The Profession Of Physician Assistants

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,

Pebbles Lafleur05/15/2018HS115My Scope of PracticeAs many people know, there are steps into making into the medical field world. There are still certifications and levels to have under your belt to move up. Many people start as a CNA, then LPN, RN and so on and so forth. However, currently, I am enrolled in school to become a CMA (Certified Medical Assistant) and hopefully adding phlebotomy under my belt as well. Nevertheless, before all this to happen, there is a process to go by and complete it accordingly.To be competitive in the medical field marketplace, all medical assistants have to be certified through the AMA. The AAMA (American Association of Medical Assistants) is the association that is responsible for producing the

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.

The physician assistant (PA) profession has been described as “one of the greatest innovations of the last half of the 20th century.”1(p1) The profession has been established for less than fifty years, but it has managed to develop and expand vastly within those years consisting of more than 105,000 certified physician assistants and more than 170 accredited physician assistant programs. Simply stated, a physician assistant is defined as a certified medical professional responsible for providing medical care and treatment under the supervision of a physician. In order to completely understand the role and importance of physician assistants in the medical field, the history of the profession must be acknowledged.

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.

The Ethical Conduct for the Physician Assistant Profession also states “In the absence of a preexisting patient–PA relationship, the physician assistant is under no ethical obligation to care for a person unless no other provider is available. A PA is morally bound to provide care in emergency situations and to arrange proper follow-up.”1 (pg5) So these are not just her legal duties, but they’re her moral duties as well.

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.

While the demand of healthcare need increasers the United States facing a physician shortage. In recent years the number of nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) has significantly increased and they are taking the part in providing healthcare cervices to the majority of patients. I believe nurse practitioners and physician assistants can practice independently from doctors and be free of oversight. Expanding the scope of NPs and PAs is essential to overcome the healthcare crisis we are facing; it will increase patient satisfaction and stabilizing the healthcare economy.

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

The biggest challenge that Physician Assistances face is when a patient questions their competency or their ability to care for them. PA’s are one of the youngest allied health fields and some people are unaware of the role of a physician assistant. The best way to reassure the patient that they are being properly taken care of is to educate the patient on the topic of Physician Assistant. The first Physician Assistant program started in 1960 in the military, to help with the growing need for primary care doctors (Mittman). Physician Assistance must first obtain a four year degree with a competitive GPA of 3.6 or

Family medicine is a specialty that provides healthcare for both families and individuals. Physicians in family medicine provide medical diagnosis, treatment, and care to people of all ages, both sexes, every organ system, and all diseases. The patient-doctor relationship is generally in the framework of the family. Family medicine practitioners promote good health, stress disease prevention, and coordinate referrals when necessary. Graduates in family medicine have completed a broad range of study, which includes:

Physician Assistants are also known as a PA’s; they practice medicine under the direction of physicians and surgeons. They formally trained to examine patients, diagnose injures and illness, and provide treatment. Physician Assistants also evaluate and treat patients under the supervision of doctors and surgeons. A Physician Assistants is a graduate of an accredited Physician Assistant educational program who is nationally certified and state- licensed to practice medicine with the supervision of a physician. Core tasks of a Physician Assistant are they take medical histories and examine patients. They Interpret lab test and make diagnoses, Treat minor injuries with stitches, splints, casts, and prescribes certain medications, The

With this particular job, daily duties will include answering the telephone, scheduling appointments, organizing medical records, processing insurance forms, etc. Also someone in this field could have bookkeeping tasks or use spreadsheets. It is necessary to have throughough knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, and also PowerPoint to effectively complete these duties. If any doctor or other health official needs something done, it is an Administrator’s job to effectively complete that. Primarily since most of an

The selected specialty track is to become a family nurse practitioner. As a family nurse practitioner, it enables me to develop further substantial knowledge and capability to practice medicine thoroughly. The other reasons why I fancied to become a nurse practitioner is to continue to make a more significant impact. According to American Association of Critical Nurses, family nurse practitioners can fulfill exceptional assessment, differential diagnosis, outcome identification, plan of care development, implementation of treatment, and evaluation of outcomes. Moreover, family nurse practitioners in a specific state also obtain the privilege to expedite complex of cases independently. Some State licensure controls nurse practitioners practice,