Physician's Assistant (PA)
by Angela Chen
What a PA Can Do
- Take your medical history
- Conduct physical exams
- Diagnose and treat illnesses
- Order and interpret tests
- Develop treatment plans
- Counsel on preventive care
- Assist in surgery
- Write prescriptions
- Make rounds in hospitals and nursing homes
- and more
A PAs’ specific duties may depend on the setting in which they work, their level of experience, their specialty, and state Law
What to Become a PA
- Step 1: Get Prerequisites and health experience- 2 year basic course work
- Step 2: Attend an accredited PA program- master's degree; about 3 academic years
- Step 3: Become certified- Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE) administered by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA)
- Step 4: Obtain a state license
- Step 5: Maintain you certification- you need to complete 100 hours of continuing medical education (CME) credits every two years and take a recertification exam (the Physician Assistant National Recertifying Exam, or PANRE) every 10 years
Pay
The median salary for a PA is 92,970 as of 2013. The top 10 percent earn 130, 620. The lowest 10 percent earn 62, 030. It is expected that the salary of a PA to grow.
History
- was first proposed in 1961 by Charles Hudson
- Dr. Eugene A. Stead Jr. created the first class of Physician Assistants in 1965
- Richard Smith and Hu Myers later created their own programs in the late 1960s
- There are similar jobs all over the world with different titles