Physician Assistant Profession

Both Nurse Practitioners (NP) and Physician Assistants (PA) are two very important professionals in the field of medicine. They both work under the supervision of a licensed physician, and their functions are also quite similar with very minor differences between the two. Due to such similarities it has become very difficult for the general population to differentiate between these two professionals (Nurse Practitioner School, 2015). The nurse practitioners are registered nurses who have gone on to earn a master's or doctorate degree in a specialty area of nursing, such as family practice, adult practice, pediatrics or women's health. Their duties include diagnosing and treating acute and chronic conditions, prescribing medication,

The Physician Assistant (PA) and Nurse Practitioner (NP) career fields were the medical fields’ response to the physician shortage that began in the 1960s, but the shortage still exists today. As the population continues to grow, the gap continues to grow as well. Medical schools were having a hard time producing as many doctors that were needed to fill in the gaps in a timely manner, leaving the medical field looking for ways they could have health care providers diagnose and treat patients, but educated in half the time of a doctor. The PA program was then born out of the military. Medical doctors watched as military doctors and medics came back, but they had no formal training except for on-the-job training. The NP program was derived from previous midwifery program. Currently, as the physician shortage is still impending more and more PAs and NPs are being hired to fill in the gaps. This is causing many questions to arise: Are they qualified?, What kind of education do they have?, and Should I feel safe?. Patients want to know that they are getting excellent care, and that their medical providers are qualified to diagnose and treat patients accurately.

Physician Assistants have a lot of job options, but almost all require some sort of dedication, planning, or organization. I believe my strengths will help me succeed in the Physician Assistant profession because of all of those traits, as they help an average person become a successful

This has allowed me to experience what each person’s role in a hospital setting truly is. Both physician assistants and nurse practitioners share a lot of the same responsibilities as a physician, although nurse practitioners are given the flexibility of choosing which specialty they are interested in pursuing. This autonomy is what drew me into this position, which includes a lot of independence within the practice. Over the years that I have worked in healthcare, I have realized that patients need a health care provider who will be an advocate for them, and they also need someone who will truly listen to them in order to help improve their quality of health. The roles and job responsibilities of a nurse practitioner have caught my attention and therefore have made me want to pursue this career

Physician assistant’s scope of practice is defined by the level of education, experience, state laws, facility policies and the supervising physician’s delegations. PAs work as a team with the supervising physician and they support the physician’s scope of practice. Since the physician assistants are also educated in the medical model, PAs also practice with physicians in every specialty and setting.

Have you ever wanted to be a physician assistant? If you do, it is a challenge to be accepted in PA (physician assistant) school. There are over one hundred and twenty-five PA programs in the United States. A physician's signature is required on some percentage of the charts of patients whom PAs treat in twenty-four states. This job is considered to be the second best job America.

Physician assistant job description is stated to be able to practice medicine under the supervision of physicians and surgeons. PA 's are properly educated to offer diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive health care services, as authorized by a physician. They record medical histories, examine and treat patients, order and interpret laboratory tests and x-rays, and make diagnoses (“Physician assistant job description,” n.d.). However, PAs may be the primary care providers in rural or inner city clinics where a physician is present for only one or two days each week. PAs may also make house calls, round in hospitals, and go to nursing care facilities to check on patients. In such cases, the PA consults with the supervising physician as needed and as required by law.

Expansion of Physician Assistant (PA) programs across the United States occurred rapidly during the 1970s following the introduction of the profession in the 1960s. According to Hooker et al. (2010), the first era of the development of PA programs was followed by a decline in the 1980s. This was due in large part to a belief by the Graduate Medical Education Advisory Committee that there would be a surplus of physicians in the 1990s. Contrarily, there was a still a large discrepancy in the number of accessible providers and providers themselves which continues to this day. Many saw the cost effective advantage of training PAs and seized the opportunity

As the physician assistant (PA) profession becomes more proliferative in the United States the role of the PA in various healthcare settings changes. The baby boomer generation is aging which is increasing the demand on practitioners. PAs are becoming vital to closing the patients to provider gap in the United State. There is now an increased need for PAs in all medical specialties. Because PAs are trained as generalists, it poses the need for postgraduate residencies in specialties like orthopedics, obstetrics and gynecology, surgery, and emergency medicine.

Guest speaker Veronica Coleman spoke to us about the profession of a physician assistant. It is a nationally certified profession that requires you to take a board exam to be able to practice medicine. They are medical professionals who work as part of a team with a medical doctor. They also need to reboard every 10 years, however, they do not have to redo their residency if they feel the need to change their mind about their specific specialization. In order to become a physician assistant, you would need to obtain a master’s degree from an accredited institution.

The educational requirements necessary in order to become a Physician Assistant include acquiring a Master’s Degree from an accredited educational program, and passing the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination (PANCE) in order to be licensed for medical work. Additionally, a necessary requirement in order to remain certified includes 100 hours of continuing education every 2 years. “Physician assistant education programs usually take at least 2 years of full-time study. Most of these accredited programs offer a Master’s Degree” (CollegeGrad). This is important to the career, because of the fact that attaining this profession won’t be undemanding.

There are more than 100,000 certified Physician Assistants practicing medicine in the United States. PA’s have a very high starting salary and get to do a lot of hands on work. After just two years of schooling you can come out making an average of $94,000. Being stuck at a desk all day is dreadful, and physician assistants get to choose what they want their work environment to look like. Job opportunities for a PA are expected to go up by more than thirty percent between 2010 and 2020. When you are a PA you have a huge amount of flexibility to choose your specialization. I know that a PA is the best career choice for me because i love to work with people and enjoy social interaction, i love to have flexibility to be able to spend time with my family, and there are very good benefits and there will always be job openings.

Growing up, I always had a strong interest in a career that involved helping people. My dream was to become an optometrist like my older cousin whom I looked up to. An incident, which occurred my freshman year of college, impacted me with such noteworthiness that I decided to change my career goal. I was baffled and seek my older cousins for guidance. I spoke to them regarding my change of mind and one of them introduced to me briefly what a physician assistant (PA) was because she is a physician assistant herself.

Please explain why you are interested in being a Physician Assistant. (5000 characters) My interest in healthcare began when I was a young girl, living in Battambang, Cambodia. Warm air and the smell of dirt filled a small clinic where I was lying in a bed with an IV attached to my arm. I watched as the fluid from my IV bag drained and noticed my blood starting to flow up into the IV tube.

After volunteering and shadowing efforts and post-university medical experience, I understood that through patient care is best when working with a collaborative team of nurses, physician assistant, physicians and many others. After researching more about the PA profession, I learned it was created to make healthcare more available in rural, underserved areas, but has grown as a career in all aspects of medicine. When I volunteered with physician assistant, David Dominguez, I learned what being a physician assistant actually entails. He taught me the scope of practice is only as limited as you allow it be and there is always room for growth with additional training and perseverance. I realized that as a physician assistant the lateral scope of practice between specialties would allow me to the freedom to grow as a medical provider.