October 6-12 is National Physician Assistant Week. Physician
Assistants (PAs) are healthcare providers who are nationally certified to
practice medicine as part of a team with physicians. They play an integral role
in the healthcare team, from basic primary care to assisting in major surgery.
Educated in the same medical model as physicians, PAs provide a broad range of
services. PAs typically acquire extensive healthcare training and experience
before entering an intensive three year graduate level program that requires the
same prerequisite courses as medical school. First, PA students study the
essential medical sciences such as microbiology, anatomy, and physiology.
Following this, the remainder of their training is spent doing clinical
rotations in the fields of family medicine, internal medicine, OB-GYN,
pediatrics, surgery and emergency medicine, to name a few.
PAs must be licensed in their state to practice medicine. In
order to maintain certification, PAs must complete a recertification exam every
six years and obtain 100 hours of continuing medical education every two years.
The “C” in the designation PA-C, refers to a PA’s current
certification.
This week in October is chosen to celebrate the PA profession
in honor of the birthday of Eugene A Stead, Jr, MD, the father of the PA
profession. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of PAs in
the US is expected to grow 20% by the year 2020. PAs will continue to play a
vital role in the treatment of patients, especially in light of the changing
face of healthcare today.
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