Activities	Provide healthcare services typically performed by a physician, under the supervision of a physician. Conduct complete physicals, provide treatment, and counsel patients. May, in some cases, prescribe medication. Must graduate from an accredited educational program for physician assistants.
Outlook	Faster-than-average-job growth
Median Income	$86,410 per year in 2010
Work Context & Conditions	Although PAs usually work in a comfortable, well-lighted environment, those in surgery often stand for long periods, and others do considerable walking.
Minimum Education Requirements	Bachelor's Degree
Skills	Social Perceptiveness, Critical Thinking, Active Listening, Writing, Time Management, Active Learning, Judgment and Decision Making, Coordination, Reading Comprehension, Speaking, Science
Abilities	Oral Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Inductive Reasoning, Oral Comprehension
Interviews	Yvonne Vigil

Job Category		Healthcare Practitioners & Technical
Job Description		Physician assistants (PAs) provide healthcare services under the supervision of physicians. They should not be confused with medical assistants, who perform routine clinical and clerical tasks. PAs are formally trained to provide diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive healthcare services, as delegated by a physician. Working as members of the healthcare team, they take medical histories, examine and treat patients, order and interpret laboratory tests and X-rays, make diagnoses, and prescribe medications. They also treat minor injuries by suturing, splinting, and casting. PAs record progress notes, instruct and counsel patients, and order or carry out therapy. In 48 states and the District of Columbia, PAs may prescribe medications. PAs also may have managerial duties. Some order medical and laboratory supplies and equipment and may supervise technicians and assistants. PAs work under the supervision of a physician. However, PAs may be the principal care providers in rural or inner city clinics, where a physician is present for only 1 or 2 days each week. In such cases, the PA confers with the supervising physician and other medical professionals as needed or as required by law. PAs also may make house calls or go to hospitals and nursing homes to check on patients and report back to the physician. The duties of PAs are determined by the supervising physician and by state law. Aspiring PAs should investigate the laws and regulations in the states in which they wish to practice. Many PAs work in primary care areas such as general internal medicine, pediatrics, and family medicine. Others work in specialty areas, such as general and thoracic surgery, emergency medicine, orthopedics, and geriatrics. PAs specializing in surgery provide pre- and postoperative care, and may work as first or second assistants during major surgery.
Working Conditions		Although PAs usually work in a comfortable, well-lit environment, those in surgery often stand for long periods, and others do considerable walking. Schedules vary according to practice setting, and often depend on the hours of the supervising physician. The workweek of PAs in physicians' offices may include weekends, night hours, or early morning hospital rounds to visit patients. These workers also may be on-call. PAs in clinics usually work a 40-hour week.
Salary Range		The median annual wage of physician assistants was $86,410 in May 2010. The median annual wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $57,450, and the top 10 percent earned more than $117,720 In 2010, annual salaries of PA working in general and medical hospitals was $89,500; those working in offices of physicians earned $85,340 per year and those working in outpatient care centers earned $88,160 per year.

Education Required		Physician assistant education programs usually last at least 2 years and are full time. Most programs are in schools of allied health, academic health centers, medical schools, or 4-year colleges; a few are in community colleges, the military, or hospitals. Many accredited PA programs have clinical teaching affiliations with medical schools. In 2011, there were approximately 165 education programs for physician assistants were accredited or provisionally accredited by the American Academy of Physician Assistants. More than 113 of these programs offered the option of a master’s degree, and the rest offered either a bachelor’s degree or an associate degree. Most applicants to PA educational programs already have a bachelor’s degree. Admission requirements vary, but many programs require 2 years of college and some work experience in the health care field. Students should take courses in biology, English, chemistry, mathematics, psychology, and the social sciences. Many PAs have prior experience as registered nurses, and others come from varied backgrounds, including military corpsman or medics and allied health occupations such as respiratory therapists, physical therapists, and emergency medical technicians and paramedics. PA education includes classroom instruction in biochemistry, pathology, human anatomy, physiology, microbiology, clinical pharmacology, clinical medicine, geriatric and home health care, disease prevention, and medical ethics. Students obtain supervised clinical training in several areas, including family medicine, internal medicine, surgery, prenatal care and gynecology, geriatrics, emergency medicine, psychiatry, and pediatrics. Sometimes, PA students serve one or more of these rotations under the supervision of a physician who is seeking to hire a PA. The rotations often lead to permanent employment.
Recommended High School Courses		Social Studies, Biology, Mathematics, English, Chemistry
Postsecondary Instructional Programs		English Language, Psychology, Therapy and Counseling, Chemistry, Biology, Customer and Personal Service, Medicine and Dentistry
Certification and Licensing		All States and the District of Columbia have legislation governing the qualifications or practice of physician assistants. All jurisdictions require physician assistants to pass the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination, administered by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) and open only to graduates of accredited PA education programs. Only those successfully completing the examination may use the credential �Physician Assistant-Certified.� To remain certified, PAs must complete 100 hours of continuing medical education every 2 years. Every 6 years, they must pass a recertification examination or complete an alternative program combining learning experiences and a take-home examination.

Interest Area		Investigative Involves working with ideas and requires an extensive amount of thinking.
Work Values		Achievement Get a feeling of accomplishment. Social Service Do things for other people. Security Have steady employment. Ability Utilization Make use of individual abilities. Co-workers Have co-workers who are easy to get along with. Activity Busy all the time.
Skills		Social Perceptiveness Be aware of others' reactions and understand why they react the way they do. Critical Thinking Use logic and analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches. Active Listening Listen to what other people are saying and ask questions as appropriate. Writing Communicate effectively with others in writing as indicated by the needs of the audience. Time Management Manage one's own time and the time of others. Active Learning Work with new material or information to grasp its implications. Judgment and Decision Making Be able to weigh the relative costs and benefits of a potential action. Coordination Adjust actions in relation to others' actions. Reading Comprehension Understand written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents. Speaking Talk to others to effectively convey information. Science Use scientific methods to solve problems.
Abilities		Oral Expression Able to convey information and ideas through speech in ways that others will understand. Problem Sensitivity Able to tell when something is wrong or likely to go wrong. This doesn't involve solving the problem, just recognizing that there is a problem. Inductive Reasoning Able to combine separate pieces of information, or specific answers to problems, to form general rules or conclusions. This includes coming up with a logical explanation for why seemingly unrelated events occur together. Oral Comprehension Able to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.

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Job Outlook		Employment of PAs is expected to grow much faster than average for all occupations through the year 2018, ranking among the fastest growing occupations, due to anticipated expansion of the health care industry and an emphasis on cost containment, resulting in increasing utilization of PAs by physicians and health care institutions. Physicians and institutions are expected to employ more PAs to provide primary care and to assist with medical and surgical procedures because PAs are cost-effective and productive members of the healthcare team. Physician assistants can relieve physicians of routine duties and procedures. Telemedicine—using technology to facilitate interactive consultations between physicians and physician assistants—also will expand the use of physician assistants. Job opportunities for PAs should be good, particularly in rural and inner city clinics, because those settings have difficulty attracting physicians. Besides the traditional office-based setting, PAs should find a growing number of jobs in institutional settings such as hospitals, academic medical centers, public clinics, and prisons. Additional PAs may be needed to augment medical staffing in inpatient teaching hospital settings as the number of hours physician residents are permitted to work is reduced, encouraging hospitals to use PAs to supply some physician resident services. Opportunities will be best in States that allow PAs a wider scope of practice. Physician assistants held about 83,600 jobs in 2010. The number of jobs is greater than the number of practicing PAs because some hold two or more jobs. For example, some PAs work with a supervising physician, but also work in another practice, clinic, or hospital.
More Information		American Academy of Physician Assistants Information Center, Association of Physician Assistant Programs, National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants, Inc., American Medical Association - Health Care Careers
References		Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2012-13 Edition, Physician Assistants, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physician-assistants.htm O*NET OnLine, on the Internet at http://online.onetcenter.org/link/details/29-1071.00#menu