How Physician Assistants Help Doctors

The scale of health care in America is rapidly changing, so it is important for students at American and Caribbean medical schools to understand the different types of health professionals besides doctors. One important vocation is physician assistants (often know by the acronym PA).

The UMHS Endeavour looks at the ways physician assistants are redefining American health care, based on a report in a national media outlet and other sources. We will look briefly at what physician assistants do and their importance in medicine in light of the many newly insured people seeking care as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA/Obamacare).

Physician Assistants Aren’t Doctors, But There Are Similarities

Although they don’t require the seven-plus years of schooling that an M.D. must do, physician assistants do have some of the same responsibilities. An article in U.S. News and World Report in August 2014 went over many of the details of a physician assistant’s job.

“There's a lot of similarity between what physicians do and what PAs do,” John McGinnity, president of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, told the magazine.

U.S. News and World Report pointed out what a physician assistant does:

• Examine patients
• Prescribe medicine
• Order diagnostic tests
• Perform a host of other duties doctors do

So what separates physician assistants from actual physicians? Training. U.S. News and World Report says, “A physician assistant student finishes graduate school and receives training in just a quarter of the time that a medical student and resident will.”

Education Requirements

The American Association of Physician Assistants (AAPA) website says that PAs “acquire extensive healthcare training and experience before they enter a intense, three-year graduate-level program that requires the same prerequisite courses as medical schools. In the classroom, PA students take courses in basic sciences, behavioral sciences and clinical medicine across subjects such as anatomy, pharmacology, microbiology, physiology and more.”

AAPA explains students then complete over 2,000 hours of clinical rotations in the fields of:

• Family medicine
• Internal medicine
• OB/GYN
• Pediatrics
• General surgery
• Orthopedics
• Emergency medicine
• Psychiatry

U.S. News and World Report spoke to Chris Haniflin, chairman of physician assistant program at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. Mr. Haniflin told the magazine that many programs take up to three years to complete. "There tends to be a year of more of basic science training," he says.
Mr. Haniflin said that during this period students may study subjects such as pharmacology, anatomy and physiology.

He explained that medical students study basic sciences for two years. After classroom work is done, “physician assistant students then have clinical rotations, just as medical students would. Rotations can last two months and students focus on a medical specialty, “such as pediatrics or emergency medicine, and interact with patients.”

Physician Assistant Certification and Licensing

Physician assistants must be nationally certified and obtain a license to work. The American Association of Physician Assistants (AAPA) website (http://www.aapa.org/) notes the following about what PAs must do before practicing and after graduating from an accredited program:

• Pass the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE) administered by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants
• Get licensed by the state they wish to practice In order to maintain certification, PAs must:
• Complete a recertification exam every 10 years
• Complete 100 hours of continuing medical education (CME) every 2 years

The “PA-C” after a PA’s name means they are currently certified.

Collaborative Relationships With Physicians

Unlike many nurse practitioners, many of whom are being allowed to practice in a growing number of states without doctor supervision (as the UMHS Endeavour wrote back in August), physician assistants “always work in a collaborative relationship with a physician," according to Mr. Haniflin.

Mr. Haniflin told U.S. News and World Report that "A physician can basically work independently," Hanifin says. "A physician assistant will always work in a collaborative relationship with a physician."

In such states as New Jersey, he says, a “physician must sign off on most of what a physician assistant puts in a patient's chart.”

(Top photo) HELPING FILL DOCTOR SHORTAGE: Physician Assistants help meet patient care needs while working in collaboration with doctors. Photo: Deposit Photos

About UMHS:

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