How To Become A Physician Assistant - Job Description, Education Requirements, Salaries
With today's aging population, the need for physicians to hire assistants in order to help as many people as possible has grown tremendously over the past few years. That's why becoming a physician assistant is more than a safe career, it's a sure career. However, there are certain requirements. You do need to complete your college education and follow a few steps to be certified as a physician assistant. Before getting into any details, why would you want to become a physician assistant when you could become a physician?
Well some may want more freedom and others already have a busy life with their careers but whatever the reason, becoming a physician assistant is less time consuming than becoming a physician not to mention how much easier it is.
What is the job description of a physician assistant (PA)? As the name implies, PAs help doctors and essentially perform many of the same functions other than the most demanding cases. Duties and responsibilities include recording medical histories, patient examination and treatment, lab tests and xrays ordering and analysis, medication prescription. Those with ability take on managerial roles as well, in charge of supervising medical staff. Physician assistants work in a number of medical settings such as private clinics, hospitals, public health clinics, schools, prisons, home health care agencies etc. More than 50 percent of physician assistants work in primary care medicine. Like I mentioned earlier, the first thing you need is to earn your college degree. It doesn't really matter in what field, what does matter though is you need to have working experience in a health care environment. Usually a minimum of two years is required. Obviously if you worked in a health care field you usually will study in the health care field which would make you a proud owner of a bachelor's degree in the health care field. However if you have a bachelor's degree in another field, it will still be accepted as long as you have the work experience. Once you have completed the prerequisites you can apply for the physician assistants program. The program lasts approximately 26 months and there are approximately 140 accredited programs for you to choose from. So on top of all the education you have and work experience you have to be ready to put in another 2 years in order to become a physician assistant. To become a certified physician assistant and earn the PA-C after your name, you'll have to graduate from a degree program accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA). You also need to pass the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE). To keep your certification you'll need to complete 100 hours of continuing medical education every two years and recertification happens every six years. The rewards of becoming a physician assistant are great. According to Salary.com, the middle 50 percent of physician assistants earn between $70,949 and $85,125 per year. The top 10 percent earners make at least $92,822. Physician assistants are well paid and highly in demand so those with the aptitude and attitude would do well to consider this career choice. With this in mind, becoming a physician assistant becomes pretty simple. All that's going to be left to do is to determine where you want the effort you're going to put in your studies. Once you've become a physician assistant, you'll be able to work in basically any medical field imaginable.
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