’ll have immediate access. I can still interject at appropriate times and provide the patient care from an arm’s length,” she said.
So far, feedback from staff and patients has been overwhelmingly positive.
“The physicians are excited. I’m here permanent full-time, which is also exciting,” she said, “Some patients are asking how long are you here for, when do you leave? And I’m like, well hopefully you know, this is a career for five to ten years.”
Dies emphasized the warm welcome she’s received from the nurses and other hospital staff, noting that not every setting is quick to embrace a new professional role.
“There are a lot of people that need education about the role,” she said, “But so far, everyone’s been very appropriate, very accepting, and just happy to have someone else that can answer a question or enter an order if they need it.”
Patients, too, have taken the new position in stride.
“No one has actually asked really what the physician assistant is,” Dies said, “I just sort of say, hey, I’m the physician assistant working with the physician. No one’s asked to see the doctor instead.”
Looking ahead, Dies said she hopes to see more physician assistants in rural Alberta. A training program out of the University of Calgary currently graduates about 25 PAs each year, and interest in the profession is growing as health systems seek new ways to improve access to care.
“With the push to have greater access for rural medicine, I think it’s exciting,” she said, “So I’m hoping that these smaller rural areas will have greater access to care if we can get physician assistants in the area.”
Ultimately, she believes the success of the role hinges on strong relationships and clear communication between physicians, patients and PAs.
“There’s a lot of overlap, but I think that it can work well once you have that physician-PA bond,” she said, “It’s all about the relationship.”
Dies said she hopes to remain in the community for the foreseeable future and looks forward to continuing to learn, grow, and contribute to local health care.
