Careers as a PA
Excellent
job opportunities are available for physician
assistants (PAs). The continuing expansion of the
health care industry, sky rocketing costs, and the
urgent need for health care providers in rural and
inner city settings contribute to the demand for PAs.
Money
Magazine and Salary.com
rated the PA profession fifth among the top 10 jobs. (Their
rating takes into account growth, pay, stress-levels, and
other factors.) The authors of the ratings write, “PAs can
specialize, from the E.R. to pediatrics to orthopedics, and
they can switch fields. Thanks to an aging population and
demand for more cost-effective care, this job offers a
level of security other professions can't match.”
According to the American Academy of Physician Assistants’
2006 Census Survey, the median
total annual income from primary employer for respondents
who work at least 32 hours per week for their primary
employer and who are not self-employed is $80,356; the mean
is $84,396. Not
surprisingly, the physician assistant profession ranks
among the fastest growing occupations in the United States.
What
are PAs?
Physician
assistants (PAs) are highly qualified, health professionals
who are prepared, through a demanding curriculum
(increasingly at the master’s level), to practice medicine
with physician supervision. Within the physician/PA
relationship, PAs can have a great deal of autonomy and
independence. Some PAs, for example, are the principal
caregivers in rural or inner city clinics where a physician
provides supervision by phone and/or is present for only
one or two days each week.
American Indian/ Alaska Native PAs
As in other
health professions, American Indian and Alaskan Native
people are underrepresented in the PA profession.
The profiles of American
Indian and Alaskan Native PAs and PA students illustrate
some of the many opportunities available to indigenous
PAs as well as the pride that Native communities display
when they are taken care of by one of their own.
The Work and Work Settings of PAs
PAs perform
many of the same tasks as physicians do. PAs interview and
examine patients. They order and interpret tests, diagnose
illness, and work with patients in developing feasible
management plans. They counsel and educate patients and
their families. Depending on their specialty and level of
training, PAs perform office procedures, make hospital
rounds, assist with surgery, and much more. In 48 states
PAs are authorized to write prescriptions.
PAs are educated and credentialed as generalists. Most of
them (45%) work in the primary care specialties of family
medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine, and
obstetrics/gynecology. PAs can also work in specialty and
subspecialty fields, such as general surgery and the
surgical subspecialties.
Medical practices, hospitals, community clinics, the Indian
Health Service, HMOs, VA medical centers, correctional
institutions, military installations, nursing homes, public
health agencies, and research centers are among the
organizations that employ PAs.
In addition to their clinical responsibilities, some PAs
have administrative responsibilities that might include the
supervision of medical assistants and nurses. PAs with
advanced degrees and other credentials can serve as faculty
members in PA Programs. Some PAs also have research
responsibilities.
The PA profession was established in 1965. PAs have work in
IHS for more than 30 years. There are more than 58,000 PAs
currently in clinical practice in the United States.
Approximately 160 of them work in IHS, Federal, Urban and
Tribal health care facilities. PAs are playing a
significant role in relieving physician shortages in
primary care and rural health care clinics.
Parts
of this article were originally published in the Winter
2007 issue of
Winds of Change.