Q) What is a Physician Assistant?
A “Physician Assistant” or PA is a California licensed health care
professional, highly trained to provide patient evaluation, education, and
health care services. A PA works with a physician to provide medical care and
guidance needed by a patient.
Q) What are the training requirements to become a PA?
A PA must attend a specialized medical training program at a medical school that
includes classroom studies and clinical experience. An academic degree and/or
certificate is awarded upon graduation.
Q) Is a PA licensed by the State of California?
Yes. To practice in California, each PA must pass a rigorous national
examination before being licensed by the Physician Assistant Examining
Committee, which is part of the California Department of Consumer Affairs'
Medical Board of California. The Physician Assistant Examining Committee is
responsible for consumer protection, making recommendations about the scope of
practice of PA's and providing information about PA's to the health care
community and others.
Q) What can a PA do?
PAs can provide most of the services typically provided by a physician. They
perform physical exams, diagnose illnesses, develop and carry out treatment
plans, order and interpret lab tests, suture wounds, assist in surgery, provide
preventive health care counseling, and can write prescriptions.
Q) How does a PA work with their supervising physicians?
Each PA must be supervised by a physician. A doctor has complete responsibility
for the care of the patient. PAs share that responsibility with the doctors. The
physician supervises the PA either when both are at the same location or by
telephone. The supervising physician must always be available to the PA should
the need arise.
Q) What is the difference between a physician assistant and a nurse?
Nurses study nursing and not medicine. While some areas of education overlap,
nurses focus on issues and techniques of "bedside" care. A PA is
taught to diagnose and treat illnesses and attends a medical training program at
a medical school. A PA can also write prescriptions and help perform operations.
Q) Is there any difference in fees charged by a PA and
physician for the same service?
In many medical office the charges are the same regardless of which health care
provider is seen. As a general rule, the PA spends a great deal of time with
patients.
Q) What does "PA-C" stand for? What does the "C"
mean?
Physician Assistant-Certified. It means that the person who holds the title has
met the defined course of study and has undergone testing by the National
Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA). The NCCPA is an
independent organization, and the commissioners represent a PA professional
organization, the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA). To maintain
the "C" after "PA," a physician assistant must log 100 hours
of continuing medical education every two years and take the recertification
exam every six years.
Q) Why aren't you going to be a doctor?
PA training is demanding in its own right, This route to a medical career is not
a short cut, nor is it an “easy way out”. PAs are not people who
didn't get into or who flunked out of medical school. They decided to become a
PA for number of personal reasons. They enjoy what they are doing and get great
satisfaction from providing quality, affordable, and accessible health care.
Q) What do doctors think about PM?
Most physicians who have worked with physician assistants like having PAs on
staff. The American Medical Association, the American College of Surgeons, The
American Academy of Family Physicians, The American College of Physicians, and
other medical groups support the physician assistant profession by actively
supporting the PA certifying commission and the PA program accrediting agency.
Studies done by the federal government show that PAs provide care that is comparable to physician care. The Eighth Report to the President and Congress on the Status of Health Personnel in the United States states, “physician assistants have demonstrated their clinical effectiveness both in terms of quality of care and patient acceptance.”