Physician Assistant 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.
Physician Assistant is Also Know as
In different settings, Physician Assistant is titled as
- Cardiology Physician Assistant
- Certified Physician Assistant (PA-C)
- Emergency Medicine Physician Assistant (Emergency Medicine PA)
- Family Practice Physician Assistant
- Orthopaedic Physician Assistant
- Orthopedic Physician Assistant
- Physician Assistant (PA)
- Physician's Assistant
- Surgical Critical Care Physician Assistant (Surgical Critical Care PA)
- Surgical Physician Assistant (Surgical PA)
Education and Training of Physician Assistant
Physician Assistant is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Physician Assistant
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Education Required for Physician Assistant
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Degrees Related to Physician Assistant
- Bachelor in Physician Assistant
- Associate Degree Courses in Physician Assistant
- Masters Degree Courses in Physician Assistant
- Bachelor in Physician Assistant Residency/Fellowship Program,
- Associate Degree Courses in Physician Assistant Residency/Fellowship Program,
- Masters Degree Courses in Physician Assistant Residency/Fellowship Program,
- Bachelor in Combined Physician Assistant Residency/Fellowship
- Associate Degree Courses in Combined Physician Assistant Residency/Fellowship
- Masters Degree Courses in Combined Physician Assistant Residency/Fellowship
- Bachelor in Acute Care Medicine Physician Assistant Residency/
- Associate Degree Courses in Acute Care Medicine Physician Assistant Residency/
- Masters Degree Courses in Acute Care Medicine Physician Assistant Residency/
- Bachelor in Acute Care Surgery Physician Assistant Residency/F
- Associate Degree Courses in Acute Care Surgery Physician Assistant Residency/F
- Masters Degree Courses in Acute Care Surgery Physician Assistant Residency/F
- Bachelor in Cardiology Physician Assistant Residency/Fellowshi
- Associate Degree Courses in Cardiology Physician Assistant Residency/Fellowshi
- Masters Degree Courses in Cardiology Physician Assistant Residency/Fellowshi
Training Required for Physician Assistant
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Physician Assistant in different industries are
- Emergency Medicine Physicians
- Pediatric Surgeons
- Family Medicine Physicians
- Cardiologists
- Nurse Practitioners
- Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric
- Clinical Nurse Specialists
- General Internal Medicine Physicians
- Pediatricians, General
- Anesthesiologist Assistants
- Medical Assistants
- Registered Nurses
- Anesthesiologists
- Acute Care Nurses
- Hospitalists
- Critical Care Nurses
- Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses
- Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians
- Surgical Assistants
- Obstetricians and Gynecologists
What Do Physician Assistant do?
- Examine patients to obtain information about their physical condition.
- Interpret diagnostic test results for deviations from normal.
- Make tentative diagnoses and decisions about management and treatment of patients.
- Obtain, compile, and record patient medical data, including health history, progress notes, and results of physical examination.
- Administer or order diagnostic tests, such as x-ray, electrocardiogram, and laboratory tests.
- Prescribe therapy or medication with physician approval.
- Perform therapeutic procedures, such as injections, immunizations, suturing and wound care, and infection management.
- Instruct and counsel patients about prescribed therapeutic regimens, normal growth and development, family planning, emotional problems of daily living, and health maintenance.
- Provide physicians with assistance during surgery or complicated medical procedures.
- Supervise and coordinate activities of technicians and technical assistants.
- Visit and observe patients on hospital rounds or house calls, updating charts, ordering therapy, and reporting back to physician.
- Order medical and laboratory supplies and equipment.
Qualities of Good Physician Assistant
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
Tools Used by Physician Assistant
- Anesthesia equipment
- Anesthesia ventilators
- Anoscopes
- Arterial blood gas monitoring equipment
- Arterial line catheters
- Artery forceps
- Aspirating needles
- Audiometers
- Binocular light compound microscopes
- Blood collection needles
- Blood collection syringes
- Bone marrow biopsy equipment
- Breath alcohol testers
- Bull dog nose clamps
- Canes
- Cast removal saws
- Central venous pressure lines
- Cervical collars
- Chest tubes
- Crutches
- Defibrillators
- Dissector rods
- Doppler ultrasound fetascopes
- Doppler vascular equipment
- Electrocardiography EKG units
- Electrocautery devices
- Electronic blood pressure monitors
- Endoscopic camera/video systems
- Evacuated blood collection tubes
- Eye charts
- Fluoroscopes
- Glucometers
- Halo fixation devices
- Harvester rods
- High-frequency ventilators
- Holter monitors
- Interthercal therapy equipment
- Intra-aortic balloon pumps IABP
- Intracranial pressure monitors
- Intramuscular needles
- Intravenous IV equipment
- Knee braces
- Lancets
- Laser printers
- Life support for trauma and transport LSTAT intensive care units
- Lumbar puncture equipment
- Manual blood pressure units
- Mechanical stethoscopes
- Medical magnetic resonance imaging MRI machines
- Microscope slides
- Mosquito artery forceps
- Nail nippers
- Nail probes
- Nasogastric tubes
- Nebulizers
- Needle holders
- Notebook computers
- Operating microscopes
- Ophthalmoscopes
- Otoscopes
- Oximeters
- Personal computers
- Personal digital assistants PDA
- Plastic surgery lasers
- Portable satellite telehealth terminals
- Pulmonary function testing PFT equipment
- Reflex hammers
- Retractors
- Scalpel blades
- Scalpel handles
- Slit lamps
- Spirometers
- Splints
- Subclavian lines
- Subcutaneous hypodermic needles
- Surgical curettes
- Suture scissors
- Suturing needles
- Swan catheters
- Tablet computers
- Therapeutic treadmill exercisers
- Tong traction devices
- Tongue blades
- Tourniquets
- Tracheal suctioning equipment
- Trocars
- Tuberculin TB skin test equipment
- Vaginal specula
- Vascular straight aortic clamps
- Videoconferencing equipment
- Walkers
- Walking braces
- X ray machines
Technology Skills required for Physician Assistant
- ChartWare EMR
- eClinicalWorks EHR software
- Electronic medical record EMR software
- Epic Systems
- Healthcare common procedure coding system HCPCS
- Medical condition coding software
- Medical procedure coding software
- MEDITECH software
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft Word
- Patient management software
- Patient records software for personal digital assistants PDAs
- Spreadsheet software
- Teleconferencing software
- Teleradiology systems
- Web browser software
- Word processing software