Physician’s Assistant

By: Alvin Thai

Per. 2
Introduction
 As a PA, you work under the supervision of
physicians and surgeons
 Provide diagnostic, therapeutic, and
preventive health care assigned by a
physician
 Sometimes they are responsible for ordering
medical equipment and watching
technicians and assistants
 They also deal with minor injuries and
provide medicine in 48 states
History
 These workers used to be called physician
associates, new health practitioners, clinical or
health associates, physician extenders, mid-level
practitioners, and non-physician health care
providers
 These names were confusing at the time, so the
American Academy of Physician Assistants(AAPA),
the voice of PA’s, recommended that graduates
that took credit from the American Medical
Association call themselves Physician Assistant in
the 1980’s
 The job was introduced to the Russian army by Peter
the Great at 1650
 The profession of PA was created during the 1960’s
Current PA’s
 There were 66,000
jobs at 2006
 At the time about
15% were taking
multiple jobs
 The graph to the
right shows what
percentage of
PA’s do what
practice from
2003-2004

Future Outlook
 It is expected that the number of workers
will increase by 26% from 2006 to 2016
 There should be a better chance for job
opportunity in the rural and inner city
clinics
 PA’s should find a growing number of jobs in
institutional settings
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Education
 It is required to take 2 years of college, at
least 2 years of a physician assistant
program, and some medical experience in
order to become a PA
 Students should take courses that focus on
biochemistry, pathology, human anatomy,
physiology, microbiology, clinical
pharmacology, clinical medicine, geriatric
and home health care, disease prevention,
and medical ethics.
Continuing Education
 Activities that can earn CME credits include:
attending conferences and taking the
exam that follows, solving cases online,
and taking home study programs.
 Websites like
http://www.paworld.net/onlinecme.htm
offer CME credits
Salary
 As you can see,
right when you
get the job, you
can earn around
$80,000 annually
 Salary does
increase by
experience
Typical Day
 Usually, you see your physician and that
person will tell give you your list of
patients to take care of for the day and you
check on them
 They do about 80% of the physician’s tasks
 They can prescribe medicine, give patients
advice, and they work in a comfortable
environment with the exception of
standing for long periods of time

Daily Tasks
 Every day, they
wear as shown on
the picture
 In a typical
situation, they
meet the patient,
diagnose the
problem, and
prescribe
medicine when
necessary
Conclusion
 This is the kind of job I’m looking for, it has
go the least amount of time for education
required and pays quite a handful
 I’m still interested and intend to pursuit this
career

Win!
Sources
 http://www.pahx.org/
 http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos081.htm
 http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm
 http://www.aapa.org/
 http://www.paworld.net/onlinecme.htm
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