Physician Assistant (PA)
What is a Physician Assistant?
A physician assistant, or PA, is a licensed and highly skilled health care professional, trained to provide patient evaluation, education, and health care services. A PA works with a physician to provide medical care and guidance needed by a patient. PAs are sometimes confused with medical assistants, or nurses. However, physician assistants are much more educationally and clinically advanced than medical assistants, and they don't attend nursing school for their degree.
What are the educational requirements for becoming a Physician Assistant?
Becoming a Physician Assistant requires a bachelor's degree and completion of a Master's program in Physician Assisting from an accredited P.A. school. The program is usually about 2 years, and includes eight clinical rotations lasting five weeks each. To expedite the process and increase your chances of being accepted into a P.A. program, it helps if your Bachelor's degree is in a science such as biology. Otherwise, you may have to take additional hours of prerequisite lab sciences before applying to a P.A. program.
Some PA schools require a course in Medical Terminology as a prerequisite. For a list of online (and local) medical terminology courses, click here .
Some PA schools require a course in Medical Terminology as a prerequisite. For a list of online (and local) medical terminology courses, click here .
What is the Role of a Physician Assistant?
Physician Assistants often work in medical offices seeing patients, or in the case of surgical P.A.s, they may work in the Operating Room assisting a surgeon in surgery. Depending on the state laws, P.A.s may work very independently with minimal physician oversight, or in other states they may be supervised more closely. In any case, they have more clinical authority and independence than most nurses, but not as much as physicians. In most states, physician assistants can see patients and diagnose them, prescribe medication, and perform procedures much like a physician would. Physician assistants can focus on a variety of medical specialties. Some of the most common are family medicine, internal medicine, surgery, orthopedics, and cardiology. Many medical industry leaders feel that physician assistants are an integral part of the solution to the physician shortage.
What is a Physician Assistant’s typical Salary?
According to the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), the average annual compensation for physician assistants is $84,326 in primary care, and $97,207 for surgical specialties. Additionally, benefits often include an additional $6,000 to $7,000 worth of retirement benefits per year.
Where can I learn more information?
- Visit the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) for more specialized and detailed information.
- Visit the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) to learn more about the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE).
Resources Used Include:
- healthcareers.about.com
- aapa.org
- paeaonline.org
- nccpa.net
